Skatta Burrell Relishes Beyoncé’s Sampling Of His ‘Coolie Dance’ Riddim On Her World Tour

Even as he celebrates the 20th anniversary of his Coolie Dance riddim, which propelled him to Billboard glory, Downsound producer Skatta Burrell has been given more to rejoice about, this time courtesy of Queen of Femme Pop, Beyoncé Knowles.

On Tuesday, Skatta shared a screenshot of Beyonce’s Renaissance album tracklist, along with video clips of her performing the song Move on her Renaissance World Tour, and pointed out that the song, which is described in the credits as containing “elements” of the 2004 Nina Sky track Move Ya Body, samples his revered Coolie Dance.

“Great Music can never be silenced. Respect to The Queen of Music @beyonce who chose Music I own and created to be a part of Her #RenaissanceWorldTour.  This adds to the many accolades I continue to garner from My works. I Created this beat in 2002 wit headphones on My MPC2000 on a NY trip in My Friend @chapchaps living room in Yonkers,” the Calabar High School old boy noted on Instagram.

Ten years ago, in April 2013, Skatta was also on a musical high courtesy of Coolie Dance, which charted in Europe again, with the single titled Dance 2013 by Fatman Scoop and Lumidee, which featuring vocals from Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and which, at the time, was one of the most popular dance tracks in Europe.

Upon its release in 2003, the  Coolie Dance riddim, contained 20 tracks, among them Elephant Man’s Genie Dance, Vybz Kartel’s Please, Red Rat’s Round and Round, Bounty Killer’s Yuh Gawn, Ce’Cile’s Give it to me, and Sizzla’s Mama Africa. 

The compelling nature of the beat later attracted several popular US pop stars who scored major Billboard hits with songs recorded on the Coolie Dance rhythm such as Lil Jon and Pitbull, in addition to Nina Skye.

Coolie Dance was also been featured in several films and television shows, among them Zero Dark Thirty and the popular US TV show America’s Next Top Model.   

Back then, Skatta described the continued success of the beat as “a good feel”.

“It’s about eight years now and it still a hot rhythm, it a represent fi dancehall. It is featured in a lot of movies and this is because it has an ethnic feel with a little Puerto Rican and hip hop element, so people from all over are drawn to it. I work closely with my publishers at Abode Music and Downsound Records, and I am indeed getting profits from my work,” he had said.

This is the second time in two months that Skatta has publicly reflected on his musical production works with glee.

In March, he took to Instagram where he rated Norris Man’s 2000 hit Persistence, on which he worked as a sound engineer, as his best production ever and hailed the Rastafarian artiste for, along with Iley Dread, giving him the opportunity to produce the song which he described as a “monster hit.”

Skatta had said that Persistence, which was his first number one song, had “ripped through” more than 60 charts worldwide.  In rating it as his “best work”, he said this was because it had shaped his “entire spirituality and passion for music.”

Beyoncé has previously collaborated with Sean Paul on Baby Boy (2003), off her Dangerously In Love album, and with Mr. Vegas on a remix of Standing in the Sun (2014).

She has also sampled Major Lazer’s Pon De Floor with Vybz Kartel in Run the World (Girls) (2011), off her fourth studio album, 4.