Popcaan is urging young dancehall artistes to stop glorifying drug use in their music and think big as the music expands.
As drug use and other lyrics centered around criminal activities continues to become more prevalent in dancehall music, some veterans in the industry are coming out strongly against it.
“Me excited about any young artist or any new artists, you know, because me love seeing mi youth dem winning and me love seeing dem make it out of the struggle because I know what the struggles is like,” Popcaan told The Atlantic in 2018 during his promotional run for his album Forever. He also reminded younger entertainers that “music is what put them here, you know, so always put that first.”
The deejay was recently shooting a music video for brand new music from himself and Queen Ifrica‘s son Imeru Tafari when he was candidly videotaped speaking out on some of the current lyrical trends in dancehall.
While the beginning of the conversation is unclear, Popcaan was captured instructing the people around him to focus on lucrative and high grossing assets such as house and land versus a Toyota Mark X car. The deejay was also noticeably upset about the adopted styles of taking ‘Molly’ and other pharmaceutical pills usually present in American urban songs and culture. Molly is the powdered form of ecstasy and is considered a more potent form of the popular recreational drug usually ingested as a pill.
“G Wagon de ya and Lamborghini de ya, stop pree Mark X,” Popcaan encouraged. “No make no idiot artiste trick uno bout buy Mark X. S**k Dem Madda! No make no idiot artiste trick uno bout take Molly and pop pill. S**k Dem Madda!”
The Unruly Boss did not list the names of any artiste in particular, although some have pinpointed a few popular tracks that have embraced the use of Molly and glorified the beautiful and status symbol of a Toyota Mark X. On December 17, 2021, dancehall newcomers Skeng and Navaz teamed up for “Pop Molly” with a video showing just how to go about the act. Intence also mentioned the use of molly in his hit song “Yahoo Boyz.”
In recent years the discontinued Toyota Mark X has become something of a status icon for young scammers all across Jamaica, with many entertainers making reference through tracks such as Acegawd’s “MarkX & Axio” and “Lavish” by Squash.
Popcaan’s stance comes across as a call for young entertainers to clean up their lyrics and sing about more positive ventures. This is not the same view shared by Popcaan’s mentor Vybz Kartel. The Worl’Boss recently shared that the lyrical content is of little importance once the youths are able to reach their target audience.
“70s/80s Get Dem Time, 90s/2000s Get Dem Time. We Could A Bawl Blood, A Di Youth Dem Time Now. And Their Young Audience Good With What Dem Doing. None A We Can’t Stop Di Time. If It Hurts [Like The Truth Usually Does] Take A Panadol,” he wrote on his IG Story.
Popcaan recently announced the name of his brand new album, “Great Is He Great Is Me,” and it should be interesting to hear what tracks are included.
