Don Corleon Says Young Artists Deserve The Space To Grow

Dancehall producer Donovan ‘Don Corleon’ Bennett says he believes young artists should be given the space to reach musical maturity without undue criticism.

Speaking with DancehallMag, Corleon mentioned several young Dancehall stars, including Valiant and Skeng, as artists he admires and would like to collaborate with. He acknowledged that while not every new track resonates with him, he recognizes the potential for innovation and creativity in collaborations with these young artists.

“I listen alot of the young artists today. I like Valiant, I like Teejay, I like Skeng. I love the London song him do. It bad,” he said. “I hear couple songs that I like, I dont listen to every song they do but I hear songs that I like from these guys and I think if I collab with them, we could do something different and creative.”

Added Corleon: “I love the youths, I won’t shun or shut down the youths. What people don’t understand is that music is an experimental thing. Di yute dem affi find dem selves innu. Supposed dem create something better than what we created? We don’t know so we can’t knock it.”

With a history of working with international artists such as Rihanna, Migos, Nicki Minaj, Keyshia Cole, Ed Sheeran, and Pitbull, and Jamaican artists such as Vybz Kartel, Jah Cure, Shaggy, Protoje, Queen Ifrica, T.O.K, and Sizzla, he said rather than criticizing, more producers should get into the game of advising.

“What you can do is advise them and if they’re opened to working with you, you work with them,” he said. “I am not going to say I dont like this or I dont like that. I like alot of the things I hear these days. Eveyrbody has to start somewhere and artists affi grow. Music comes in stages and people evolve over time.”

So what must an up-and-coming artist do to get Don Corleon’s attention? The producer said he’s open to accepting demos as he will always give a listening ear.

“You can hit me up on IG. If you send me a demo, I will listen to it,” he noted.

He also outlined his musical mission for 2024. “For the New Year, I want to do some more work. I want to inspire some more people in my genre because when you produce something different from what is out there, it might not be a huge hit but it might inspire others,” he said.

“So for the New Year mi wah do couple more of those projects with difference. I also want to work with Beres Hammond again. Other than Garnett Silk, he’s one of my favourite artists. I respect and rate and Sizzla Kalonji, so I want to do more work with him, too.”