Dancehall artist Popcaan has a cryptic message as he speaks for the first time since fellow dancehall artist Vershon claimed that he was “badmind” and not someone who supported fellow artists.
Last week, singer Cecile appeared to defend Popcaan after Vershon commented on a podcast directed at the Unruly artist. In her post, Cecile praised Popcaan for giving others shine when he didn’t have to.
“I’d encourage every artist to STOP PROMOTE people you don’t SIGN!!! As an established artist, recognize the VALUE IN CALLING UP YOUNGER LESS ESTABLISHED ACTS ON STAGE FOR THE SAKE OF KINDNESS…. ENDORSING THEM, PUTTING THEM in our music videos, collaborating with them. We don’t take music business serious in this place. Man like Bounty and Beenie and others have done a lot and should NEVA HAVE done it unless it was for acts SIGNED to them. In the long run most of them turn round and say you NEVER DID ANYTHING FOR THEM. And say you badmind dem!!! And how u selfish! Because they will always want YOU TO DO SOMETHING MORE,” Cecile wrote in a now-deleted post on Instagram.
Vershon also took Cecile to task, calling out her reasoning as unsound since dancehall has always had a culture where established artists give “strength” to upcoming ones.
“Mi wah kno wah the video have to do with di point yah try mek!…. Look how much artist Popcaan call up pon stage but yet a me yu post….. ask Popcaan if mi ever ask him fi a callob yet or any kind of favor. When di youth call me u on stage mi did already established and neva di a look nothing!…. Ye mi seh did dog selfish but u did hear mi seh him badmind? Mi sure seh pon every interview mi show mi appreciation even if was the smallest…. Because mi alway see him as a bredrin……. And anotha thing yu nuh realize seh badmind/selfishness deh ina yu post? Yu ah encourage established artist nuh fi call up younger artist on stage like seh dat nuh always been we culture regardless of signing or not!…. A bigger artist calling up a young artist has always been a positive thing and a common thing in the music industry….. If Bounty Killa did sign every artist before him call dem up maybe we wouldn’t have mavado and vybz kartel and if we neva have Kartel we wouldn’t have popcaan and if we neva have popcaan YOU wouldn’t ova deh a chat so like u trupid! But since a signing a di problem, Popcaan neva sign Quada???? So weh him a do fi him now??? Sometimes it better unu stay shut up if unu nah have nothing weh mek sense fi seh… Yu forget seh yah artist? How much years yu deh unruly and nav a callob? Sit down and be quiet,” Vershon said.
On Friday, Vershon also claimed that he didn’t have a problem with Popcaan.
“You see that narrative unnu a try fi paint unu stop it. Stop make it look like me have a problem with such man over collab or me have a problem signing…the problem me have with ‘such’ man – such man treat him friends dem like sh*t and mi don’t like i. not because you a the man with money, not because you are the man with status you have you treat your friends like sh*t,” Vershon said adding that he has never had a conversation with Popcaan about signing or doing a collaboration.
Vershon also addressed someone as ‘big head’ who he said was ‘pillow talking’ with ‘such man’. The artist also claimed that he stopped hanging with Popcaan because of his lack of care during an incident in which his friend was stabbed and beaten after he was invited to an event with Popcaan.
“Such man well and know the problem weh me have with him. It’s because he treats his friends like dem a nobody. Such man, you remember what happen up a Papine? You remember how you call mi phone fi come a stage show up at Papine and when me reach up a Papine with me friend them, me and you inna the venue and me hear say one a mi friend dem, one of me bredrin out a door, the whole community come down pan him over one misunderstanding. Zeen and when me a run go out there fi go see what happen, you tell me nuffi go. And me still go out there and me see what happen and make sure me bredrin alright. The whole community beat him and stab him over one sittn over one misunderstanding and mi affi tek him up a UHWI (hospital) and the next day everybody else call me except for you and ah you call me out of my bed my yute and ah it that’s why me stop par with you,” Vershon said.
In the meantime, Popcaan also spoke for the first time since Vershon’s first comments.
“Most humans have ulterior motives, don’t make them trick you,” he wrote on X.
“The hardest thing to do now is find genuine people,” he added.
