Tony Rebel Says He’ll Encourage Skillibeng To Do More ‘Positive Stuff’
Veteran Dancehall deejay Tony Rebel has told his fans that he will be providing guidance and encouragement to Skillibeng, to feature more positive lyrics and less explicit sexual content, profanity and gun violence in his songs.
The Teach the Children singer made the commitment after he posted a photo of himself and Skillibeng on Instagram over the weekend, which evoked harsh criticisms from some of his followers, who said the Crocodile Teeth artist was not doing wholesome songs and so should not be celebrated.
Rebel had shared the image of himself and Skilli and captioned it: “Buck one a the youth from the future!! @skillibeng 🎤gwaan do you thing, Your meditation on the right channel Much blessings Jah son!! It’s in your hands so hold firm.”
However followers like heyitsorville, was not impressed and made his objection to Skillibeng being praised clear, making references to the St. Thomas native’s Coke song about being a cocaine smuggler and slew of gun violence-laced songs as reasons.
“Hey @_tonyrebel ah peer gun and cocaine di man dj bout. You sure he’s on the right channel?” he asked, and then added: “him nuh have one positive song. Nothing you can listen to”.
Seeking not to be condemnatory or judgmental of the Run artiste Tony Rebel responded: “@heyitsorville you can be on the right channel and it is being distorted. So!! With a little tweaking it can be cleared… we a go encourage him to do some positive stuff”.
Also registering his chagrin was bigataach_369, who called on Rebel to implore Skilli to sings songs of substance.
“Pure f-ckry him sing a hope u encourage him to sing good songs and open up the youths them eyes,” he said, while empress_reign added that she as disturbed by Skilli’s emphasis on singing gun songs.
“Too much gun talk… Is that the only thing we can offer our future?” she queried.
In response to the concerns, Tony Rebel said that he perfectly understood, and sought to allay them, noting that he would be offering counsel to the 24-year-old, but simultaneously asked that the Morant Bay High school old boy not be judged.
“I know all you are staying, and I’ll make sure I speak to him and share some of my experiences with him he looks willing too!! (There are so much bad in the best of us. So much good in the worst of us, That It should not become any of us to condemn the rest of us)” the Fresh Vegetable artiste said.
Obviously appeased at Rebel’s words of assurance empress_reign replied: “@_tonyrebel I already know seh from you inna di place… Positivity will follow. Haile Blessed. Jah deh pon him side so wi dun know. Salaam.”
Likewise, heyitsorville, said his comments were not made in a bid to condemn Skilli, but were made out of concern for the music industry.
“@_tonyrebel Rebel, it’s not that we are condemning him enu, we’re just looking at the fruits he’s producing. Nothing wrong with calling out the negative in hopes that it brings forth positive. I think what you’re hearing from us is tough because we love reggae and dancehall music.”
Skillibeng has been criticized profusely over the last year, due to his penchant for recording gun songs and sexually explicit tracks with taboo subject matters such as Sloppy and Two Gyal and scammer songs such as Brik Pon Brik and Chappa Gyal.
In February, Skilli was highly criticized for his Silhouette Challenge video, which depicted Sapphic scenes with a large group of women, groping each other while gyrating to Skillibeng’s urges to: “Take off your clothes.”
Those condemnations had come in the wake of the release of Coke, which had seen many Dancehall fans suggesting that he needed to be reined in.
Skillibeng’s debut album, Crocodile Teeth The Album, was released on October 14 and is currently No. 1 on Apple Music in Jamaica, Cayman Islands, St Lucia, and St Vincent.