Four years ago Stefflon Don was asked by Peter Rosenberg of Hot 97 during an interview, “who is your dream dancehall feature?” and without hesitation she answered “Vybz Kartel.” She then followed up with “I am gonna get him on my next project though.” The opportunity to collaborate with Kartel came when producer Dunwell reached out to the two internationally known artists for his Playstation riddim. The release titled “Amazing” was confirmed by Vybz Kartel who dropped a snippet on his official instagram page on Tuesday with the caption, “Dream Collab Loading…This Friday will be #amazing #vybzkartel x @stefflondon @dunwell” followed by British and Jamaica flags.
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During the Hot 97 interview with Rosenberg, Ebro and Laura Styles Stefflon Don had said her musical style is universal: “I just feel like my sound is just big, it’s universal, I could jump on anything as well and it will still be Stefflon Don.” Since then she has dropped hits after hits in several markets and many of her projects are in the top ten on the U.K. charts. .
World Music Views spoke exclusively with producer Mario Dunwell who says Stefflon Don’s style fits perfectly into his vision of putting dancehall in bigger spaces due to her versatility.
“The globalization of music, me witness it first hand, how she(Stefflon Don) is in the studio, me witness it first hand…with streaming the world is becoming one big genre.”
Stefflon Don, 30, has hit songs in multiple genres and two of her more successful songs “Calypso” with Loius Fonsi and “Bum Bum Tam Tam” with MC FIOTI, FUTURE, J. BALVIN, JUAN MAGAN(6x platinum) are latin songs merged with her signature dancehall sound. Dunwell says there is a reason why Stefflon Don’s flow works so well on these songs.
“Latin is a sibling of dancehall so them can intertwine, the groove of latin is African dancehall so you can do dancehall on latin and-it don’t seem out of place but you haffi incorporate melody, that’s why Last Last is a hit cause nobody know what he is saying.”
Stefflon Don told Anthony Miller of Entertainment Report that she does not want the title of “Dancehall Queen” even if her sales and streams numbers surpass everyone.
“I would not call myself Queen of the Dancehall. Listen, Spice has that title and so be it. She deserves it. She’s been in the game a long time, from when she was young, and she’s still killing it. I’m not the Queen of no Dancehall”
She continued, “I don’t just do Dancehall, I do a lot of other genres. So I do not claim that title at all – even if my numbers are more than anybody else’s.”
Meanwhile Stefflon Don also released her own exclusive limited edition, “Don Clockwork Custom Jordan’s” with custom shoe design company The Label 318. The shoe features Jamaican colors green swoosh, yellow laces, and black & white outsole.