Popcaan, M1llionz Sample Tanya Stephens’ ‘These Streets’ Classic On New Song

Tanya Stephens’ 2006 mega hit These Streets has been sampled by Dancehall star Popcaan and British drill artist M1llionz. The track titled These Streets (Don’t Luv U) is spearheaded by production outfit The FaNaTiX, and was created using the hook of Tanya’s original song.

These Streets, which was is the first single released from the St. Mary native’s sixth album Rebelution, took the Reggae charts by storm, even earning the biggest mover at one point after it jumped 25 spots to the number three slot on Mediaguide’s Dancehall Reggae Specialty Chart.  It also charted on the New York Top 30 Reggae Singles Chart and the South Florida Reggae Chart following its release on August 15, 2006 and was a number one hit in the Caribbean.

Described as an airy acoustic guitar track, the original These Streets finds the St. Mary native pleading with her thug/street hustler lover, who pays more attention to his thug life than his love life, that “these streets don’t love you like I do,”.  The music video was also a hit with Kymani Marley, the Trelawny-born son of Bob Marley playing the thug lover.

The two day video shoot took place in Miami, and in Kingston, and was loosely based on the classic Jamaican gangster movie Shottas, with Spragga Benz, Kymani Marley, and Louie Rankin who all starred in the movie, making cameos in the video.

However, the remake of the song, steers clear of any romantic notions, and instead the two artists sing about M1llionz’s grimy lessons in road life while Popcaan warns of, among other things, the mayhem and betrayal that can happen in ghetto life.

Comprising of C Dot, Dro and Mastapiece, The FaNaTiX has been promoting the track on their social media pages and gave a summary of the production, thanking both Stephens and the Unruly Boss.

“OUT NOW The FaNaTiX #TheseStreets #M1llionz & #popcaanmusic…
Shout out to everyone that has supported us in our journey so far 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 we appreciate you so much.  This is the first single being released from our project we’re excited for you to hear it!   A massive big up to @m1llionz & @popcaanmusic for featuring on this and killing it!! Big up the legendary @iamtanyastephens for allowing us to sample her classic song “these streets”. This would not be possible without you guys…,” they noted.

In 2006, the same year These Streets was released, Tanya had sued rapper Lil’ Kim for plagiarizing lyrics from her song Mi and Mi God and using them in her song titled Durty which appeared on the American’s Naked Truth album, according to The Star tabloid.

According to the Boom Wuk singer’s lawsuit, which was filed in the Manhattan federal court “Lil Kim did not just steal her song, but had done so after flying Stephens to New York, in 1999, asking her to sing on one of her albums and belting out by heart the very song she pilfered to show what a big fan she was of Stephens”.

Tanya, and her representatives from the Royalty Network, according to the article, “were shocked when they first listened to Lil’ Kim’s late 2005 album, The Naked Truth”, which peaked at number three on the hip-hop charts and rose to number six on the Billboard chart and gained a nomination for Album of the Year for the BET Awards.

In the suit, they claim that the lyrics of the song matched Stephens’ version “word for word” and that Kim “even sings the tune with a West Indian accent” and that “the lyrics are so duplicative that Stephens is claiming she should own the song and receive all past and future royalties”.