Beenie Man to drops 8 collabs with friends

Deejay Beenie Man, buoyed by the success of his hit singles, Rum and Red Bull and I'm Okay, has tackled a new ambitious musical project which he hopes will help to re-define his legacy as a leader and innovator in the world of dancehall.

Beenie Man has enlisted the help of his superstar friends on the musical project he has dubbed Beenie Man and Friends and the result is eight great combination singles, each featuring Beenie Man, on a bouncy dancehall beat.

"No other artiste in the business has ever tried anything like this before. I am writing, arranging and co-producing every song on the riddim, and I am also performing on every song on the riddim," a proud Beenie Man said. "The only thing I haven't done is build the riddim, that was done by Danny Browne."

The project features the talents of artistes such as Khago, D'Angel, Ding Dong, Fambo, Deva Bratt, Kantana, Versatile, Cee Gee and Laden.

"I plan to shoot a video for the single called Time of My Life with D'Angel, and a medley video with all the others, I already have the concept in my head, it is going to be sick," he said, laughing.

This audacious project grew from an idea that Beenie Man had years ago, but he got the raging fever last month and within a week, and a couple of urgent Blackberry pings and messages, he had pulled the critical elements together.

"It is something I had always wanted to do, but I just didn't have the courage to do it at the time. So I just sat down and did it and it all came together. Right now, ah MD time now, Gaza done gone across the world already, now ah MD time," Beenie Man said.

Interestingly, he has been trying to convince one-time nemesis and new-found friend Bounty Killer to participate in the project, but Beenie claims the "logistics of getting him to voice the song is hard".

"Ah mi friend still, but is too much drama to get him to actually voice. Serani voice already, Mavado said he will voice, but I cannot wait on them. In fact, it is up to Bounty, Elephant and Kartel if they want to be on it, mi reach out to them already," he said.

This is a project that is close to his heart, his DNA is embedded in the rhythm itself as his son, Marco Dean lends his voice to the instrumental.

"Marco Dean is on the version, so is not really a song, he is not ready for that yet," he said.

Beenie Man has put a lot of effort into trying to recruit the best and brightest stars in dancehall to put their weight behind the project, but even with the mixed results, he waves off the disappointment as only he can.

"If dem did give me a riddim, mi woulda voice pon it already...mi have my pride," he said.

In the meantime, the project has already been released and the artiste says it is getting excellent rotation on radio.

Beenie Man is scheduled to leave the island today for a two-week tour of the African continent, which will see him performing in the cities of Freetown, Sierra Leone as well as Johanessburg and Cape Town in South Africa.

He returns to the island on December 1, after which he is set to do a three-city swing through Canada.