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Agent Sasco says he is in album mode. The dancehall veteran, formerly known as Assassin, revealed that he’s about start putting together his new album as
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Elephant Man is looking to continue his legendary run in dancehall with a new project.
The dancehall veteran, also affectionately called the Energy God, is set to release his first full-length project in seven years, an EP titled Cool Reminder. Ele shares the details in an exclusive interview with Urban Islandz. Elephant Man has been pushing the album set for release on March 24, 2023, through Hapilos, and he revealed that the project, which features production by NotNice and himself, is “authentic Dancehall [to] take dem back to school.”
Elephant Man shared with Urban Islandz that the album is named after his song of the same name produced by dancehall heavy-hitter NotNice (real name Ainsley Morris), which was originally released in 2022. Other producers on the project include Gold up Music, who is well-known for the popular dancing track “Leggo di Bird” by artist Laa Lee and dancehall producer OmLando.
“Ah dancehall we say and I think that that is one of my biggest songs. Not Nice – big top producer,” Elephant Man, whose real name is Oneal Bryan, said.
“Some great dancehall tracks, some great party tracks, solid songs from the Energy Gad. You can expect a lot of great tracks. They won’t be let down. Everybody’s gonna be happy. Dem know Elephant delivering hits on top of hits. we gonna be dancing, we’re gonna have hits for the ladies, we gonna have raw authentic dancehall tune like “Buss A Blank”, “Start Dancing”- crazy,” he added.
The artist’s last studio album, Bogle Move, was released in 2016 through his label Energy God Productions, and the artist says the EP is among his best work yet.
Elephant Man
“It’s one of my best works. A good body of work put together. Some solid tracks, some real party bangers and the girls are gonna be loving it, the fans are gonna be loving it, the DJs are gonna be loving it,” he says.
Elephant Man has continued to tour over the last seven (7) years and has earned the title “Energy Gad” for his energetic and high-intensity performances that get fans on their feet and dancing. Over the years, he has released several singles, and his latest single, “Mi Vex,” has generated quite a bit of interest as the artist speaks about the overwhelming level of violence against women.
“[At] every turn, the violence against women is getting out of hand. I said I’m going to use the melody and build back the riddim and talk about something that’s gonna be a big topic in our society Jamaica [and] all over the world- stop the violence against women,” he says as he shared that SZA’s lyrics on the song “Kill Bill” inspired him to tell her not to also kill her ex.
“Stop it, and this song I wrote it, dedicate it for the woman dem,” the artist said, adding that he made it his point of duty to ensure that the EP speaks to the issues women are facing.
“We affi have a song like this where the women dem can hold up dem head and know say dem have defender from dancehall defending dem, Energy God talking up fi dem,” he said.
The Grammy-nominated artist also shared details about the production process for the 8-track project noting that it was originally seven (7) songs but “Mi Vex” was added to it as he wanted the messaging to get out.
He also shared that he was strategic in selecting the tracks to ensure that there was a good balance of songs for all of his fans, particularly his hardcore base that grew to love his dancing tracks. Songs like “Start Dance” are sure to get his fans on the dance floor, Elephant Man said.
As for the production of the EP, he also revealed that most of the songs are produced by his Energy God Production and Animal House Record outfits. The deejay revealed that he has been producing his own songs for more than two decades, with tracks like “Pon De River” and “Signal De Plane” produced by him after the beats were created by veteran producer Don Corleone.
Elephant Man
The artist added that he had been immersed in music, and his love also extends to producing his songs and being a part of the process.
“I’ve had a hand in all ah di the production dem from a longer time in my career because we love music so we try and learn it to the fullest where we can even produce it. I have my own label, Animal House Records and Energy God Productions so most of the tracks I produce them,” he said but added that he also works with other talented producers like VC, Gold UP, Breeze, and others.
Meanwhile, the artist was asked about his relationship with Beenie Man and said they were “good.” The two had a famous feud in 2018 when Beenie Man dissed Elephant Man, saying that the artist was retired by the likes of Ding Dong. Ele also shot back with his track “Don’t Say Nuttn,” where he accused Beenie Man of allegedly having a hand in the death of his close friend and popular dancer, Bogle.
The artists appear to have let bygones be bygones, according to Elephant Man.
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Jamaican deejay, Popcaan is opening up and sharing candidly about his music and what drives the kind of music he makes. In a new interview on Crack
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Power actor Michael Rainey Jr. continues his trolling of rival show BMF saying the TV series is “a great show to fall asleep to.”
Rainey Jr., who plays Tariq St. Patrick in Power, took shots at his rival, Black Mafia Family actor Lil Meech, and 50 Cent is clearly amused by the rivalry between the two franchises. On Sunday, Rainey Jr. shared a photo of himself making a phone call and decided to post an interesting caption to it to tell the story behind it.
“Me making that call for them to finally take that bull sh*t off air next week,” he wrote with laughing emojis. He added in the comments, “It was a great show to fall asleep to though I’ll give them that.”
50 Cent reposted the photo, and clearly, he is stoking the fire as he ensured that if Lil Meech didn’t see the post before, he knew it was directed to him. Tagging Lil Meech, 50 wrote, “oh sh*t, it’s lit @Lilmeechbmf ain’t gonna like this.”
Michael Rainey Jr.
50 Cent is a co-producer on both the Power franchise as well as Black Mafia Family when he had his deal with Starz Network. The rapper, who is a well-known troll, is playing into the beef between the two young actors.
Last month, Big Meech revealed that the rivalry between the actors became intense, and he is blaming Starz for not stepping in and putting a stop to it. The elder Meech spoke up after Lil Meech appeared to be feuding with Rainey Jr and his Power cast member Gianni Paolo.
The basis of the feud appears to center on the actors believing their respective shows were better than the other. The actors also traded shots after 50 Cent appeared to praise Rainey in early February. Lil Meech reposted the 50 Cent endorsement with a shady caption, “I’m working on being immortal @50cent these guys still mortal… Let’s go to lunch later I’ll give you some free game @michaelraineyjr.”
Rainey Jr. also responded and threw jabs at Lil Meech, calling him a “beginner” and referring to the BMF franchise as “dead.” Lil Meech also responded by writing, “U been acting since u was 12 years old… This is my 3rd year and it’s already looking scary for u,” he wrote.
Gianni also responded by bringing up Meech’s recent LA gun arrest, but the Chicago native shut him down as he called him a police informant attempting to bait him.
Lil Meech hasn’t responded to the latest jab as yet.
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Burna Boy is dominating Spotify with his project, Love, Damini. Afrobeats artist has earned a new milestone as his latest album Love, Damini achieves more
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Johnny Depp’s hand painting portrait of Bob Marley sold out despite hefty price tag.
Johnny Depp has parted ways with several handcrafted paintings of some of the world’s biggest celebrities, including Bob Marley, Heath Ledger, and others. The talented actor reportedly painted the silk-screen prints, which recently went on sale.
United Kingdom art retailer Castle Fine Art announced the sale of the pieces dubbed “Johnny Depp’s Friends & Heroes II” collection. The portraits included reggae legend and icon Bob Marley, late actor Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, and Hunter S. Thompson.
The Art retailer wrote, “the collection is a unique insight into the world of Hollywood from one of its biggest stars.”
The Bob Marley painting featured an uncanny likeness to the real looks of the “Redemption” artist and also appeared to have personal touches on his team, including words of resistance and lyrics from some of his most popular songs, including the track “war.”
Ledger’s portrait was also unique as it featured the artist’s face, but his hair and facial structure resembled the character the Joker from his award-winning performance of the movie Batman.
The paintings were originally on sale for £17,500 or U$21,000 for all four pieces as a package.
Individual pieces were on sale for $5,400 each, but within a few hours of the listing, all 780 prints sold out, Variety reported. The paintings were snapped up within hours of it being announced.
The art hour described the artist’s creative process as, “Each image is an intimate reflection of their character in Johnny’s eyes; a portrayal of how they have revealed themselves to him. Working from photographic references, each image has been stripped back to a simpler and iconic portrayal of the subject, which Johnny has then developed and energised with his characteristic freehand flourishes.”
This is the second art sale by Depp. His previous collection, “Friends & Heroes,” featured paintings of Keith Richards, Al Pacino, Bob Dylan, and Elizabeth Taylor and were on sale for $4,740 each.
Despite passing away decades ago, Bob Marley’s music and influence remains imprinted on humanity with fans across many generations including a lot of us born after his death. The Jamaican reggae legend died on May 11, 1981, from cancer.
Johnny Depp speak on the power of Bob Marley’s lyrics in some of his biggest songs.
“Bob Marley is a hero, a legend,” Depp said while clad in a Rastafarian tam. “Bob Marley’s words, if you take one song, just take the song War: ‘until the philosophy which olds one race superior and another inferior, is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.’ That’s one verse. And his expression of that rage for wanting peace so bad that he was able to perform that song war.”
Johnny Depp also painted portraits of River Phoeni, Hunter S Thompson and Heath Ledger, saying he would like to be in a room with the four of them.
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Popcaan says he will be an independent artist soon, dropping hints he will be parting ways with Drake’s OVO Sound.
The dancehall deejay and the Toronto rapper have been close friends for years leading to the Unruly Boss signing to OVO Sound, the label founded by Drake, Noah ’40’ Shebib, and Oliver El-Khatib. Drake announced the signing of Popcaan during his appearance at Unruly Fest in St. Thomas in December 2018.
“This is something we’ve been working on for a very long time, and I just wanna let everyone know that finally, officially 2019, Popcaan a sign to OVO label,” Drizzy told the crowd while on stage with Popcaan.
At the time, it was a major move for the dancehall star, who was long rumored to be a part of the Toronto-based label, but the ink didn’t dry until the top of 2019 when he announced that he had officially signed to OVO. The deal cemented an even tighter relationship with the two and spawned a few collaborations over the years, including a recent song, “We Caa Done,” that appears on Popcaan’s new album, Great Is He.
Fast forward to 2023, and it looks like that label deal is coming to an end. Popcaan has a cover story out for Crack magazine where he opened up about his music, career, label, and other things happening in the Unruly universe, and one thing was very clear; he will be independent sometime soon. Perhaps he just needs to fulfill some additional contractual agreements, and he is out.
“The label can be weird sometimes. I love the label but I don’t like them,” Poppy said in the interview. “But I’ll be independent soon.”
Drake and Popcaan
As it relates to his relationship with Drake, Popcaan did not comment on that, nor was he asked, but he recently assured fans that the link is still strong. Drizzy also gave the dancehall star a major boost to start the year with the release of “We Caa Done,” the first song to release by OVO Sound this year. Still, this latest admission by Popcaan will likely trigger more chatters of a rift between himself and Drake, the man from Toronto he often regarded as a brother.
Drake co-founded OVO Sound in 2012 with producer Noah’ 40′ Shebib and manager Oliver El-Khatib. Over the past decade, the trio grew the label’s roster to include Dvsn, PartyNextDoor, Plaza, Smiley, Baka Not Nice, Majid Jordan, and Roy Woods. Along with 40, there are also Nineteen85, Boi-1da, and other in-house producers.
Popcaan also has his own Unruly Entertainment label, although it’s unclear if any artists are currently signed to the imprint.
Popcaan’s announcement comes on the heels of other artists announcing their departure from major labels or seeking better deals from majors. Kranium recently announced he has departed Atlantic Records, and a few months back, Baton Rouge rapper NBA YoungBoy left the same label for a more lucrative deal with Motown.
Nevertheless, artists are still open to signing major label deals. Masicka was the latest dancehall artist to become a major label artist when he joined Def Jam on an album deal.
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Shenseea showed out during her Rolling Loud California as she performed at the event for the third year in a row. The artist maintained a futuristic theme
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Nicki Minaj took a few jabs at Megan Thee Stallion at Rolling Loud.
Many fans of Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion feel that Nicki Minaj tried to diss the “WAP” rapper during her guest appearance at Rolling Loud on Saturday night. The rapper joined Young Money mogul and Rolling Loud headliner Lil Wayne on stage, where they performed several of their tracks. Minaj spent about 10 minutes on the stage with Lil Wayne, but the set was plagued by audio issues seconds into her solo performance.
The rapper performed “Super Freaky Girl” and then her new song “Red Ruby Da Sleeze.” There was a particular verse in the song that Minaj emphasized that has fans thinking that she was sending shots at Megan Thee Stallion.
“I just put out this song yesterday, so Imma just let it rock,” Minaj says. The rapper became annoyed halfway as audio issues developed. “Is the song offbeat?” Minaj asked as she stopped the music.
While waiting, she adds, “I said I don’t f**k with horses. I said ‘it’s 700 horses when we fixing to leave, but I don’t f**k with horses since Christopher Reeves,” the rapper singled out that particular line.
Shortly after, her setlist appeared to become corrupt as the DJ was unable to bring back up the song despite efforts by her people to reset the list.
Minaj eventually cut the performance short, but that has not stopped fans from calling her out for dissing Megan Thee Stallion, who was reportedly backstage at the event with Cardi B.
“Nicki Minaj tried to clock Megan Thee Stallion with that horse bar only for the crowd to stare back at her in silence. That’s definitely one way to be humbled,” one Megan fan wrote on Twitter.
“Or someone who has been in the industry so long that they are considered furniture; this is humiliating and goes to show @NICKIMINAJ just isn’t ready yet. Forgetting ghostwritten lyrics, no stage presence, dead crowd and hyping a one-sided beef? It’s just Embarrassing!” another said.
One Nicki Minaj fan also defended her on Twitter writing, “Megan Thee Stallion has a song called REALER. She was comfortably dissing Nicki Minaj and Cardi b in that song. That was way before Hot Girl Summer and Wap. Did a few interviews dissing Cardi? I say all this to say, ain’t NO FRIENDS in the female rap game. And nobody is innocent.”
Cardi B and Megan appear to share a close relationship, having collaborated on their Grammy-winning hit song, “WAP.” It was also recently revealed by movie director Robert Townsend that Megan and Cardi both wanted to do a B.A.P.S. movie remake.
The cult classic originally starred Halle Berry and the late Natalie Desselle-Reid.
“There’s people that love, love, love the film and some people that didn’t get it. And those that love it—like you love it and you get it—I’ve had people go, ‘Hey, we want to do a remake,’” he said. “Everybody from Megan Thee Stallion to Cardi B is like, ‘Could we do…’ I mean, it’s like, I don’t know,” Townsend said.
The rappers have never spoken about the film, but their onstage chemistry has certainly stirred excitement among fans.
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Jamaican Dancehall artist Valiant and Slingerz Family teamed up for a major giveback in the country ahead of his second performance in Guyana for the
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