Sean Paul’s Wife Jodi Henriques Scolds Brick & Lace’s Nyla Over ‘Light Em Up’ Copyright Allegations
Sean Paul’s wife, Jodi Henriques, sought to correct and scold Nyla of Brick & Lace following the Love is Wicked singer’s allegations regarding perceived similarities between Sean and Will Smith’s new Light Em Up track and her Light It Up collab with Major Lazer.
The saga unfolded on Monday after Nyla claimed, in a skeptical manner, that there were similarities between her single and the hook of the Smith-Paul duet, which is on the soundtrack to the newly released Bad Boys: Ride or Die film, which stars Smith and Martin Lawrence.
However, on Tuesday, after a small tiff the previous day between the two women on the Instagram page where Nyla’s video was shared, Jodi took to her YouTube channel, where she sought to school Nyla at length about song elements.
Jodi pointed out that the phrase Nyla heard was totally different from that of her song, and in deconstructing the elements, pointed out that the singer’s comparisons were much ado about nothing.
“Nyla from Brick and Lace, she came out with a video and in her video she was saying that she hear similarities between her song Light En Up with Diplo and with Sean’s song where the hook with him and Will Smith say “light em up,” Jodi began.
“I’m not sure how you hear the the two things sound alike. They don’t. It’s not the same groove; it’s not in the same key; it’s not the same speed. You have two
similarities; you have the word ‘light’ and you have the word ‘up’… they don’t even have the same meaning. Sean and Will want to ‘light em up’ like shoot them up you want to ‘light it up’, like you want to have a party Light up your lighter, whatever,” she remarked.
Jodi also declared that based on Nyla’s logic, the singer herself owes royalties to Justin Timberlake for the use of the phrase ‘Cry Me A River’ in the 2007 Brick and Lace song Love is Wicked. Timberlake’s Cry Me A River was released in 2002.
“We’re not arguing with Nyla and we’re not fighting with her and we’re not dissing her. No, we’re not going to diss her. It is not necessary. But Nyla, okay no problem you want to go you want to say it’s a rip; you want to say that there’s so many similarities. Okay Nyla, then by that accord you have royalties to pay to Justin Timberlake for your song ‘Cry Me a River, Your Love Is Wicked’.
On Monday, Jodi had responded angrily to the video of Nyla in which the singer had juxtaposed the two songs in question and noted asked “is this a rip?’
Nyla had then appeared on camera asking: “So we not just gonna pretend dat we didn’t hear the close similarities in those two records and the latter being the more popular older one, written by yours truly? This is definitely a sipping moment, but I aint sipping no tea…”
“Light it up” with the same light that belong to Sean Paul from the beginning of time??? KMT mind you reach for something you can’t handle,” Jodi had responded.
Nyla had responded in kind, implicitly telling Jodi that she was unaccomplished.
“Jodi, must be nice to fight for something you didn’t even work for. At least whatever accolades I have as small as it may seem “ I worked for it”, she retorted.
On Tuesday on YouTube, Jodi had vented further, pointing out that Nyla could have expressed her concerns to Sean privately instead of taking to social media.
“Nyla, I’m not gonna diss you… growing up, I danced to your bops. I still love them now I think that you and your sister are very talented… you’re not only a good singer but you’re also a good songwriter so I’m not going to sit here and diss you. What I am upset about which is what I’ve always championed for, if you diss mi husband I am going to comment. If you diss me I couldn’t give two shits; it’s fine,” she said.
“Nyla, here’s the problem that I have: you and Sean are
friends; you and Sean have worked together; you have Sean’s number, and if you had a problem you could have called him and you could have said ‘Sean this sound a little familiar to me you know’… I’m going to go and I’m going to get my musicologist and see where this is going,” she added.
Continued Jodi: “But you didn’t do that. Instead you went onto your veranadah and you say how, ‘I have the tea’. What tea Nyla? Why is this an argument what tea? When you come and you start about your your tea and and you’re carrying on and whatever that means it’s an argument you want”.
According to Jodi, it is not in Sean Paul’s nature to argue with his colleagues, so she has to defend him whenever anyone tries to disrespect him.
“Sean is not going to give you an argument. That is not how my husband is; that’s why him send him Bulldog online fi guh represent him,” she said, referring to herself. “He’s not going to say anything to you.”
“As a matter of fact it was him that called you and you guys spoke and then farther you took down your post. but then Sleek caught on to it and Sleek post and then you can see 98 percent of the comments persons don’t hear it. But yet under those comments you wanted it to reply to me? Girl mi take mi diss an mi siddown. What you need to do too is look at all the comments and realize you need to sit down as well,” she added.
Added Jodi: “So yes, you’re correct Nyla. I didn’t write; I work on my husband, so I’m gonna defend him because he’s not going to say anything to you”.
Nyla declined DancehallMag‘s request for an interview, noting, “From here on out, we will deal with matters internally.”
However, yesterday, she shared a two-part video explaining that, as a creator in the Jamaican music industry, she believes in the right to express views on how one’s work might inspire others.
In the follow-up, she clarified that her comments were not about Sean Paul.