Sean Paul, Burna Boy Show Each Other Love In Amsterdam: “General To General Respect Due”
Jamaican superstar Sean Paul and Nigerian superstar Burna Boy united on stage Sunday night at the Reggae Lake Festival in Amsterdam, and the Grammy Award-winning pair showed each other much love and respect.
Near the end of Paul’s set, the No Lie deejay greeted Burna Boy and his mother/manager Bose Ogulu, who were observing his performance from the sidelines.
As they smiled and embraced on stage, Sean Paul, 49, told the massive crowd, “respect due” while the selector played the 31-year-old African Giant’s latest hit song Last Last. “I wanna take a shot to celebrate life with ya’ll, you know we live and living,” Sean later added in the clip.
It was the first time the two were pictured together and Sean Paul took to Instagram to share the moment, with the caption: “General to general, respec due”.
Interestingly, Sean Paul had gone viral among Afrobeats fans when he was spotted at a show in Germany last month, grinding on Burna Boy’s ex-girlfriend Stefflon Don—who is rumored to be the inspiration behind Last Last.
In May, Stefflon instead trolled eager fans by promising to tell “her side of the story” in a reply track titled First Of All, but instead told them to ‘mind their business’ on the song’s release date.
Burna Boy’s Last Last remains at No. 1 on the newly-created Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for the sixth consecutive week. The song has also spent five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, currently in its peak position at No. 73.
“Afrobeats’ got the hotspot right now, and I’m loving it,” Sean Paul had told Hot 97, in an interview, when asked whether the genre was displacing Dancehall.
“Like seeing artists on the road, like Davido, I see him and he’s … telling me how I influenced him, how my music influenced him and it’s like a full circle thing, you know what I mean.”
Paul said that he believed that there is space available for Dancehall and all the genres it has influenced.
“I just love the vibe that that has been happening in terms of Dancehall influencing other genres. I believe that it helped with Reggaeton, I believe that it also helped with Afrobeats. I also believe that it helped with how Soca music sound right now, from Trinidad,” he said.
“So…for me to be involved with a genre that has influenced so much things—not to mention the pop acts that are doing it—that feels amazing and there’s no hate in the game for me for that there’s space for all of us.”
Reggae Lake Festival is a dancehall and reggae music festival held in Gaasperpark, Amsterdam. The two-day event featured six different stages: Main Stage, Dancehall Party Arena, King Shiloh Sound System, Reggae Vibrations Afrobeach, and Reggae Chill & Lounge.
Sean Paul headlined the Main Stage on Sunday, and was joined by Gentleman, Collie Buddz, Max Romeo, and Roots Riders.
On Saturday, the Main Stage featured Burning Spear, Morgan Heritage, Koffee, Meta and the Cornerstones, Maikal X, and Joggo.