Barrington Levy Says He’s Rejected Offers To Record On Afrobeats Riddims
Veteran Reggae/Dancehall superstar Barrington Levy says he has rejected offers to record songs on Afrobeats riddims, as he will never switch from the genres on which he rose to stardom.
The Under Mi Sensi singer was discussing his new album and other plans for 2023, during a Television Jamaica interview, when he made the revelation.
“I am focusing right now on my new album for 2023. But I still want to make it the original Reggae vibes that people love me for. These nowadays people trying to move over to Afrobeats – because people do come to me and say ‘mi have a Afrobeats (riddim), yuh want it’ and I say ‘no’”, Levy told veteran entertainment journalist, with Anthony Miller.
“Why would I switch from my original Dancehall music to Afrobeats weh is our Reggae music they try to copy; our pattern on how they make their ting. So I am keeping it real with my original Reggae music,” he added.
Levy’s concerns are similar to that of international Dancehall producer Jon FX, who pointed out in an interview last year that Afrobeats singers have used the Dancehall drum pattern, to take the musical world by storm, resulting in many people believing the genre coming out of the African continent, is Dancehall.
Jon FX had also noted that 2021 Grammy winners, Virginia-based band SOJA, throughout their Beauty in the Silence album, had stayed faithful to authentic Reggae and its one drop drum pattern, unlike most of the other Jamaican contenders, two of whom (Jesse Royal And Etana) infused different genres including Afrobeats on their albums.
Jesse Royal had described his album Royal as having “elements of hip-hop, jazz, blues, Afrobeats and Dancehall”, while Etana’s Pamoja was described by her as a blend of Reggae with Afrobeat and Dancehall.
Levy, who is 58 years old, is best known for hits such as Prison Oval Rock, Money Moves, She’s Mine, Black Roses, Too Experienced, Murderer, Living Dangerously—a collab with Bounty Killer, Collie Weed, Shine Eye Girl and Work.
The singer, who was born in 1964 in Clarendon, formed the Mighty Multitude with his cousin Everton Dacres in his teenage years. The duo later made their entry into music by working on sound systems and recorded their first single, My Black Girl in 1977.
At age 14, Barrington recorded his debut solo single, A Long Time Since We Don’t Have No Love.
In 1984, he teamed up with producer Jah Screw to record the hit Under Mi Sensi and later Here I Come, the title track for the album of the same name.
Under Mi Sensi climbed to the UK Top 50 charts, while the Here I Come album, which was comprised of 12 tracks including Vibes Is Right, Real Thing, Moonlight Lover and A Ya We Deh among others, earned Levy the Best Vocalist Award at Britain’s Reggae Awards.
Barrington Levy was among a group of elite artists, namely Bounty Killer, Buju Banton and Capleton, who were drafted by Palestinian-American producer DJ Khaled in 2021 for the collaboration Where You Come From, which featured on his platinum-selling Khaled Khaled album.
In October 2021, Barrington Levy’s Here I Come was featured on soundtracks for the action/adventure all-black Western film Harder They Fall, which starred Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Idris Elba, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield and Delroy Lindo, and others.
Here I Come has been sampled in 31 songs according to WhosSampled.com. These included tracks from American superstars including The Coming by Black Eyed Peas in 2010, Angel by the Game featuring Common in 2008 and Ready or Not (Salaam’s Ready for the show Remix) by the Fugees featuring Steady Rider in 1996.
Here I Come has also featured in Saints Row 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.