Usain Bolt Says He Reached Out To Popcaan To Record On One Of His Riddims

Track icon Usain Bolt has revealed that he had reached out to Popcaan to record a song on one of his A-Team Lifestyle riddims.

Bolt was discussing some of his upcoming musical projects during an interview with Television Jamaica’s Anthony Miller on The Entertainment Report, when the veteran journalist put him on the spot and asked about whether he had approached the Numbers Don’t Lie artist for a feature.

The sprinter had initially told Miller that for his next riddim, which will follow up on his relatively successful Clockwork beat, he would be recruiting artists who have a track record of singing on authentic Dancehall beats, as he wanted to bring back the original 1990s Dancehall feel for which many people have been clamoring.

“We are going to sit down and really put an extra effort into this one and call a few people that we think that will help to push the music, that people miss hearing like proper Dancehall.   So that’s something that we are gonna work on… it is going to take a while, but I’ll get it done, because I see that people really miss the hard core 90s Dancehall type of music,” the Trelawny native said.

It was at this point that Miller, asked about the involvement of Popcaan, who had harshly criticized Bolt in January when he and his manager NJ Walker had released Living the Dream.  The Unruly Boss had posited at the time, that the song was substandard and that Bolt should spend his money to push some poor ghetto youths with talent in the music industry.

“Is it a case of getting particular names on your riddim, like a Popcaan?” Miller asked during the interview.

Chuckling, Bolt responded: “Now we are definitely going to reach out to a certain level of people.”

“You will reach out to Popcaan?” the unwavering Miller asked.

“I will reach out everybody that I feel like the hardcore Dancehall people want to hear,” was Bolt’s measured response as he seemingly tried to shy away from talking about Popcaan, yet again.

Miller pressed the Olympic sprinting champion further, seemingly trying to get him to finally respond frontally to Popcaan’s trashing of his song five months ago.

“You think Popcaan might have been offended that you didn’t reach out to him?” Miller questioned.

“We have reached out to Popcaan.  We have.  Over the years, we have.  We have put it out there… we have been in contact with him about joining one of our projects,” Bolt said, in an apparent attempt to steer clear of controversy.

“And?” the unrelenting Miller responded expectantly, resulting in Bolt chuckling and muttering something indecipherable.

In January, Bolt’s song which he did in collaboration with NJ titled, Living the Dream, had dominated the news for several days after Popcaan, having listened to an excerpt which the Trelawny native had shared on Instagram, implied that NJ, who did most of the vocals, lacked musical acumen.

Popcaan had also admonished Bolt on his Instagram page, to help ‘some youth wid real musical talent’ because “them dey ya nuff”.

“NJ a mi fam, but please just give some hungry youth wey actually have the talent tha platform deh,” Popcaan had written, later  on adding, after receiving a huge backlash from some Dancehall fans that: “Me done say wey me say and me nuh b_mboclaat sorry,”

As the ridicule and criticisms rained, veteran music selector Foota Hype had come to Bolt’s rescue, reminding Popcaan that when Vybz Kartel first introduced him to the music scene, many people thought his voice was annoying and thought he would be an ‘iron balloon’.