Popcaan

thats amazing news abt the bbc! i was into this track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUJwOLx5oQM

I think it must be due to "the specialist takeover" this week and lots of 1xtra crossover with Radio 1

Still though!

"City Yeah" is really, really good, love the sweetness of it

I wouldn't say it's better than "Ravin" but I also liked "Clean" a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1r6kZEHGQ

haha he definitely does deserve his own thread at this point, love this guy.

this was his first big hit back in '09, so infectious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9parIrwLUA8

this one is huge here as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSnOP4TM8o

He has a really, really good pop ear. And his sinjay-style is so unique. He's been outshining Vybz for a while IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwrEpHOUmf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWPo6jNMVpE

was just about to post "Only Man She Want". He definitely sounds energized compared to Vybz this year.

Yeah, for sure.

He just released this single on Mixpak (the same label that released Kartel's Kingston Story album), produced by Dre Skull:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGrKoS9Xx-c

pretty good, but I find Dre Skull's stuff kind of underwhelming. There's a lethargy here that doesn't really work--it's not laidback, just kind of sluggish?

wrt to the increase in bbc play, it's probably related to his recent induction into the top 20 artists for 2012, unfortunately alongside mac miller and childish gambino, but w/e

loving this album

This album is absolutely glorious and deserves all the attention it's been getting, probably my most played album of the summer. Love all the twinkly melodies offsetting his whole emo robo sex thing, during the moments where that happens he's almost like a dancehall Future.

great comparison

some of my friends have been complaining that there's not enough bangers, but nah

*raises hand*

not enough bangers

(which is to say, no bangers; a playlist of every single in the dancehall thread >>>>>> this album)

What abt system?

Bangers are really not the point.

Also come on, a playlist of every single in virtually every genre thread would beat most albums in that genre, that's how playlists of singles that enthusiasts love *work*.

xp well no but it just makes the album seem a bit uniform and one-pace. i don't really think i'm that into dre skull's production either, there isn't much of interest even by non-banger standards

i don't dislike any of it, i can stick it on and it's perfectly pleasant, just nothing really outstanding about it

loving this album

― just sayin, Wednesday, July 23, 2014 6:58 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is my favorite thing in music this year. still find the "is it pop or not?" / "bangers y/n?" perspectives on this to be really puzzling (people who are struggling with those questions should listen to Bunji Garlin's album immediately btw). why deny yourself stuff as gorgeous as the title track?

posted this on the rolling thread already, but "Fall In Love" is also fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c9yBGq6cNQ

new video for "Love Yuh Bad"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCaeioeKduE

was planning on complaining about how overlooked this album has ended up feeling but I guess I did that in September

just finally checked out where we come from, it is very good

Love all the twinkly melodies offsetting his whole emo robo sex thing, during the moments where that happens he's almost like a dancehall Future.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, July 23, 2014 2:53 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great comparison

― just sayin, Wednesday, July 23, 2014 3:28 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

interesting

i discovered popcaan's "weed is my best friend" thru this poll + it's otm and i voted for it.

― Mordy, Tuesday, January 5, 2016 4:33 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Popcaan put out basically a full album's worth of good stuff in 2015 ("weed..." probably the best one), kind of a shame there's no mixtape gathering it all up.

― rob, Tuesday, January 5, 2016 5:14 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in lieu of a mixtape, here's a Spotify playlist

there were several great songs over the same riddim as "weed is my best friend"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmwsqxfhwpE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7YsHOguXyI

yeah it's a really good riddim. Let Dem Een especially

hey j0rdan have you heard this? I think you'd like it, iirc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNjcgy7pV2Y

Popcaan has been on an absolute tear recently.

He features on the new Sizzla song "Way Out" that has echoes of the social consciousness of "The System"

"Homemade" is really good too

"Fiesty Chat"

alsp a Life Support Double Dose riddim was just released

hey j0rdan have you heard this? I think you'd like it, iirc:

http://www.youtube.com/v/zNjcgy7pV2Y&fs=1&hl=en

― rob, Tuesday, January 5, 2016 6:12 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

ah this is really tight. thanks. i don't keep up with dancehall as much as i would like but this is right in my wheelhouse.

new album, Forever, out this summer on mixpak!

here's the laidback first single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfaTpfVZXdo

new album on spotify now!

Rinsing the track with Davido right now, so good.

I'm going in. One of the complaints from some corners about his last album was 'not enough bangers'. As someone who came to him through the rave-dancehall stormer 'System', I kind of agree that the rest of the album was good but a bit light-of-touch by comparison. I'm gonna try and enjoy this one on its own terms though

57 mins, 17 tracks - that's not a short record

So far this has a smooth almost afro-pop vibe so it's nice to listen to it as a crossover record. Which is the Davido collab?

oh it's Dun Rich, for some reason Spotty wasn't showing it

I used to think of this guy as a kind of Jamaican analogue to Young Thug but his music's a lot less eccentric than that, or at least he's dialled it down in recent times

He's never been like YT and I'm struggling to see the overlap - Young Thug is just so much weirder whereas Popcaan is a conscious sweet boy who occasionally makes bangers.

The first two lines on this album are like woah. I came to this album expecting good vibes and got obsessive royal paranoia - great as it is. Rest of the record delivers though.

Yeah I'm re-thinking the YT comparison. I must have got the wrong impression of him from the off with songs like System; and also the fact they collabed a few years back

this album is phenomenal

not sure so far... dare I say 'not enough bangers'? Maybe need to be in the mood, out in the sun drinking something nice rather than stuck in a hot office

The bass at the end of Through The Storm is like woah.

oof, makes my ears feel funny

dog latin, fwiw, I had that Young Thug-Erlebnis with Alkaline.

Can’t wait to listen to the rest of this album after work!

Yeah I can see that about Alkaline. I never got the whole thing about him being accused of being a Vybz Kartel clone. Doesn't make sense to me.

Just looked to see if there are any early reviews of Forever online. Man, some of these reviews. There's a Times one moaning about 'autotune' and 'Patois' being annoying.

Like the sound of this one—his delivery and the laidback vibe. Some juvenile lyrics like on “Naked “ I could do without though.

this album is phenomenal

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, July 20, 2018 6:00 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. the pre-release singles were all solid, but this thing really flows, confidently low-key and controlled throughout. "Firm & Strong" sounds immense coming at the end.

only sour note is this seems to be inspiring some of the worst music crit I've ever read, and I haven't even checked the Times one dog latin mentioned. pitchfork review was a shambles

Nice remix. Could Wizkid be next? I’m sure he would love to work with Popcaan too (he’s done a couple of Popcaan freestyles), but I don’t know if and how the Davido rivalry factors into this.

yeah that would be cool, though their styles are a little similar. Or at least when I first heard Wizkid, he reminded me a lot of Popcaan--they've diverged since then (and don't get me wrong, they're two of my favorite current artists). Anyway, they're linked through Dre Skull so it's maybe not impossible?

Outside of afrobeats, Popcaan's been talking about the need for "unity" in dancehall recently, so I've been imagining all kinds of probably unlikely collaborations. It is interesting that Davido's is the only feature here. Of course, Pusha T was the only guest on WWCF, but that felt like a more justifiable move to establish Popcaan's self-sufficiency not too many years out from "Clarks".

On Popcaan’s African connections - what I learned from Twitter:

-Popcaan was in Nigeria this weekend
-He didn’t perform there
-He met up with Davido
-He recorded with Davido protégé Peruzzi
-Peruzzi also recorded with Burna Boy this weekend
-Burna was added to Popcaan’s London show next month

Video for "Dun Rich" with Davido is out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymmkv5DjvfE

(It was shot in Lagos - see above, I guess)

Silence has a video now too; they're putting a lot into promoting this record, I'm impressed (though this video isn't nearly as interesting as Dun Rich):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bqXbE_-MEM

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Silence was the dancehall track I heard the most when I was in Trinidad in December.

I suppose it should be noted that Popcaan has signed to OVO. All I'll say about that is I hope his aversion to features extends into the next album too.

I thought you liked his recent collaborations?

That was an oblique dig at Drake and the rest of the OVO roster. Sorry I’ve been so cryptic lately

But if drake hooks him up with idk Wizkid and Rihanna then I will take it back

My bad, I failed to take in the significance of OVO.

(For an actual bad Popcaan collab, look no further than the track he recorded with Peruzzi during that session in Lagos mentioned above)

Idk, the Controlla remix was pretty good and the stripped down production style on Forever should go well w the ovo sound. Not too worried about any collaborations, really.

Not too worried about any collaborations, really.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, January 17, 2019 6:27 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"During Drake‘s surprise appearance on stage during the Unruly Fest held in Jamaica, the Canadian star announced dancehall artist Popcaan has singed with OVO Sound. Jumping on stage alongside Popcaan himself, Drake delivered the message in patois."

'Informer, you no say "Popcaan, signed to OVO, I'll go blame"
A licky boom-boom down

lol, just saw this. I'm fine with Drake being corny. It's an important part of who he is.

New song: “Best/Blessed”, with a nice lyric video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfzHJEAWAZ0

Laidback where Dexta’s “Dash It Out” is intense (or dense, as rob would have it?)

That is nice, unfortunately it goes into the headphones-only file with My Type. His other new one, Heart String, is really good apart from a weird chorus (something something turkey-lurkey? maybe I'm missing a JA cultural ref here) that more or less tanks the track for me.

Re: Dexta, yeah his emotional level is turned up to 10 compared to someone like Popcaan, but he also packs in a lot more words per bar, giving his songs a kind of baroque quality (none of this is criticism, it's just to explain why his tunes sometimes take a couple listens to make sense to me)

Now “Firm And Strong” has a video too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rEBT_Ge3sc

Isn’t it kind of weird all these videos are dropping only now, in rapid succession? The album came out in July!

(still an amazing song obv, and the video does it justice, I feel)

just guessing, but I assume Mixpak didn't have the cash to make (m)any videos, but as the album has done well, they've been able to fund them?

that's definitely my favorite video so far, and yeah it's kind of a shame that it couldn't have been the launchpoint for the album

New mixtape

I haven't finished it yet, but sad to say it's kind of bad?

Ok maybe this isn't a total waste, but it would have been better as an even shorter EP. The second track is genuinely bad and nearly 5 mins long ugh; there's a crummy weed ballad.

Even trimmed it would be pretty minor. A lot of the songs feel like undercooked cast-offs from Forever. There's a few that aim for that Firm & Strong combination of menace + uplift and miss badly.

Fave track ended up being the final one (Elevate), but I should listen again before I give in fully to OVO-related hand-wringing--I made the mistake of reading some (very negative) twitter reactions before listening and may have been primed to dismiss this.

"i love you love you marijuana"

things you were shockingly old when you learned

preferred it when they were platonic tbh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gcLqlaHzVs

new mixtape out called 'fixtape', hopefully better than the last one

I'm on track 3 and it's already about a million times better.

"New Polo" for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiVhpU0hlEA

now Drake is singing in "patois," so it's not perfect

that said, even this song is pretty good

For better or worse, it's aptly billed as a mixtape: better as in I always thought it was a mistake that Popcaan didn't put out a mixtape collecting all his brilliant loosies between each album ; worse only in that it's definitely not remotely coherent like Forever and WWCF. But as a batch of mostly fire, mostly new Popcaan songs, this is a delight.

Check out the riddim on "Canary":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdBDKWea6JE

Shouting into the wind with this one, but it's kinda lol/kinda sad that all the headlines mention the two Drake features, when this tape has given me the surprising opportunity to say Tommy Lee>>>>Drake

anyway, the run from "Canary" to "Any One A Dem" is thrilling. Love how the latter echoes "Afrikaan Beat" in the keyboard hook

PVMIC: any bangers on this one or is it all hookless soul baring?

many bangers! -- skip the first track and anything with Drake and this might be the ideal Poppy album for dog latin

just saw that there’s an extended 32 track version on soundcloud?

including a remix of NORE’s nothin??

Soundcloud Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Killy Dem Crazy (Hate Me Now Remix)
3. Dolla Coin (Rockstar Remix)
4. Have It (feat. Skillibeng & Quada) (Uptown VIbes Remix)
5. Fast Lane (4PM In Calabasas Remix)
6. Chill
7. Girls In Love (feat. Quada) (Broke In a Minute Remix)
8. Hate! (JAY-Z - Hate Remix)
9. All I Need (feat. Drake)
10. Love It (feat. Jada Kingdom)
11. Goodaz
12. Mamakita
13. Bruck Di Buddy
14. Canary
15. F*** Up Di Club
16. Twist & Turn (feat. Drake & PARTYNEXTDOOR)
17. Buzz
18. Smoked Out (feat. Bakersteez) (Boom Boom Boom Remix)
19. Challis
20. Any One a Dem (feat. Frahcess One)
21. Murda (feat. Preme & French Montana)
22. Unda Dirt (feat. Masicka & Tommy Lee)
23. Bad Gang (6 God Remix)
24. Fresh Polo (feat. Stylo G & Dane Ray)
25. Rapid
26. Jealousy
27. Hengin Tree
28. Watch Ya (feat. Furnace, Stylo G & Unruly Cuz) (N.O.R.E. - Nothin' Remix)
29. Friends Like These
30. Retribution
31. Bank & God
32. My Way

Drake's Jamaican accent is incredible. Like... Sting, Ali Campbell, they had nothing on this guy.

It is p astonishing he doesn't get any serious flack for it

Best New Music on pitchfork today, and the review makes a strong case for the soundcloud version -- did you listen to that just sayin? I haven't had a chance before now but I'm putting it on now

damn this owns: https://soundcloud.com/popcaanmusic/yiy-change-fixtape

icymi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXmniReKkDk
Megan Thee Stallion ft. Popcaan & Mustard • Intercourse

that's good but I'm not sure it was worth having the phrase "popcorn and mustard intercourse" in my mind

sounds tasty tho

I put off checking this out because of Drake, but ffs it bangs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjJZNdLSexU

We Caa Done ft. Drake

(maybe don't focus too hard on Drake's "accent" though)

Popcaan in fine form but Drake's feat so so weak that it ruins the song. But if that's running up to an album I will definitely listen.

new album Great Is He is out Jan 27

My expectations for this were subterranean so it's possible that I'm overrating it, but Popcaan sounds great and he hasn't released anything at all good in a very long time. And then Drake is so weird I guess I find it entertaining? It borders on the surreal; I almost laugh when he starts saying "we can-not done" like even his own brain/tongue is like "bro stop this"

wasn’t blown away by the pre-album singles and the Burna collabo on the new album is very underwhelming as well. mediocre song, although Burna is okay on it.

Popcaan’s apparent compulsion to use “pussy tight” in literally all of his songs (“Great Is He” excepted) is very grating.

not sure I will want to delve into this album

Sad to say, you probably shouldn't bother. There are a few good tracks, but it's definitely a chore to get through. He's really become hollow as a pop persona—no real character or POV—and the opulently lethargic production + social media spirituality blah blah sounds cynical and wack, even the horny stuff is flat.

Maybe the real tell is how bad "Set It" is: a retro ragga exercise that his production team should be able to knock out of the park that for some reason sounds like *absolute shit* (seriously listen to Lady Saw's Good Wuk afterwards).

Only listened once, but this was the highlight among the new tracks for me, mostly for the production tbh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hFK2WQbKjM

Freshness

This one is not bad too iirc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDUG_slD35k

11th Commandment

tried to listen to the burna collab & halfway thru shut it off and put on “weed is my best friend”

wise