Why There’s No Females Among The 21 Artists On Sean Paul’s New Album ‘Live N Livin’

Dancehall superstar Sean Paul has explained why his new and fully-loaded album, Live N Livin, features no female artists.  Live N Livin was released today under Paul’s Dutty Rock Productions and he recruited an astounding 21 Dancehall and Reggae artists for 15 collaborations on 16 of the tracks.

Among those featured were Busy Signal, Intence, Leftside, Buju Banton, Damian Marley, Chi Ching Ching, Govana, Serani, Jesse Royal, Mutabaruka, Stonebwoy, Bugle, Squash, Mavado, Agent Sasco, Masicka, and Skillibeng.  The all-male line-up is actually out of the norm for Sean Paul as his chart-toppers and best numbers internationally are almost always female-assisted.

In an interview on Reggaeville’s Wha’ Gwaan Munchy?!? , the Grammy-Award-winning artist explained that since Live N Livin was dropping on his own label where he had full control, he was not concerned with the numbers but in showing the unity in Dancehall. “I kinna just wanted to have a focus on this album especially with the brethens them, you know what I mean,” he said.

The She Doesn’t Mind singer believes that female Dancehall artists have been holding their own. He highlighted Shenseea and Jada Kingdom, who will appear on his Scorcher album in May, as two female artists who have been doing a wonderful job for Dancehall.  “I think that the women have been doing phenomenal in the past four to five years on their own. They’ve been doing their thing,” he added.

While he admitted that most of his successful collaborations have been with women he said the message behind this album was personal as he wanted to emphasize that clash culture was not necessary for deejays to move forward.

“Forget the clash let’s get the cash,” he quipped, adding that he understands clash culture is a big part of Dancehall but said he believes that it is not the most important aspect of the culture.

To this point, he made it his priority to lead by example and sought out the younger male artists even though some of them had been in conflict with each other.  He used Intence and Skillibeng as an example of this saying that getting them to work on the same album was a show of the unity that he is looking for.

This unity that he wants to promote is the inspiration behind the last track on the album, Everest which was produced by Demarco and features Masicka and Skillibeng.  The Temperature singer confirmed that Masicka and Demarco haven’t always gotten along.

“To put this song on the album felt like climbing up a hill, it was a monumental task to put 21 Dancehall artists together in this pandemic and just put out the work. Good likkle vibe and it’s all about unity for me,” he added.

He also explained that because of a slow down in touring due to the pandemic, he had the opportunity to bring his vision to life. It was a vision that he had always been playing with and his conversations with Shaggy, Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley and Buju Banton gave him the affirmation that he needed to push forward with it. Paul said he realized that he and the other artists “all need to do more work with each other.”

Even though there is little chance of him being able to tour fully for this album, Sean thinks that this should not stop him from putting it out because people need music for hope as they continue to battle the pandemic.

As he so aptly put it: “tours stop and lyrics ah pop and album fe drop.”

Live N Livin is available on all streaming services now.