Dancehall pioneer Clevie of the producer duo Steely & Clevie is questioning whether the new dancehall music coming out of Jamaica has staying power to add to his long legacy.
Speaking at the JAMMS Business Of Music Seminar on Tuesday, the legendary producer said, “the real question is, has it worked?”
“Are we failing? are we losing on the returns that we once had?” DJ Snow Cone, producer of Sean Paul’s Temperature can be heard answering him with “we are failing.
Clevie started making music in 1973 along with his producer partner Steely they made ‘Sweet Reggae Music,’ a track for Nitty Gritty. he told WMV that the track, “went straight into the British Charts and that cemented our view that what we were doing could work and we formed a team there (at Jammyz) for his production camp an all out songs became hits.”
The duo has since produced some of the biggest hits in dancehall music laying the foundation for future producers.
Last August, Clevie’s mentee and Grammy winning producer Di Genius, produced the song Run Run which was supposed to be the lead single for Shenseea’s Alpha album with a production style that is similar to Steelie and Clevie’s 80s dancehall beats.
With Run Run music video surpassing 8 million streams, Shenseea has stayed away from the Trap dancehall innovation and Spotify released data showing that Shenseea was the most streamed female artist in Jamaica for the past two years. With a mix of dancehall- hip hop fusion tracks, Alpha is the highest streaming dancehall album worldwide for 2022.
Dancehall started in the 70s but took shape with the innovations of King Jammy and Steely & Clevie in the 80s and 90s. Stephen told WMV that he stays close to the era for inspiration and some of the producers from back then give him advice on how to duplicate the sound with freshness.
“It was really and truly inspired by the era, it was like Steelie And Cleevie produced by Gussie Clarke, that era like songs like Rumors, I intentionally used the same typa sounds. Big up Uncle Cleevie cause he is someone I talk to all the time and him tell me like the insights, like ‘oh we use the DX for this drum sound’ or ‘look up this sound’ just so me can get it right. So thats why when Run Run came out everybody did think I just sampled the riddim but I actually re-create the sounds and really get it to feel the same way. I still had to get clearance for some of the stuff cause some of the things in the songwriter I had to clear it.”
“I feel like all of the different time periods are equally important, just like how I coulda bring back that with a modern artist like Shenseea. For me, they always say you haffi know where you come from to know where you going so to me personally you haffi listen to those kinda things cause it is important to me to form new ideas. It’s also the history, it is the foundation of what we are on. If it wasn’t for people like Steelie And Cleevie, Gussy and Donovan Germain and all those people who know the sound probably wouldn’t be pushed to where it is right now,” Mcgregor told World Music Views.
“Cleevie tell me to, most of the older producers use to say ‘where unuh a go with this, computer riddim and blah blah blah, same evolutionary thing that people take a time fi accept, and them pushed the envelope and that was like the newest thing at the time,” he continued.
Tra dancehall artist Skeng’s debut Trap Dancehall Ep. “Beast Of The Era” peaked on day 1 at No. 1 on the Reggae iTunes Chart. The album didn’t record enough to be counted in the U.S. for the first week sales according to Luminate (Formerly MRC Data). Skeng’s top songs Protocol and Gvnman Shift are the two most streamed songs on YouTube of all time.
Skeng scored a Nicki Minaj feature Likkle Miss (Remix) last year. The two filmed the video in New York City at the end of August as they met in the big apple face to face for the first time.
The music video was shot in the pink lit CBR Media studios with Rolls Royce and a Ferrari parked inside. Dancers choreographed by King Kayak and torch bearers kept the music video authentically dancehall as the two delivered their verses individually and at times together. This is Skeng’s first international collaboration which stemmed from Minaj expressing her love for his original “Likkle Miss” song.
His first album released in June 2021 “The Prodigy: Ladies Only Edition” only sold 25 copies in pure album sales in the United States in its first week, according to data provided to World Music Views by Luminate. Total consumption from pure album sales plus stream equivalent albums was 300 units.
The album’s total streams from audio and video in the US for the period May 28 to June 10 was 381,000, according to MRC Data.
Still, the follow up project Crocodile Teeth The Album has 12 songs with a star studded line up of rappers which include, Bobby Shmurda, Lil Zach, Rich The Kid, and Stefflon Don.
By himself he has made successful stops in the U.K. and the US at the Wireless and Afropunk Festivals where he was well received by thousands of eager fans outside of his core base.
His presence has been felt among the Hip Hop and Afro-fusion artists who have embraced him on those stages with Whap Whap, Crocodile Teeth, Coke, Bad Man, and Hot among crowd favorites. He performed twice on Wireless Festival this year – first as a solo act and again with Billboard chart topper WizKid. The two kicked it at the festival’s after-party following their performances.
“I’m thrilled to have signed with RCA Records and have their global support,” Skillibeng told Billboard of the recent deal with the label. “I have a wonderful team working with me under the leadership of Peter Edge, and it’s a true pinnacle of my career to have their commitment and belief,” he added.
McFarlane and EastSyde’s other principal, Tajay Edwards, told Billboard: “We were very excited when our international business partners BPureSounds connected us to RCA, who understood our vision for Skilli and shared our beliefs. We think that with them as our label partners, Skilli is going to shine a global spotlight on Jamaican music. Music is our life, so we’re putting in the work.”
