“Without Ladies, Music Is Trash,” Says Skillibeng
In spite of gaining notoriety for his tendency to record numerous “gunman songs”, Skillibeng says it is the women who are his truest fans and the real consumers of his music.
During a recent interview, Skillibeng first told Tim Westwood, a British DJ and presenter at Capital Radio, that throngs of doting female supporters were the apple of his eyes and that he made it a point of duty to create music to please their ears.
“I am for the ladies and I made that a special part of my career to always have music for the ladies. Because without ladies, music is trash. There is nobody dancing; there is nobody singing along. Ladies are the persons who really love music. You know that right?” Skilli said.
“It is the ladies. You get to a show, there all ladies in the front. I know how important music for the ladies is, and I enjoy doing it too, because I have a good voice. I could sing for them sometimes. And I could deejay, you know. So I give them a lot a lot of mixed feelings a lot a vibes so I have some serious female fans,” he added.
Skilli’s girl songs are unlike those of his peers, which profess love and romance. His “girls songs” tend to blend gun-toting with explaining how much women love “bad men”, songs like Sloppy, She Love Badman and She Love Esyde being prime examples.
Skilli’s comments come a month after 2Hard records producer and Group CEO of Stocks and Securities Ltd (SSL) Zachary Harding, admonished Dancehall artists to broaden their catalog, and not only focus on singing gun songs only.
The Playground riddim co-producer had told Television Jamaica’s Anthony Miller that while gun lyrics hold an indelible place in Dancehall music, having a one-dimensional catalog hinders artists from being able to tour the entire world and perform for a wide array of audiences. He had contended that as a consequence, gun-lyrics toting artists were losing out on accruing a lot of wealth, as they are not as sought after by promoters as their counterparts who offer diversified content.
“You are always gonna have, obviously, gunman song, because that is really an evolution coming out of the clash culture. They were not necessarily running up and down in the streets and shooting people. It was a metaphor for killing another sound. I don’t know where Dancehall would be without those famous rivalries that took place,” Harding, had explained.
Harding had also said that artists “end game must be towards touring”, as this is the only way they will be able to rake in the millions they desire.
In elaborating on his own circumstances, Skillibeng had told Westwood that he made it a point of his duty to focus on ensuring that he had a “catalogue of music” to command a stage, after issues were raised about whether he had the capabilities to rock an audience.
“I started to research on who are the best performers. The best performers are the ones with the biggest songs. People know these songs and they don’t even have time to say this is rubbish. They just have to sing along with it. So that’s what I studied. And I took a break and I wasn’t going to any shows and I was just focusing on my music getting that catalogue ready,” Skilli had explained.
“And it’s ready now. I’ve got such a big catalogue of songs I can’t even perform all of my songs. And that’s a good feeling,” he added.