“Collaboration Over Confrontation,” Sean Paul Adamant Clash Culture Not Needed To Advance Dancehall
Sean Paul has revealed the collaborative cover art for the first of his two albums carded for 2021, Live N Livin . The veteran Dancehall deejay, who has made it a point to disavow himself of clash culture, said he is using these albums to prove that “clashing” is not needed to advance the genre. Live N Livin will be released on March 12.
Through a press release today, Paul also revealed 15 of the 16 tracks are collaborative efforts, with Lion Heart being the only solo entry. In a true show of unity, the album’s artwork features some signatures from the 21 artists who contributed to the project.
One of the tracks, Boom, featuring Busy Signal, will be released next Thursday, March 4. Real Steel featuring Intence, and Dem Nuh Ready Yet featuring Leftside have already been released. We reported earlier this month that 10 of the 16 songs bore titles that were similar to action/war movies.
“It was important to me to show that in our genre of dancehall, we don’t need to clash in order to attain the spotlight. We don’t need to divide our fans to attain the rotations on the airwaves or streams,” Sean Paul said in the release.
He added that several other well-known artists like Shaggy, Shenseea, and Koffee were tapping into the global market without having to clash or bring down other artists. “Over the years myself, Shaggy, and more recently Koffee, Shenseea and others are tapping into the world stage and we are not clashing our co-workers, nor are we dividing our fans,” he said. “This album ‘Live N Livin’ is an album I hold very dear to my heart because it shows the effort of collaboration over confrontation,” Paul added.
The Temperature hitmaker said Live N Livin was specially created to show that dancehall is not dead and that with unity, the genre can continue to grow from strength to strength. According to Paul, he intentionally offered up a collaboration over confrontation undertone. He went on to say that his belief is that Dancehall is alive and well and that the genre has a very strong pulse.
The release noted that Dancehall has continued to inspire artists around the world like Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Sam Smith, and also other genres like Reggaeton and Afrobeats.
Paul has brought together many veterans in the business for this album including Buju Banton, Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, Busy Signal, and Mavado.
He has also targeted the younger generation of artists like Chi Ching Ching, Govana, Intence, and Skillibeng.
The album was produced by Paul’s label Dutty Rock Productions and distributed by ONErpm. Martin Price, the Director of A&R (North America & Africa) expressed his joy at being able to work with Sean Paul and shared his feelings about the upcoming album.
“We are all excited at ONErpm to be partnering with Sean Paul and Dutty Rock for the release of this timely and well curated album, Live N Livin. We look forward to assist in broadening the reach of dancehall globally” he said.
Sean Paul’s second 2021 album, Scorcher, is expected to be released later this year under Island Records, with guest features from American singer Gwen Stefani, Australian singer-songwriter Sia, Shenseea, Jada Kingdom, and Stylo G.