August 27, 2015 - Atlantic Records Press

August 27, 2015
Kranium And Ty Dolla $ign Premiere The Video For "Nobody
Has To Know"
"This is not your typical dancehall video."
Kranium's "Nobody Has To Know" is one of the most enduring dancehall songs this side of the aughts. Since it
first dropped two years ago, it's been a bashment mainstay, perfect for dark corners and sweaty summer
nights. The Atlantic signee recently recruited Ty Dolla $ign for a new version, and today he's dropping a video
to go along with the DL-themed track. In the brightly hued video, Kranium skillfully evades paparazzi on a
hoverboard before scooping his (presumably taken) woman and pulling up to a trailer for a middle-ofnowhere desert romp. Ty Dolla $ign is in the cut too, rolling through on a motorcycle with a fat blunt dangling
from his lips.
"Videos need to be creative and I think we pulled it off. This is not your typical dancehall video,” Kranium told
The FADER over email. Accurate. Watch the video above, and hit the clip below for some behind-the-scenes
views.
June 15, 2015
Is Dancehall Going To Be Mainstream Again?
13 years after Dutty Rock, people in the music industry are ready to
make dancehall pop again. Will they succeed?
Once upon a time, Sean Paul was among the biggest pop stars in the world. His tour-de-force
2002 LP, Dutty Rock, charted in the Top 10 both in the US and in the UK. Singles like “Gimmie
the Light” and “Get Busy” defined a slice of early aughts pop radio and earned the Jamaican
singer a guest feature on Beyoncé’s debut album. Not long afterwards, Elephant Man had clubs
from Kingston to Kansas signalling the plane and rowing the boat, planting dancehall’s gold,
green, and black flag in the so-called mainstream. But the genre vanished from pop culture
seemingly as quickly as it had arrived. While it continues to thrive throughout the Caribbean
and in hubs for diasporic populations like Toronto, New York, and London, in recent years
dancehall’s crossover presence has largely been relegated to the occasional Rihanna or Nicki
Minaj track. However, new developments over the past year suggest that, a decade-plus after
Dutty Rock, the music industry is ready to make dancehall pop again.
Recently, Atlantic Records—the label behind Sean Paul, Elephant Man, and one-time soca star
Kevin Lyttle—signed Queens-via-Jamaica dancehall singer Kranium off the strength of his
Soundcloud hit “Nobody Has to Know.” Earlier this year, Universal Canada signed Lucas
DiPasquale, a (white, non-Jamaican) 19-year-old from Toronto who came to prominence thanks
to YouTube acoustic covers of Popcaan songs and an apparent mastery of Jamaican patois.
Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar each featured dancehall vocals on their latest projects, both of
which are among the biggest rap albums of the past couple of years. Two of 2015’s most-
streamed pop tracks, OMI’s “Cheerleader” and Shaggy’s “I Need Your Love,” have the DNA of
the artists’ native Jamaica braided into them. Popcaan is making waves globally, with relentless
Drake co-signs, a guest vocal spot on Jamie xx’s song-of-the-summer contender, “I Know
There’s Gonna Be (Good Times),” and, of course, a 2014 FADER cover. Drizzy himself has
introduced a cover of Sizzla’s “Dry Cry” to his current set.
Kranium, the new Atlantic signee, concurs that there’s something afoot. “For years in dancehall,
we had the music but we never had the resources. I’m truly a dancehall man, so me signing to
Atlantic, it means a lot to me,” he told The FADER. Pointing to Assassin’s contributions on
Yeezus and To Pimp a Butterfly, Kranium says that there’s much to be gained from associations
with rap and R&B acts. “Nowadays, you hear [dancehall] getting more airplay. It’s finally
drawing people again. Imagine you heard Kranium on a song with Jay Z or Drake? It’s the best
of both worlds.” A remix of “Nobody Has to Know” featuring Ty Dolla $ign was recently
released by the label, and an enduring, unofficial Chris Brown edit wound up getting Kranium
buzz in the clubs over the past year. Both recall the distant-seeming mid-2000s, when major
labels orchestrated mutually beneficial trade-offs with dancehall remixes of charting hip-hop
songs: Jamaican artists could mine the universal popularity of rap and R&B, while stateside
artists had access to the analogous cool of one of the world’s most consistently innovative
genres.
LaToya Lee, Warner Music’s Director of Worldwide Urban A&R and the person responsible for
Kranium’s signing, told The FADER that dancehall is indeed on the cusp of a revival. “Music was
missing something that had been a staple for years. What the signing of Kranium does for
reggae and dancehall’s influence on mainstream is it makes music exciting again. It opens up
the eyes and ears of the creators to a genre and culture they’ve haven’t been exposed to in a
while or at all,” she said over email. “It’s important to be ahead of the curve and to be leaders
in the resurgence of a genre that has a global influence.”
Dre Skull, a New York-based producer and DJ who has worked with some of the biggest acts in
dancehall and who releases Popcaan and Vybz Kartel via his Mixpak record label, thinks the
uptick in major label interest is indicative of a larger trend. “From Mixpak's perspective, we've
been approached by major labels about Popcaan, so they obviously have a lot of awareness of
him,” he told The FADER. “Rihanna, she's working on her album, and I know firsthand and
secondhand that she's been reaching out to a lot of people in the dancehall world. It could
potentially mean a lot.”
The renewed links between dancehall and the biggest acts in hip-hop and pop could spur more
label investment in the genre, by suggesting that it has the potential to bring in big returns. A
push from some of the big artists mentioned above, who are power centers and informal A&Rs
in their own right, could help dancehall once again break out of its regional markets. “I have a
great hope, like, just on the basis of popular and powerful artists supporting [dancehall],” says
Dre, who admits to having a vested interest in the mainstreaming of the genre. “Ultimately,
those people are setting an example when they share their love for Jamaican music. They put
certain artists on and then put the genre on in general.”
Despite that hopefulness, some of the obstacles that prevented dancehall from maintaining its
full-scale momentum a decade ago still apply, and will likely continue to be points of
contention. Back in the day, says Dre, “labels would sign artists and be really excited about the
work they were already doing in Jamaica, but then they wouldn't quite know how to make
records with them, market them, or work with them in a beneficial way for all parties.” Acts like
Tanto Metro & Devonte and Elephant Man had major label deals that didn’t yield the global
longevity they implicitly promised. Labels came to learn firsthand the difficulties of creating
new markets for dancehall artists, who had already managed to make themselves stars
independently. How, for instance, do you bolster record sales with concerts, and ramp up radio
spins with tried-and-true station visits, if the artist can't get a US visa?
But there were other factors, too. Growing dancehall’s reach beyond the diasporic strongholds
where it has a natural presence often means losing the cultural context that nurtures it. Max
Glazer, a Caribbean music DJ of the Federation Sound crew and a longtime industry insider, says
the attempts are often met with failure. “Historically, I’ve watched a lot of things stall when you
have songs and records that get big to a point and then you’re trying to push them in the
Midwest or certain places in the South. When they get to urban radio stations where there’s
not naturally a Caribbean population, there seems to be a lot of times that there’s a
disconnect,” Glazer said. “Dancehall and Caribbean music is so strong and has—not such a
strong record-buying base—but has such a strong base culturally that it’s never going away, but
it’s not always easy to break.”
A 1991 New York Times story, which attempted to introduce dancehall to the paper’s audience
a decade before its global rise, made a similar case. “Reggae reached out to the world in the
1970's and 1980's, while dancehall, with its limited melodic vocabulary and thick accent, seems
determined to exclude outsiders,” wrote Jon Pareles, in an explanation of why songs with
broadly identifiable Caribbean features—steel pans or sticky melodies—would grab nonJamaican audiences more readily than the denser, brasher strokes of dancehall. Though the
genre has changed a lot since then, often creating its own aesthetic trends and sometimes
borrowing from EDM, US hip-hop and R&B, Afrobeat, and other sounds, it still requires a
certain cultural literacy that people outside of those aforementioned diasporic cities simply
might not grasp. Patois presents a language barrier for a lot of people. So, too, does not being a
natural dancer, given that the music rests largely on the art of winding one’s waist to a driving
dancehall riddim.
In many ways, those are hurdles that the likes of Rihanna and Universal signee DiPasquale get
to bypass, by presenting more accessible, poppy iterations of dancehall. At best, they can act as
translators of dancehall culture for broader audiences; at worst, DiPasquale, despite having
deep industry co-signs, has the potential to make a larger fortune off of the culture than its
originators will. As someone who is young, white, and has the conventional good looks of a
teeny-bopping pop star, there is a significantly simpler path to marketing him via Top 40 radio.
The sum of DiPasquale’s new single, “Do It Like,” which features two Jamaican-born artists and
a Jamaican-Canadian—Stylo G, Konshens, and Kardinall Offishall—lends him the credibility of
the island while his identity insulates him from many of the hindrances that affect the dancehall
artists he’s mimicking.
While the genre’s footprints have persisted in the form of subtle influences on pop music, that
doesn’t necessarily mean the mainstream is ready or willing to accept another wave of
Jamaican artists. “There’s generally more back-and-forth and dialogue between [dancehall] and
urban music, pop music,” said Glazer, “but it’s been awhile since there has been any major,
major Caribbean crossover records. My thought process is never, like, ‘Cool, the floodgates are
open!’ I think that’s too optimistic. It’s just this kind of like slow build, and baby steps continue
to happen.”
For traditional dancehall artists, the reality will likely settle somewhere in the middle ground,
closer to the slow build Glazer speaks of than the sweeping success Atlantic hopes to have with
Kranium. Take recent viral star Gully Bop, for example: his career was entirely jumpstarted by a
rogue freestyle initially spread through social media. He has since purveyed that into merch
sales and sold-out club dates in Europe and North America. Bop is unlikely to crossover with a
major international radio hit, but he gets to have some sort of career nonetheless, buoyed by
the internet’s piqued interested.
Similarly, fans interested in dancehall can turn to Soundcloud, YouTube, and, in more and more
cases, services like Spotify to listen to hits or scour for obscure recordings—no longer do you
have to rely on someone’s cousin to bring the latest heat back from Jamaica in the form of mix
CDs. In the same way that the internet agitated entertainment infrastructures over here, so too
did it leave once-dominant Jamaican artists flailing. The emergence of digital platforms stunted
CD sales and required artists to excavate for new avenues for distribution, promotion, and
income. But though those technical factors may have once stalled the genre, if harnessed they
will incubate dancehall’s consistent growth and the possibility of yet more internet-facilitated
culture-bending. In other words, we may never get another Dutty Rock-level smash, but dance
will never die.
May 27, 2015
Can Dancehall Make a Comeback?
A new generation of young reggae and dancehall artists are already teaming up with hip-hop
superstars to bring their music back to the mainstream.
It may have been 1:30 on a Sunday afternoon, but the dance party was in full effect last
weekend in New York City. Featured as part of the Red Bull Music Academy’s month-long
festival, several of the biggest names in dancehall took to the stage in Fort Greene Park for
Yardcore: Brooklyn Bashment.
The celebration of the shared connection between Jamaica and New York as prominent
dancehall centers sought to pay tribute to classic artists while also introducing contemporaries
to the mainstream. Among the presence of DJs from popular reggae-influenced record labels,
Mixpak and Federation Sound, a number of international artists also attended, including Lisa
Hype, Assassin, Tifa, Kranium and Ricky Blaze. The concert also featured a special set from
legendary dub mixer King Jammy, a producer of over thirty years known by fans as one of the
first to introduce electronic sound to the genre.
“I’ve never seen this presentation of reggae or dancehall in New York,” said 32-year-old
Jamaican born singer-DJ, Assassin. “I feel like I’m in Europe somewhere, you know it’s that kind
of park vibe, chill atmosphere.”
Assassin (also known as Agent Sasco) has been well known around the dancehall community
since the early 2000s, and reached major success in 2011 when his single, “Talk How Mi Feel,”
charted at number one on the Jamaica Countdown Chart. Just a couple years later he achieved
success on American soil providing vocals on “I’m In It,” track six on Kanye West's 2013 album,
"Yeezus."
Last year when Kendrick Lamar’s producers were searching for a Jamaican vibe for his latest
release, "To Pimp a Butterfly,"Assassin was once again contacted to lend his voice to another
prominent hip-hop artist’s record. The result was a repeating eight-bar hook in Kendrick’s
aggressive lyrical masterpiece, “The Blacker the Berry.”
With his contributions to tracks from two of rap’s biggest stars, Assassin has subtly inserted
himself into the forefront of dancehall’s resurgence in the United States. “It’s fantastic man,”
he stated coyly as he prepared to take the stage. “There’s always a great synergy between
dancehall-reggae and hip-hop. It’s great to be a part of it and it’s great that these guys see it fit
to mix the vibes.”
Perhaps riding on the success of Assassin’s smooth transition into the American mainstream,
Kranium – another one of the performers at Yardcore, has begun to make his mark on not only
dancehall, but the music industry as a whole.
The 22-year-old based out of Queens entertained his hometown as the only other artist present
besides Ricky Blaze to call New York his home. Since immigrating to the states in 2005, Kranium
has slowly built his network around the city at local clubs and parties by singing his reggaefusion songs influenced by the likes of Sean Paul and Shaggy.
His hard work paid off as Kranium recently signed a multi-album deal with Atlantic Records. His
signing marks a shift in gears for Atlantic and is a risky statement of intent from the record
label. It’s common knowledge amongst music execs that reggae-influenced music rarely charts
well in the States, but Atlantic remains confident knowing that his singles “Nobody Has To
Know” and “Lifestyle” have sold well and garnered the attention of the international dancehall
scene, and perhaps more importantly, American radio stations.
“It’s a good feeling because I grew up listening to Sean Paul, Kevin Little, Wayne Wonder – and
they are part of that label in the past,” said Kranium, perched under a tent in the shade
moments after he finished his set. “For them to come and say ‘Kranium, we want to sign you –
we think you have talent, we can broaden the variety of it,’ I was like, ‘Alright, no problem
man,’ because I was really, really interested in it.”
As the performances began to wind down and Fort Greene Park steadily emptied out, it
suddenly became quite noticeable just how many people showed up for the concert. Could the
emergence of mainstream artists such as Assassin and Kranium, along with backing from
corporate sponsors like Red Bull lead to a dancehall revival in the U.S.? It’s been awhile since
the likes of Sean Paul, Shaggy and teenage-Rhianna have sold-out shows. Yet still, those like
Kranium remain confident.
“I love it man. I love it, love it, love it. You can notice that it’s a very diverse crowd. It’s good
because it gives you new fans and broadens your fan base. And it’s Red Bull. What more can I
say? It’s a very big deal.”
“I’m thankful for the opportunities to be on those tracks,” offered Assassin in closing. “But
there’s still a lot to be had. I’m just working hard and staying focused and, you know, being
grateful and moving forward in the best way I can. I just want to continue my work and my art
form – it’s a good vibe.”
June 01, 2015
Kranium Explains The Meaning Behind His Name, Talks Being
A Choir Boy, & Amber Rose Loving “Nobody Has To Know”
Long before Amber Rose was dancing to “Nobody Has To Know,” dancehall artist Kranium was making
people move to his music.
Before he became internationally known as Kranium, Kemar Donaldson spent his early years in Jamaica
singing in his church’s gospel choir each and every Sunday. And when he wasn’t singing for the Lord, he
was secretly listening to the soulful crooning of Sam Cooke.
Kranium stopped by GlobalGrind’s offices to discuss the success of his breakout single “Nobody Has To
Know,” being a dancehall artist who managed to break Stateside, growing up in Jamaica, and so much
more.
Kranium’s currently readying his major label debut, which is slated to drop in September. You may be
able to catch the singer in living color during spot dates throughout the summer.
Watch Kranium’s exclusive interview up top.
June 30, 2015
Dancehall Star Kranium Eyes High Profile Collaborations With
Atlantic Records
Don’t call Kranium a rookie just because he now has first major deal with Atlantic records. Hiphop fans might not be totally familiar with the dancehall star, but his riddims have turned out
clubs from Jamaica, Queens to Kingston, JA for years.
While the singer’s “Nobody Has To Know (Remix)” with Ty Dolla $ign is finally starting to catch
on with American audiences, the singer only sees his new recording home as a tool to push his
movement forward
“I was born in Jamaica, but I migrated to Queens,” Dancehall Kranium star tells VIBE. “I went to
Jamaica High School. I’ve always been on Jamaica Avenue, so Jamaica never left me.”
This is just the beginning for Kranium’s upcoming North American conquest, and he has his eyes
set on working out some big collaborations that should widen his musical profile.
“I like Rihanna a lot. I’m a huge fan of Drake. I would definitely collaborate with [him],” says the
West Indian singer. “I’m also a huge fan of Nick Jonas.”
July 29, 2015
Premiere: Groove To The Major Lazer & Kickraux Remix Of Kranium’s “Nobody
Has To Know” With Ty Dolla $ign
After tag teaming with Ty Dolla $ign for the remix to “Nobody Has To Know,” Kranium’s summertime jam has
been given a facelift once again, courtesy of Major Lazer and Kickraux.
“Major Lazer always tries to be on top of pushing new dancehall music internationally,” says Diplo. “Kranium
has one of the biggest songs of the past two years and Kickraux is one of the favorite new producers; making
some future dancehall.”
Major Lazer and KickRaux turn the island riddims up a notch in this beach-ready version of the Kranium hit. Let
the good times roll with the new remix here.
August 26, 2015
Kranium Feat. Ty Dolla $ign "Nobody Has To Know" Video
Kranium and Ty Dolla $ign link up to shoot the official video for “Nobody has to Know.”
Back in May, Kranium recruited Taylor Gang crooner Ty Dolla Sign for the remix to his monster
dance hall hit “Nobody Has To Know,” and now tonight the two are back with the official video
for it.
From avoiding paparazzi on his flowboard to picking up his lady in the Mustang, watch as
Kranium heads out to the middle of the dessert to do his thing, while Ty Dolla later pulls up on a
motorcycle to join him. Of course, there’s plenty of eye candy to accompany them throughout
though. Check it out.
"Videos need to be creative and I think we pulled it off. This is not your typical dancehall video,”
- Kranium
September 2, 2015
Jamie xx Performs "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)"
Remix With Kranium and Assassin
During a set at Red Bull's party during London's Notting Hill Carnival, Jamie xx performed Dre Skull's
dancehall remix of "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" live, accompanied by Kranium and Assassin.
You can watch a video below.
Jamie also made a Carnival-inspired mix for BBC Radio 1xtra, which features his remix of Adele's "Rolling
in the Deep", the dancehall remix of "Good Times", tracks by Yellowman, Beenie Man, Toots & the
Maytals, Mavado, and much more. You can listen to that below, too.
September 2, 2015
WATCH JAMIE XX PERFORM “I KNOW THERE’S GONNA BE
(GOOD TIMES)” REMIX WITH KRANIUM & ASSASSIN
This past weekend many big names could be found in London for Notting Hill Carnival. Celebrations
carried on throughout the city with various parties and events. Red Bull’s party featured a set by by
London’s own Jamie xx.
During Jamie’s set, he was joined on stage by Dre Skull, Kranium and Assassin for a live performance of
the extended dancehall mix of “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” by Dre Skull. Here’s to hoping
that someday soon we get to witness a live performance with everyone featured on the track—including
Young Thug, Popcaan and Konshens.
September 4, 2015
Watch Jamie xx Perform Remix Of “I Know There’s Gonna Be
(Good Times)” With Kranium & Assassin
Red Bull recently threw an intimate party during London's Notting Hill Carnival. The event featured a
guest appearance by Jamie xx, who performed a Dre Skull remix of his summer anthem "I Know There's
Gonna Be (Good Times)" with Queens dancehall artist Kranium and Jamaican deejay Assassin. Prior to
the event, Jamie xx also prepared a Carnival-inspired mix for BBC Radio 1xtra, which can be heard in its
entirety below.
October 15, 2015
Loose Talk With Kranium
Dancehall star rides the riddim with 'Rumors'...
Despite his breakout hit being titled ‘Nobody Has To Know’, everybody seems to know Kranium. The
song, recently remixed with rap star Ty Dolla $ign, has been on a steady upward pace since its release despite lyrics about secret relationships and dirty deeds in between the sheets. Born Kemar Donaldson
in Montego Bay, the future star grew up with an uncle in the music business, the dancehall star
Screwdriver. Kemar relocated with his family to Florida and then New York as a youth, making his name
through his gift for dancehall music - and self-promotion.
“I got signed through Twitter,” the Atlantic Records artist reveals. “They hit me up on Twitter. That says
a lot.”
Kranium’s rightfully proud of his digital hustle. His success is due to his methodical work ethic, allowing
him to push self-produced hits consistently to an ever-growing DJ email list. ”To be honest with you back
in the days before i got signed, whenever I go on Instagram I used to tag people that are active.
Whenever an artist tags someone like, "big up this DJ" then you know that the person plays a major part
in music, so you tag them. Cause one of them must see it and go, ‘Yo, this kid Kranium, he tagged me on
something on IG and it’s dope.’ I’m the type of person who looks at who Beyonce follows, who Oprah
follows. You have to look at stuff like that and just try to tag them. It might seem annoying but when you
reach that point you’ll realise you were doing the right thing all along. We have so much ways to market
ourselves, to be seen, to be recognised. So much ways on social media— take advantage of it. It doesn't
last forever.”
But of course there are two sides to social media: the good and the bad. “We live in a day and age
where I realise that people are more like sheep rather than shepherd,” Kranium says. “They’re easily
misled. They don’t think for themselves anymore. They reach a point where they just believe anything.
They don't think about the other side of the story. Sometimes it gets to me but then I realise, ‘Listen,
this is a job and if your heart is clean and you know what you are it’s OK.”
Despite being the subject of rumours himself this summer - the young artist has denied any ties to a
dancehall love triangle with certain female artists allegedly competing for his affections - Kranium is
getting ready to drop a new project entitled ‘Rumors.’ The project - more than an EP, not quite a full
album, definitely not a mixtape - is helmed by two NYC master producers: LMR (the man responsible for
“Nobody Haffi Know”) and Ricky Blaze (who has worked with Rihanna, Major Lazer, and produced
Gyptian’s certified-gold smash ‘Hold Yuh’). When Kranium describes ‘Rumours’ as a “soap opera,” the
comparison makes sense. Here is a group of songs tracing a narrative arc from secrets to sex to lies,
betrayal, and all that follows: flossing, praying, and getting even.
Hey, Kranium.
Wha g'wan?
Since the last time we spoke, you performed on the Redbull stage at Notting Hill Carnival. How was
that?
It was fun. You know in the UK it’s a different angle.
Was that your first time going to carnival here in the UK?
Yes, it’s my first time.
That must have been an experience on its own!
Yeah it was good. We have Labor Day Weekend in New York, so I had an idea of what it’s like. But you
know, it is slightly different. In New York it’s a truck, and people walk through. In UK you have trucks but
you also have sound system set up in different areas which you can go to and just hold a vibes.
Did you manage to get through the crowd and do any of that? I know that it gets pretty packed out.
Most definitely. I walked like 10 miles. I couldn't feel my foot when I got home. Did the whole thing. It
was good.
You come from a music background with your uncle, Screwdriver. Do you think times have changed in
music and do you feel the change growing up in the the industry?
Music can never be the same as it was 100 years ago. People do stuff differently. I wouldn't say the
music is changing - more like a different path. Back then there was no Twitter, no Instagram. There was
no social media. We have more exposure and we are more brave to say different things. People can
choose what they want and what they don’t.
Progressing in different ways. Do you think having SoundCloud, having Instagram, having Facebook
and all those social media platforms really helps you as an artist?
Yeah it does help. Back then artists out there didn't have that outlet to share music. Nobody gonna hear
it until luckily somebody who works at a label or somebody who has the power to help you see it. But
now Instagram and Twitter help you share things. When there is something cool I share it then your
friends see it and share it and their friends share it and it spreads. It’s an easier way for people to see it
in real time and get to you more faster. I got signed through Twitter. They hit me up on Twitter. That
says a lot.
Really? Just like that?
Yes, for real.
People often say it’s hard to get through to a record label and you have to go through all these
different phases. But your story shows that record labels can just come to you. If you’re good at what
you do people will listen and tweet about it or like it on Instagram. What’s your advice to someone
trying to get signed?
Just do everything that you can do creatively. Don’t be like everybody else. Do something different.
Progress is the key to success. If you can get a record and it doesn't go where you want it, just go back in
the lab, create something good and come back on the Internet and start tagging people. To be honest
with you back in the days before I got signed, whenever I go on Instagram I used to tag people that are
active. Whenever an artist tags someone like, “Big up this DJ” then you know that the person plays a
major part in music, so you tag them.
Cause one of them must see it and go, ‘Yo, this kid Kranium, he tagged me on something on IG and it’s
dope.’ I’m the type of person who looks at who Beyonce follows, who Oprah follows. You have to look at
stuff like that and just try to tag them. It might seem annoying but when you reach that point you’ll
realise you were doing the right thing all along. We have so much ways to market ourselves, to be seen,
to be recognised. So much ways on social media - take advantage of it. It doesn't last forever.
Exactly, like you said it might seem annoying. A lot of people shy away. They feel that it’s too corny or
they are too cool, but there’s nothing wrong with that.
Of course nothing is wrong with that.
It’s amazing and it happened to you. Now that you’re signed How is it going with Atlantic?
Everything is good. It’s all about me just being like in understanding with everybody. Everyone
understanding their role and me understanding my role and what is expected to be done. Work closely
together and eventually everything will fall right into place, because I’m one of the most patient person
on earth. I just listen and take from what I should take from and what I think is right and what is not to
be done and go in and work with them as much as they work with me. We just make it happen.
I hear your song 'Nobody Has To Know', everywhere I go. From LDN to yard to NYC it’s like the song
that everyone knows. You hear the beat drop and you see girls wining to it. Girls love it despite the
message. They really hone into it and anywhere the girls are the guys are too.
That’s true.
So as long as you’re the girls' singer you are going to be alright.
[laughs] Yeah.
I’ve also been listening to your song ‘Can’t Give a F@ck.’ Tell me about that song.
The record is just saying that “If I can’t get a fuck then me nah give a fuck.” It’s like if you get something
from me and expect me not to get something, it doesn't make no sense. So I’m not nobody’s sugar
daddy. I’m not gonna take you to a 50-star restaurant and you going to eat and go home after I just
spent all that cheddar. [Laughs] It’s awful, what I’m saying is very awful I know. It’s awful but it’s true.
I’m just saying it. Some guys don't say it so I’m going to be the ass-hole to say it.
Is that an experience that you’ve had? Or you know your friends have had? Where is that song coming
from?
It’s coming from the deepest part of my heart. Most definitely girls be like “Can I have this and that?”
And when I’m like, “What’s up”? then they say, “What you take me for? I’m not that type of girl.” And
that’s when I get tight.
Right. So how do you figure it out? If you take a girl to a 5-star restaurant at what point are you
expecting something to happen?
I mean [laughs] not that specific moment, but you not gonna get away two times. I tell you that much
So it’s a fine line. when the guy knows after a few times the girl is stringing him along.
Exactly. That’s it exactly. If my mind tell me she’s up to some next stuff then I be like, ‘You know what?
God go with you, cause I can’t go.’
What other things do you have in the pipeline?
We have a project called 'Rumors'. It consists of twelve records. It’s like a soap opera: ups and downs,
cheating, who did wrong, who get caught. Soap opera is the best way to describe it.
So we're going to get songs of different scenarios?
Exactly.
Wow, that’s a big project! How long have you been working on this?
Since December.
I think I came across something once where you said “don’t listen to rumours, not everything is true.”
Is that the bad side of social media?
Yeah, that’s the thing about social media. We live in a day and age where I realise that people are more
like sheep rather than shepherd. They’re easily mislead. They don’t think for themselves any more. They
reach a point where they just believe it, they don't think about the other side of the story. Sometimes it
gets to me but then I realise that, ‘Listen, this is a job and if your heart is clean and you know what you
are it’s OK.”
How do you keep yourself focused? Because there’s “Rumors" out there for real, and a lot of things as
an artist you have to overcome. What keeps you grounded, calm and together?
I just be myself. I’m a humble person, easygoing. Nothing bothers me. This is a game where people are
going to say things. People are going to think ‘Nobody Has To Know’ is whack, some will think it’s great
and some will think it’s amazing. And I just live my life now like whatever I do once I’m comfortable with
it I care zero about what anybody has to say.
'Rumors' will be released on October 16th.