All hell broke loose on social media when Drake released his new album Views and dancehall fans found that the Canadian rapper replaced Popcaan with Beenie Man on “Controlla.”
Dancehall fans were surprisingly upset particularly Popcaan fans. The “Unruly Boss” deejay has a verse on the original version of the single which was leaked online last month. But there was no signs of any corn popping on the album version. Instead, Drizzy and his producer 40 injected a two decade old Beenie Man sample from the dancehall legend’s single “Tear Off Mi Garments.”
Beenie Man Builds A Church In His Community
In response to his critics, Beenie Man says that it is a good look for dancehall when Drake sample his 1995 hit.
“They reached out to me to clear the sample then he reached out to me to do an intro for the song,” Beenie said. “It’s a big deal. For somebody to take a song that I’ve been done for 15 years, to release and put it out – it’s a big deal. It’s always great. For him to idolise me like that, it’s a big deal.”
Beenie Man has worked with a lot of international artists in the past including Moya and Janet Jackson.
Dancehall music saw a decline on the international stage over the last decade but the genre is now seeing a resurgence back into the mainstream of music.
“Dancehall is in the mainstream now,” the dancehall icon added. “No. 1 Billboard song (Rihanna Work). Dancehall is a culture that everyone wants to be a part of. Nobody wants to be part of a culture with no meaning in it. Right now, everybody tries to kick it with the dancehall.”
My problem with the ones who are criticizing Drake, has to do with the fact that they don’t even know why the Popcaan feature did not make it onto the album. Popcaan and Drake don’t have any love loss and the ones should use that as an indicator that Popcaan does not feel slighted.
Label politics and marketing tactics often times are responsible for these decisions and the ones need to stop acting/reacting out of ignorance. There are four Reggae/Dancehall references on the album; hence, there should be no Jamaican disappointment.
Beenie Man, 1995 to 2016 does not make 15 years mi bredda–more like 21 years–and sampling your music does not mean that di man idolize yuh brethren–it is a business decision I’ah. None the less, being on that album is a big deal!
your views are a bit contradictory to put it mildly. Which is it – We should not criticize because its a marketing decision or is it because they dont like each other? If thats the case, they shouldnt use his sample in the first place. The criticizm come from the fact that the sample was used on the original album, then replaced when it was released, Use it or dont use it, but dont pull the rug last minute because of politics or whatever!!
In a nutshell, since we don’t know why Popcaan did not make the final cut, we should not castigate Drake. How did you arrive at the conclusion that the version with Popcaan made the album cut?
Artiste record dozens of tracks, only to select a handful of tracks for respective albums. If not for the leak, you would not have known that Popcaan was involved; hence, I don’t know how you arrived at your conclusion. You’ve made a lot of assumptions. From my understanding, the version with Popcaan is going to be released as a re-mix…
But he replaced one Jamaican for another though…!Popcaan shouldn’t take it personal. He should be glad for the free press Drake gave him.