Two weeks ago when Cardi B staged her ”Passa Passa” themed dancehall birthday party in Los Angeles, among guests on the list were Hip Hop star Megan Thee Stallion, Big Latto, Teyana Taylor, Dancehall stars Shenseea, Spice, Ding Dong, Mr. Vegas and Kranium. However there was one superstar invitee who did not make the trip out west.
Sean Paul, who earmarked the 2000s as his era of dancehall and pop music, was invited by the Money Moves rapper to come party and perform but the “Get Busy” DJ turned down the request. However, there was no love lost, as Sean had good reason this time for not showing up and he sent a few Duplates to satisfy her dancehall thirst.
He revealed Wednesday in The Independent that he had to take a rein check on the invite, “I was like, ‘Yo, I’m not traveling right now…That was a big decision, but I did send dub-plates so at least I was there in essence, and I got to tell her happy birthday through the dub.”
The Duplates were played at Cardi B’s Party by the resident DJ and she and her husband Offset took to the dance floor whining dancehal style while they played.
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This was not the first time that Sean Paul had turn down the WAP rapper due to a lack of ideal circumstances. in 2019 during an interview with ET he candidly spoke about having the opportunity to make a song with Cardi but not feeling the process at the time.
“I did have opportunities to work with her in this way, where someone would mix and match production together, but I wasn’t down with that. It didn’t sound like what I would come up with being in studio with Cardi B or what she would come up with on the track. I’d love to work with her!” he said.
Another person that Sean Paul would definitely like to work with is Rihanna. In April he said his best collaboration was with Rihanna per Dancehall Mag and in by August he said he was ready for another Rihanna Collab on Odyssey By Yendi.
He happily told the story of how Rihanna, came to visit him one Christmas taking the opportunity to imitate the Bajan princess’s accent, “She said ‘I wah come to Jamaica…and I love Jamaica…Jamaica is a big place to me’…and one day she picked up the phone and said ‘I am coming for Christmas’, and I said “Woah’. So the first place I took her to was Bob Marley Museum”.
He posted the clip on his Instagram and called out to Rihanna for a redo of their dancehall pop classic “Break it Off, “RRR!!! THE PEOPLE SAY THEY WANT ANOTHER BANGER WITH ME AN U @badgalriri SP CREW TELL HER NUH!!!BIG UP @yendizzle RRR!!!”
Sean Paul has been in Jamaica for the past 18 months weathering the pandemic even as he released one dancehall album “Live And Livin”, featuring Damian Marley, Buju Banton, Busy Signal and Jesse Royal and newer acts like Masicka, Intence and RCA recording artist Skillibeng.
He is one of the few artists who can brag about having a global audience with performances on every continent including in 23 countries across Africa. Sean told World Music Views that it was his hope to take all the acts on the album on tour and bring dancehall to the world, but with several outbreaks of the Novel Coronavirus, that has not been possible.
“Right before this pandemic hit we were setting up to take Dutty Rock (on tour) which is Ching, Soto Bless, Luga Man Rassa Joy and a couple other man around the place. You have a little youth name Invasion, also a next youth name Abba which happens to be Tony Rebel’s son…I was trying to do shows in Cayman where i’d do my big show the first night and second night it would be all of us on stage together.” He said of his foiled plans
“But then the Pandemic hit and all of those plans fell through, we were gonna do Orlando, Miami, Cayman, and try to do somewhere like Costa Rica, so I’d love If the place free up back so I could take some of these artists on the road”. He continued.
Sean Paul’s latest single “Dynamite”, is a double back to one of his most successful collaborators, Sia. Their song “Cheap Thrill” replaced Drake’s “One Dance” at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 2016. It was Sean’s fourth number 1 and Sia’s first as an artist, she had co-written Rihanna’s “Diamonds,” which stayed at number 1 for three weeks in 2012.
Dynamite is expected to do good numbers like ‘Thrills” according to Sean in a Rolling Stone article. “After recording ‘Cheap Thrills’ Sia and I knew we would record another single and ‘Dynamite’ is the second installment. Banx and Ranx, Greg Kurstin, myself, and Sia worked on this single and I hope people gravitate toward it like our first single. ‘Dynamite’ is another feel-good record for me and I just want to thank Sia and her entire team, my team Duttyrock, my management team, and big up my mom who introduced me to Sia’s music.” He said Per Rolling Stone
