Sean Paul was on Power 105’s Breakfast Club with DJ Envy, Charlamage Tha God and Angela Yee and he was championing the Jamaican brand of reggae and dancehall music. The Dutty Cup DJ said “I always believed in dancehall music.”
He touched on the recent Grammy awards where reggae band SOJA won best reggae album over the other Jamaicans nominated.
DJ Envy got right into the contentious issue by saying, “We were all watching the Grammys and when the best reggae grammy came everybody was thinking it’s either you or Spice.”
Sean responded with, “Funny story though I was standing up in the hallway and looking at the different nominees of the thing and getting myself geared up for what I am gonna say and i heard “and the winner is ‘shh’, and I am like it’s either me or Spice and I Heard SOJA, I was like damn”
Angela Yee said, “No one anticipated that”
“Would have been nice if it was a Jamaican to me, If Jesse(Royal) won I feel like I won cause I work closely with him, he is on this album that kinda vibes, if I won he woulda win, if Spice win me woulda feel like I was involved in that process, Big up Etana, and big up Gramps Morgan.”
He however said the music is getting bigger and there are reggae ecosystems outside of Jamaica in places like Indonesia and Australia.
“There is different people from different places who want to do it.”
The mostly white reggae group’s April 3 win for their album Beauty In the Silence at the 64th annual Grammy awards pre-telecast show, drew outrage from many Jamaicans, including Bounty Killer immediately disapproved of the recording academy’s decision. The other nominated in the category were Spice (10), Etana (Pamoja), Jesse Royal (Royal), and Gramps Morgan (Positive Vibration).
Charlamagne asked if he had ever heard of SOJA before and he said No and neither did he go back to listen to the group.
“We don’t have enough people on the panel, Jamaicans are complaining but we ain’t there voting so that’s an important thing.”
During the interview Sean also sought to dismiss the notion that dancehall is “summer-time music.”
Dancehall Is Not Just Summer Music
“One thing I’d like to see about dancehall evolve to people’s ears over here, is that it’s not just the summer music,” he said. “I go into a lot of the meetings and they are like ‘its not a summer song though’, and I am like dancehall play everyday in Jamaica, it plays all the time.”
“We also have different moods like for instances, check out ‘Trap dancehall’, I don’t really like the name trap dancehall” and i don’t like what everybody speaking about so music but it is a different mood, and its part of what’s happening in Jamaica, thats that mood there, so nah it ain’t gonna be party oriented or sand on the beach oriented with the drink and the Tiki Bar type looking thing but thats what we are perceived as which is kinda unfortunate.” he continued.J
Rollig Stones reported that, “Jamaican singles will usually only play on “urban” radio during the summer, where programmers might reserve just one or two spots for songs that aren’t hip-hop and R&B.”
Trap dancehall has also taken alot of flack in recent times but more international artists have been embracing artist from the genre.
Sean mentioned Skeng and Jahshii during his interview as trap dancehall artist to look out for this year. Nicki Minaj was also karoakeing to Skeng’s Gvnman Shift on her instagram.
The Chemist Records and Raheef Music Group produced song spent several weeks at number 1 in Jamaica after it’s released last August.
She surprised fans with a remix of the street anthem Crocodile Teeth by Skillibeng on the re-release of her Beam Me Up Scotty Mixtape. The remix surpassed 2M YouTube views within a few days and placed Skillibeng in context with her loyal Barbs.
The added verse blessed Skillibeng with his first Billboard Hot 100 debut. He also made Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart at No. 35 as a top-performing rising acts in the US.
The remix also entered the Billboard Global 200 chart at No. 182, and the Digital Song Sales chart at No. 43.
Watch full Breakfast Club Interview here
