Sean Paul’s former manager Jeremy Harding has rubbished suggestions that the We Be Burnin artist was able to surge ahead of Beenie Man internationally in the 2000s because foreign record labels favored him due to his lighter skin color. 

Harding, who produced Beenie Man’s biggest solo hit Who Am I, on his Playground riddin, declared Beenie the greatest Dancehall artist of all time but came out in full defense of Sean Paul during an Entertainment Report Podcast interview, in which host Muscle asked if there were any reasons “why Sean Paul got to break over Beenie Man at that time.” 

Muscle had explained that he had heard Beenie in an interview pointing out that “after the “strength of Who Am I, it seemed like he was supposed to really get that international super break but then it’s like after a while Sean Paul got to break.”

Harding, however, said that the way the two artists’ careers turned out all boiled down to proper management on Sean Paul’s part, and a lack thereof, in the case of Beenie.

“I can just put it down to better management.  I don’t know what else to tell you. What else would I be able to say about it?  Beenie Man got himself embroiled in controversy, with the gay bashing lyrics and all that.  He put himself on that list as well.  And then he had to, you know, apology letter… was it GLAAD – the gay community that was trying to lock down his shows?  And all those things start to happen for Beenie Man,” Harding stated.

“I think by the time he got like King of the Dancehall, one of those records that he did, by that time MTV and BET were snubbing him and he was getting a lot a pressure from International rights activists to change his stance on the LGBTQ community.  That hampered his success tremendously.   That was also happening at the time.  So yeah, a victim of circumstance perhaps with that,” the 2Hard producer added.

Jeremy Harding

While lauding Beenie’s Billboard success with Who Am I, Harding also said the song served to cement his place in Dancehall as a revered producer.

“Yo big up to Beenie and all; love to Beenie Man.  I mean he made me just as much as I helped that record in his career,” he said.

Harding doubled down on the fact that record labels primary focus is on song quality and sales potential, and not the skin colour of the artist, pointing out that Beenie’s troubles at the time, were totally the fault of his management, as several other very poor decisions were made by them.

“I think that’s what was taking place with him at the time, that that hampered his progress… and just managerial choices – doing the song with Janet Jackson and he decided to sing instead of deejay, weird things like that which he was doing…,” he explained.

“I don’t know what else to put it down to.  I know where this is leading to this question of: ‘oh cause Sean was the brown uptown guy and that’s why he got the f–king break’ which is nonsense, because record companies don’t work that way. Record companies in New York don’t work that way.   They’re not in this air of shadisms like Jamaicans, bro. It’s absolute stupidity.  What are you talking about?” he added.

Continued Harding: “They have R&B artists and rappers signed to the label that are black like f–king tar.  What difference it meck?  There’s no brown person thing in a record label that makes the brown people better or the light-skinned people the better.  All that’s garbage.   Working with the Urban Music departments and there are black people; they’re from down south from the states.  There are black people signed to the label; they have black artistes, black rappers.   There’s nothing that says oh well you’re a brown and so you’re going to get more of the push.  All that is stupidness bro.”

According to Harding, skin colour is “not a factor for Jamaican music”, which is still classified as “Urban”, which is code for black music, plus Sean in his ascension to global stardom had scored hits such as Get Busy, Temperature and Baby Boy with Beyonce, as well as other huge collabs with megastars.

“So, no matter whether you’re brown, Asian, red, green, f–king purple or anything, as long as you’re doing dancehall or reggae bro and you drop into a US radio station or a U.S record, company you’re ‘black music’.  So there’s no segment for the browner guys to be better, off is what I’m trying to explain too.  All that’s silly,” he said.

“There’s tons of black R&B and rappers like Biggie Smalls: big, fat ugly black guy – f–king multi-millionaire.   What are you talking about?  So why does that stop any a Jamaican artist because of your skin color, your blackness.  It’s stupidness.”

He added: “It’s upsetting when I hear people talk about it.  And I’m not saying that’s what he (Beenie) is saying, but dem type of comments kind of lead to that speculation of ‘hmm wonder why Sean got bigger over all the fact that Sean bonafide had three number one records on Billboard.  That’s not because of being brown.   It’s the songs that you’re making; it’s the records.   That’s what makes you unstoppable… that’s why he is bigger than people.  That’s sole reason why.  It’s just songs.  So let’s just debunk that right here bro.” 

Harding said Jamaican artists should refrain from using skin color as an excuse for their lack of success and instead, “figure out what records work in the international market and go make those records”, as Sean Paul and Shaggy have done. 

Sean Paul, Shaggy

“It’s just an excuse.  It’s something to hide behind.  Go make better records; that’s what you need to do… and stop trying to say that it’s because of your skin color you can’t get to work because that’s nonsense!”

“They (Sean Paula and Shaggy) have hits.  Shaggy had monster hit records.  What are you talking about?  Number one record smashed, tear up the world, sell freaking Diamond.  That’s why.  It’s not skin color.   It’s the size of a record.  Go make some monster records bro stop talking about skin color it’s a hindrance if anything else bro…,” he added.

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