Music
10 songs that chart the unstoppable rise of Popcaan
We take a look at the tracks that define the dancehall trailblazer's career.
It’s been around a decade since Andrae Jay Sutherland, aka Popcaan, stepped on the scene as protégé of Jamaican dancehall giant Vybz Kartel. Since dusting off his Clarks in his native St. Thomas Parish, Popcaan has become one of the biggest dancehall artists in the world.
As well as influencing Jamaican artists, the Unruly Entertainment founder is a favourite of major US rap acts – he’s toured with Drake, been sampled by Kanye, and collaborated with the likes of Pusha T and Snoop Dogg. Since performing in the UK for the first time at 2016’s Red Bull Culture Clash, he’s built his fanbase in the area by working with Giggs, Jamie xx and Gorillaz and has released a number of longform projects – including lauded debut studio album Where We Come From and the 2019 mixtape Vanquish, dropped early as a Christmas gift to fans.
Here are 10 definitive songs that chart the meteoric blaze of Jamaica's dancehall heavyweight and beloved Unruly boss.
1. Vybz Kartel – Clarks ft Popcaan & Gaza Slim (2010)
Back in 2007 Popcaan approached dancehall legend Vybz Kartel at a local jam in Jamaica. Kartel soon recruited Popcaan into his Portmore Empire and showed him the ropes of the industry. Quick to work, Popcaan put out a series of lush island jams with in-house producer Notnice, including Dream and Jah Jah Protect Me.
But it was Popcaan’s feature on Kartel’s track Clarks that put him on the map. The tribute track to Jamaica’s deep roots and love affair with the British footwear brand topped dancehall charts from Brixton to Brooklyn. Encouraging shoe sales with its chorus "Everybody haffi ask weh mi get mi Clarks/Di leather hard, di suede soft, toothbrush get out di dust fast,” the track won Popcaan the EME award for Best New Artist in 2011. Despite rumours that Vybz – who’s serving a life sentence behind bars – no longer considers them friends, Popcaan is still quick to wax poetic about the leg up he received from his idol.
2. Only Man She Want (2012)
Hot off the back of Clarks, Popcaan released a handful of mixtapes such as 2010’s Hot Skull, Fry Yiy, Boil Brainz and 2012’s Yiy Change, which featured the track to win him stateside acclaim, Only Man She Want. The New York Times praised the tune and Busta Rhymes jumped on a remix, drifting in and out of patois in his guest verse. All this led to multiple spins on urban radio and Popcaan scored his first US Billboard chart entry.
3. Everything Nice (2013)
In 2012, Popcaan signed with Mixpak Records – who had previously released music by Vybz Kartel – for a multi-record deal. Label founder and producer Dre Skull immediately put his hand to crafting Popcaan’s debut album Where We Come From, which was released in 2014.
The album’s first single Everything Nice, produced by Dubbel Dutch, entered the Billboard Top Reggae Albums chart at number two, while the video has since racked up over 30 million views. Nice in name and in nature, the single sees Popcaan flex over lush melodies, talking about the pressures of the daily 9-5, lost love ones and celebrating life’s precious moments: “Dis a fi di people dem a work hard, All who gone to di morgue, RIP to a loved one/ Put yuh cups dem high/ Everything is nice.”
4. Hustle ft Pusha T (2013)
Fast forward to 2020 and Popcaan is a seasoned collaborator, having delivered vocals on tracks by the likes of Snoop Dogg, Gorillaz, Giggs, Davido and more. But way back in 2012, it was his verse over a choppy reggae sample on Pusha T's song Blocka that caused a sensation, overshadowing his fellow guest – the much-better-known Travis Scott – in the process. His contribution with Pusha was sampled by Kanye West on Yeezus in 2013, and Pusha T returned the favour on the Dre Skull-produced Hustle – one of the hardest tracks off Where We Come From. Proof of exactly what kind of musical circles Popcaan is running with.
5. Jamie xx – I Know There’s Going To Be (Good Times) ft Young Thug and Popcaan (2015)
Between his debut studio album, a Fader cover and a MOBO award, Popcaan’s phone was blowing up. Jamie xx had reached out to the Jamaican deejay after he'd heard Good Times – an early ‘70s barbershop-style track by The Persuasions – in a Detroit record shop, becoming inspired to make a track just like it. He got Popcaan and Young Thug to record their own versions, and after hearing their separate tracks decided to splice them together with a tropical beat.
What resulted was arguably the biggest international breakthrough of Popcaan’s career. I Know There’s Going To Be (Good Times) served as the lead single for Jamie xx’s album In Colour, which recieved a Mercury Prize nomination and Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 58th Grammy Awards. A grime-influenced remix of the single featuring Skepta and fellow BBK MC Frisco debuted on – where else? – Drake’s OVO Sound Radio.
6. Drake – Controlla (Unreleased Version) (2016)
Drake had sampled Popcaan on his 2015 track Know Yourself, and when an early version of Drizzy’s 2016 single Controlla leaked with Popcaan on it, fans welcomed the collaboration they’d all been waiting for. But for the official version, which appeared on Drake’s 2016 album Views, Popcaan had been erased and replaced by a sample of Beenie Man. This was despite matching tattoos, Instagram big-ups, their collaborative clothing collection Unruly OVO and hearsay that Drizzy bankrolled Popcaan's drop-top Range Rover. For now, we're still waiting on an official collaboration.
7. Ova Dweet (2016)
Rather than beef or nurse a grudge about Controlla, Popcaan responded a day later by releasing a track of his own titled Ova Dweet -- back with his former Portmore Empire producer and collaborator, Notnice. The synth-laden summer anthem champions Popcaan’s attitude on living life to the fullest and his love for the ladies, with the deejay even brushing his shoulder off with a couple of subtle OVO shoutouts in the background.
High on vibes, Ova Dweet set off a dancehall craze and choreography uploads from across the globe, despite having no official video itself. But it’s not all good feelings – it’s widely believed by fans reading between the lines that Ova Dweet is also a response to fellow dancehall MC Alkaline, whose track City has been interpreted as a diss directed at Popcaan.
8. Gorillaz ft Popcaan – Saturnz Barz (Spirit House) (2017)
Saturnz Barz nearly didn’t happen. Gorillaz members Damon Albarn, Remi Kabaka and Anthony Khan flew to Jamaica to record the collaboration, but when Popcaan showed up with a hefty entourage, his passion seemed elsewhere. “The session started about midnight, one in the morning," Albarn told MistaJam on Radio 1. "We worked into the night but at the end of it I wasn't really feeling it, I don't know why.“
Thankfully the next day they had a chat with Popcaan, bounced some ideas around, and the next day he came back to the studio and delivered one of his most highly unique and personal performances to date. Waxing lyrical about his four-mile walk to school and his grandma, Saturnz Barz was different to anything else Popcaan has ever recorded before. It arrived as the lead track from Gorillaz' fifth long-player, Humanz, and helped make the album a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
9. Firm & Strong (2018)
Popcaan dropped his sophomore album Forever in July 2018, packed with with hip-winding bangers. But it’s the deeper, personal cuts like Lef Me Gun, Silence and the tremendously spiritual Firm & Strong – recorded with a 20-strong choir – which find him truly in his element.
Speaking to Billboard about the track Popcaan said: “When I do good things, they don’t publicise it. They don’t put those things in the media, but if they hear something negative about me, they’re quick to post it. So I always try to stay away from the whole craziness with the media. Even in interviews, people like to get into your personal life. So a lot of the times I just go away until I have things to talk about, like now. So that song, Firm & Strong, is just [about] things I’m going through in the industry. I was in a mood, so I just sang it and freed my mind."
10. Numbers Don't Lie (2019)
Drake finally put his money where his mouth was in 2019 and announced Popcaan had signed to OVO, which prompted the Jamaican MC to drop a new mixtape entitled Vanquish. Numbers Don’t Lie kicks open the project with unapologetic confidence and Popcaan spitting lyrics more gully than ever before. The track bangs hard and flexes Popcaan's unique selling points in a way that easily makes it the stand-out tune from the mixtape -- a release which otherwise divided fans. Popcaan's first full-length for OVO is said to be in the works – so watch this space.
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