Sean Paul Says Skilibeng, Gage Are Impressive On Trap Beats, But Masicka Is Most Versatile

Veteran entertainment journalist Anthony Miller, expertly extracted information from Sean Paul recently, about his feelings regarding the musical acumen of upcoming artists who are dabbling in Trap sounds, including their ability to construct appropriate lyrics to fit raw Dancehall riddims.

In fact, the interrogation revealed that the Dutty Rock artist holds King inna Earth artist Masicka in high esteem as the industry’s most versatile of the new generation of entertainers.

Sean Paul was commenting on Rihanna’s tendency to give credit to Dancehall whenever and wherever she used the genre in her music, when he touched on the fact that some Jamaican artists appear to be better able to pen songs to fit Trap beats, as opposed to hard-hitting Dancehall riddims.

“That’s a next thing.  Some a di younger artiste actually sound better on these Trap riddims.  If yuh give dem a Boasy track or suppm like dat, they do not really know what to say on it,” Sean Paul said.

“Give me some names,” Miller said immediately.

Realizing that he was now placed on the horns of a dilemma, Sean Paul responded sheepishly: “I don’t really like using names”.

Miller then interjected: “Yeah man, come on.  Who sounds really good on a Trap riddim?”

“Who sounds really good on a Trap riddim?  Gage, Skillibeng.  All a these guys are doing things that sound great on there.  Ask them to deejay on a regular Dancehall riddim, they are gonna have to dig deep to try,” Sean Paul responded.

“People like Masicka does it effortlessly.  I rate him for dat, yuh understand?  I have seen him go on a Trap-Dancehall type a track, an a seen him go on a Dancehall track an him sound very dope on di both a dem,” he added.

Sean Paul’s observations are not far from that of Bounty Killer and Mr. Vegas, who in 2019 were on the same wavelength declaring that Dancehall artists are supposed to be able to deejay even their original songs on any alternative riddims that are given to them, including Reggae beats.

In July that year, Bounty had blamed music producers for watering down Dancehall music and for pushing the use of other beats, which are outside of the dancehall realm.

According to Bounty, the producers were doing a disservice to the upcoming artists, as the songs done on the Trap and Island Pop beats cramped the artists’ ability to deejay the classical way, which was what was sought after and embraced internationally.

“But when Popcaan and Alkaline come, they throw dem on the Island Pop and the Dancehall Trap and all these things, so they will never ever develop the skills that Bounty learn from Shabba and Ninja cause they are using different tunes and they are given different lessons,” the Killer had said.

“They stop using our sound. They just use the pattern of the beat but the music, sound like everything, so if we were not singing Patois, you can’t know. If you put a rapper on these beats you will believe is a foreign song,” Bounty noted.

In September that year, Mr. Vegas had also heaped much of the blame on the current batch of young producers for stifling the artists’ deejaying prowess.

Taking it a step further, the Heads High artist said many of the new producers had no idea how to play any musical instrument and did not even know the difference between being on-key or off-key.

According to him, they rely totally on computer software such as Keyfinder, Autotune, and Mellodyne to produce music.

“Nuff a di man dem weh seh dem a producer, dem can’t play music. So how yuh seh yuh a producer? Yuh a sampler. Yuh not even know when man deh pon key. Dem use di Keyfinder, but the artiste, when him go pon stage, him can’t find back the key. Keyfinder and call yourself a producer? Producer wha man?” Vegas had jeered.

“The artiste no know how fi find back di key pon stage show, so di music sound good and nice when you hear it enuh, but listen it a stage show and a run yuh waa run outta di dance,” he added.