Dancehall artiste Valiant says he doesn’t need to record any more songs about “obeah” because he has now gone corporate.
Urban Islandz reported in April that Valiant inked his first major corporate Brand Ambassador deal with telecom giant Digicel in a deal brokered by his new management, Romeich Entertainment. The deal is a sign that corporate Jamaica is ready to start working with hardcore dancehall artists again. Besides, the “Dunce Cheque” deejay is one of the hottest young artists on the music scene locally.
Despite nabbing a lucrative corporate deal, Valiant has been at the receiving end of mounting criticism over his lyrical content, even though his songs are hugely popular. Among the criticism levied against him are songs about witchcraft and songs about chopping. At least now we know that there will be no more songs about the dark arts.
The deejay hopped into the comments of an article shared by the Star on Instagram this week, where he responded to a fan who wrote, “Mommy needs to tell him to stop sing bout obeah.” The article itself was a positive story about the artist’s close relationship with his mother, whom he calls his best friend. Perhaps that was what compelled Valiant to respond, writing, “went corporate no need to” while tagging the commenter.
Valiant, whose given name is Raheem Bowes, is now being managed by Romeich Major, who manages artists like Ding Dong and previously Shenseea and Teejay. The deejay rose to stardom with his breakout hit “Dunce Cheque,” which helped him see a meteoric rise in dancehall.
Since then, he has released dozens of hits, including “North Carolina”, “Siance”, “C.A.L (Cut All Losses)”, “St. Mary”, “Speed Off”, “Insomnia”, and “Narcissist” with Stalk Ashley. Several of the named songs racked up millions of views on YouTube and even made it to the platform’s top trending songs chart in Jamaica.
In an exclusive interview with Urban Islandz in November last year, Valiant addresses criticism he received over the content of his breakout hit, “Dunce Cheque,” where some veteran dancehall artists scolded him about it.
“Well Calling people dunce was used as a way to discourage or hurt feelings of the youth so [I] thought of a way to give kids confidence if they are called dunce,” the St. Mary artist said. “I want them to know that they can brush off being called dunce and make fun of it because it won’t stop them from achieving their goals.”
In the meantime, Valiant got a new song out with Vybz Kartel, “Stay Clean,” and another song and music video he released on Tuesday called “1942.”
In a new interview with Urban Islandz, Vybz Kartel told us that he was drawn to working with Valiant because of his natural talent but acknowledged that his attitude and work ethic will ultimately help him etch his name in dancehall’s history.
“Valiant is naturally a talented kid, and he works very hard too he kinda reminds me of myself when I just came out,” Kartel told us. “It’s the attitude and the work ethic that’ll ultimately give him the glory I think he deserves. He is well on his way to becoming a bonafide dancehall superstar.”
