Jamaican dancehall artist Busy Signal who is no stranger to remixes (Beres Hammond, Lionel Ritchie) may have given himself a lifeline by doing an unofficial remix of Nigerian star Rema’s Billboard Chart topper “Calm Down.” Rema, a former gospel artist who only started doing Afrobeats in 2018 discovered the Browns Town High School graduate’s remix while doing an interview on Hot 97 where he reacted with praises to the recording live on air.
Rema, 22, said he is aware of Busy Signal, real name Reanno Devon Gordon, but he had never heard of the remix but was delighted to hear Signal’s lyrical caresses over the beat of his breakout hit.
“Hard. That’s hard, I swear that’s hard, that’s so so hard, ” shouts to Busy Signal.
Ebro then asked him if he was familiar with Busy Signal’s work to which he said, “I am familiar with a couple of his records,” with an obviously impressed demeanor, Rema continued “”I swear this is hard this is so hard. Blew my mind.“
Ebro continued, “I am sure dancehall has had an influence on your love of music throughout your life right?”
Rema answered, “Yeah, from different genres I just picked different stuff from it and dancehall has been a huge inspiration.”
Rema has 14 songs that hit the US Afrobeats chart in the last year while Calm Down has been steadily climbing the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart after peaking at No. 1 on the Afrobeats chart for 30 weeks or 57% of the chart’s first year. It is currently No. 8 on the Hot 100 and is projected to climb to No. 7 the week of April 14, 2022.
The song’s global impact is also being felt in home territory on the Middle East & North African Chart (MENA) where it has spent 3 non consecutive weeks at No. 1 (12wks total).
Ghanaian singer Stoneybwoy gets ready to release his upcoming studio album 5th Dimension on Def Jam with promotion in the U.S. He said Americans love Afrobeats because within it are the original ingredients of dancehall, reggae, hip hop and R&B.
“If Afrobeats does get the forefront like it’s getting, interestingly it has all the other genres embedded inside of it,” he told Charlamagne The God of the Breakfast Club on New York’s Power 105.1 fm.
“When you break down any typical Afrobeats song you can put every other music of black origin on there. You can find dancehall in there, that’s how everybody is gravitating to it, I believe so because everybody can find themselves in there knowingly or unknowingly. It has several branches and big tree,” he said.
