Lil Yachty, who is known for his tempered approach and avoiding conflicts by focusing on his brand of music has declared war on Jamaican dancehall superstar Sean Paul.
On Wednesday (June 28), the Atlanta rapper debuted the first episode of his new podcast, A Safe Space, co-hosted by MitchGoneMad. The theme for their inaugural episode was “The Art of Hate.”
During a conversation about artists losing relevance, Mitch mentioned Billboard chart toppers Sean Paul and Shaggy as examples of artists who have fallen off. Yachty responded by saying, “Nobody ever said Sean Paul fell off. They just stopped making music. I don’t think they’re still dropping music.”
He then went on to say, “By the way, I don’t fuck with Sean Paul. I want to make that very clear. Sean Paul once dissed me in a radio interview.”
The insult in question dates back to a 2016 interview on The Breakfast Club, where Sean Paul singled out Lil Yachty while criticizing younger rappers. This incident occurred shortly after Yachty faced backlash for saying he “couldn’t name five songs” by 2Pac and Biggie.
Sean Paul, referring to the new generation of rappers, said, “If it was really about talent in the Hip Hop industry, you wouldn’t have some of these younger cats talking that. The Lil Yachty dem. The boat boy. I mean, I don’t know much of the dude’s music either. I don’t like his comments. Those are artists I revere. I understand that probably kids don’t care about writing right now. I understand they don’t know where Hip Hop started…”
Sean Paul currently has more than 5 billion views on YouTube across his catalogue of songs including features. He is the only dancehall act with that many musical streams on any streaming platform.
In one of his least viewed videos on his YouTube channel, he recalls how a female fan entered his room at 4:00 am to ask for a photograph and in the process the young lady took his pictures and shirt and ran out. Stories like those come with the territory when his most viewed video is the “Rockabye” feature with Clean Bandit which as of publishing this article has surpassed 2.7 billion views.
Luminate reported that one of the main reasons people consume music is to be happy and Sean is what the music business calls a hit maker. His unique voice and Jamaican ad libs make songs sound like dancing music which is the essence of dancehall.
In December the global music superstar made RIAA history as his Grammy winning sophomore album “Dutty Rock” was certified triple Platinum by the US. The album which is also 3x Platinum in Canada was released 20 years ago and becomes the first full dancehall project to reach that milestone. No other person has taken dancehall music to the heights of Sean Paul and he is currently nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 2023 Grammy awards.
With 94 music certifications globally, US Billboard hits, Canadian Hits, U.K. hits, more Spotify hits, and more YouTube hits than many hip hop artists Sean is a long way from falling off and his catalog keeps putting up high numbers on various platforms.
His videos on YouTube are among the most watched with an average of 1.5 million streams per day on both songs/videos as lead artist as well as his features.
