Skillibeng dropped is second album Crocodile Teeth recently to disappointing reviews, as he tries to expand his horizons and find a comfortable place in the music industry. Not a simple task as a young black man from Jamaica trying to sell music in places he has never been. His strategy of forcing gun talks down the ears of streamers has not inspired much purchasing commitment from fans. Johnny Wonder has been at the heart of Jamaica’s music development and digital distribution for quite some time and he is the Executive producer of Crocodile Teeth.
Johnny now runs a distribution label and he reiterated to me via text message that he produced the album independently, and that Skillibeng’s presence in the music industry is the missing piece of the puzzle.
“Skillibeng is a great artist that bridge the gap”. Wonder proclaimed.
Since the “Brick Pon Brick” artist came on the scene a few years ago he has scored several international features with his catchy, slow rhymes including a remix with Nicki Minaj.
Bobby Shmurda and platinum selling British rapper, dancehall DJ Stefflon Don have used his slangs and punchlines for their own songs. Minaj’s remix helped to score a billboard hot 100 chart hit peaking at 100.
With mostly gun touting hardcore lyrics and no radio records on the album, I enquired, Whats the gap that Skillibeng’s music would be filling?”
To which Wonder said, “(..the one) between dancehall and hip hop”.
An ambitious proclaim for fast rising “Not” Deejay to consider. His first album tanked in sales according to MRC Data selling only 25 copies in pure album sales in the United States in the first week.
Wonder remains skeptical to offer numerical predictions for this album which are due for release next Tuesday by Billboard. His years in the business has comes with caution as he states, “… it’s now up to the fans and music gods hands now”.
With the lead single “Piano” clocking less than a million YouTube streams, Wonder says he plans to market the album as a full project. “We are more concentrating on the full album”.
Skillibeng’s Crocodile Teeth The Album has 12 unreleased songs with a star studded line up of rappers which include, Bobby Shmurda, Lil Zach, Rich The Kid, and Stefflon Don but Wonder insists the album is not heavily influenced by Hip Hop.
But will the album’s star power alone be enough to do respectable numbers in the first week?
Jamaican artists have a rich history of selling millions of records. Harry Belafonte’s 1956 album Calypso was the first platinum album by the RIAA and there has since been many successful examples to emulate. Since of late the sales have been less than impressive going by international standards.
Buju Banton shouted in a rant on his instagram “Music nah sell”. In spite of his sold out concerts all over the world, his album Upside Down 2020 sold less than 5000 units in its first week. Spice’s Ten, Vybz Kartel’s Born Fi Dis and Alkaline’s Top Prize all sold less than 4000 units in their first week.
In fact no dancehall album has sold or streamed more than 100,000 units in the last 5 years. If Skillibeng is to bridge any gap between reggae and dancehall it should be reflected in his music streams and sales.
Only Rihanna, Steflon Don, Shaggy and Sean Paul have managed to bridge this gap successfully. They are among an elite group of global artists to release dancehall singles that stream gold, platinum and multi-platinum.
With his eyes still on the future of Jamaican music, Johnny Wonder closed our conversation with. a top five list of artists right now who are making waves. Among them Blvk H3ro, Skeng, Grim, Jakal and Danianah.
