*Global Dancehall star Kranium chops it up with I Heart Radio personality and EURweb.com Spotlight host Jazmyn ‘Jaz’ Summers before he embarks on his multi-city tour this month. Already he has amassed over 720 MILLION global streams and his lit new single, “Wi Deh Yah” is #77 on the Apple Music Top Songs Reggae Chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH3hf0LiGv8
New York-based Kranium is the first dancehall artist to break out of the United States in over 30 years and have consistent success. Most, like the Marleys, Shaggy and Sean Paul blew up in the Caribbean first before gaining fame in the U.S. and globally but over the past two years there’s growing airplay on hip hop stations of reggae and Afro-pop. Grammy award-winning Afro-pop artists Burna Boy and Wiz Kid all have records that topped the charts. Kranium says it’s because the music unites us.
“The music has always been in us and to know we can now have access to it. That’s what’s driving this movement Our music is a priority, a flavor that is most important to other parts (of the diaspora).”
Wi Deh Yah, Kranium’s new single, is patois, a derivative of English spoken in the Caribbean, for “We’re here! We’ve arrived! We outside!
“Wi deh yah is just a vibe expressing yourself,” says Kranium. “You happy to be at a specific place, your happy to be alive. Your celebrating whatever it is you accomplished this week, this month this year. It’s that vibe. Cocky. We’re here!”
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His single last year “Gal Policy” garnered 31 million views and created lots of social media controversy. He got dragged for encouraging side chicks and some interpreted the song as talking to the ‘sneaky link.’ The lyric that helped cause the heat was “mi a tell a side-chick say don’t call mi after nine o clock.” But Kranium tells Jaz people got it all wrong.
“It was never about a woman. That’s the thing. The record was basically some breddahs (brothers) don’t have no life meaning certain things you’re doing you’re not supposed to be doing and even if you was doing it – arguments, entanglements. It shouldn’t even be going on because nobody should have an idea of what’s going on. I was 100 percent speaking to a man like yo, if you do have a side chick, your wife not supposed to know and your side chick not supposed to know about your wife. ”
It’s as the title suggests. He says it’s a policy for the men on how to treat that chick on the side. When the controversy started he tweeted, “The biggest confusion is that people think Gal Policy is for a side chick or a wife when the whole time I’m dissing my girl husband”
Kranium did say that cheating men should at least ensure that their ‘side-chick’ “looks good enough” so at least their wife while upset about the situation can admit that their man has class. What are your thoughts on that fam?
As for Kranium’s side chicks?
“I’m single so side chicks don’t matter. I like all women, slim thick, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It doesn’t matter but the crazy thing for me. It’s weird, I like conversation. For me, it’s more of a vibe. Imma vibe man because I’m very chill. I’m laid back,” he shares with EURweb Spotlight.
You’ll notice in “Wi Deh Yah,” a cornucopia of beautiful Black women of all shades and types which is kinda unusual today when so many of the rap videos only have light-skinned and white women.
“I, 100 percent, celebrate the beauty of black women,” Kranium declares. “I’ve always made sure you get some beautiful black women in my videos. I don’t dwell on it but I just make sure I’m doing my part as an artist in making sure that that this is what I represent.”
He also has forged deep ties with Africa. It’s a growing phenomenon of artists embracing their African heritage. Ludacris, for example, told EURweb.com Spotlight that he is a citizen of both Gabon and the United States and recently the cast of Love and Hip Hop sat down with Jaz about their journey tracing their roots through DNA back to the continent.
“The internet has made the world very small and we get access to people we have never seen before,” explains Kranium. “Then you realize the Nigerian guy, the Ghana kid is also rich and living life and it’s not that they’re dying because of( lack of )water and its all a myth so all of that crazy talk we had about the continent of Africa is wrong. For the past three years, I’ve been in Africa every December. I’ve made that a part of my life. I go back to Africa every December because the vibe that is in Africa, being there around Christmas, is unbelievable. It’s unexplainable. It’s something you have to experience yourself. The music, the vibe is so good. I love Ghana. Ghana has a special part in my heart.”
You can catch Kranium on tour this month. I promise you will wind, dance and turn up!!!
Check out the full convo in the video at the top. And please don’t forget to subscribe to Jaz’s YouTube channel.
Interview/article by Jazmyn Summers. Follow her @jaztalk1 on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Video editing by www.patrickhousefilms.com
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