It looks like we're going to get some dancehall in the charts from Jamaican-Kittician 'Byron Messia'. I think it's blowing up as it definitely has some 'afrobeats' inspiration and has a similar sound to the recent hits of that genre.

 

Very much enjoyed this one on first listen.

After hanging around the lower end of the UK top 40 for a while, this has taken off more with the release of a remix with Burna Boy, pushed it up to #12 in the UK and now debuted on the US Hot 100 and been added to the Radio 1 playlist (despite them barely acknowledging the song on the chart show before the Burna Boy version came out :P)

 

 

Already thought the original was a good dancehall banger but liking the Burna Boy version even more!

Still don't know why they were so against playing it. It's not like the word talibans itself is offensive given they mention them on the news no problem.

This was a decent track to begin with but Burna takes it to another level. Apparently there is a Chris Brown remix for this, let's hope it stays unreleased.

Still don't know why they were so against playing it. It's not like the word talibans itself is offensive given they mention them on the news no problem.

 

I completely agree with that. Yes the Taliban are a horrific, authoritarian , violent misogynistic, homophobic organisation but they do exist. At least in the UK, they're not a presence but progressives (including the young) in Afghanistan have to live under their regime. To ban even the word being mentioned on UK radio is so airbrushing the world and mollycoddling listeners it's ridiculous and almost trivialises the Afgan victims of them

 

* And I know the track isn't directly about the organisation but the point still stands.

Still don't know why they were so against playing it. It's not like the word talibans itself is offensive given they mention them on the news no problem.

 

I just think that this umbrella genre of music is generally sneered at and is quite often seen as not for the radio due. Dancehall and Afrobeats are two important sounds and genres and it would be great to see them more in the charts.

To be fair Radio 1 are usually pretty supportive of afrobeats hits (Burna Boy in particular has tended to get played most of the time when he has songs charting), I think they were just hesitant about this one because of the title / violent lyrical content.

 

This song did remind me of another similarly violent minor dancehall hit from a couple of years ago:

 

 

Mega banger xx (it only charted because of the remix with Nicki Minaj but I didn't think she added much to it)