Reinvigorated by the success of his hit single, Dweet Again, Beenie Man is looking forward to a breakout year in 2013.
He has been facing criticism from music critics because of what some
deemed as 'lacklustre live performances' and a lack of high-powered
hits. However, an upbeat Beenie Man explained that it is impossible for
any artiste to be the 'man of the moment' forever.
"Right now, mi have the same plan I had in 2012, and in 2011, just go
hard and done. I realize that one cannot be the man of the moment
forever. It just nah go happen, you just have to be The Man. Look at
Usher and Chris Brown, where can they walk inna Michael Jackson's shoes?
That shows that music have a cycle, and you cannot be the man of the
moment for 21 years, but you can be The Man for life. Simple," he said,
laughing.
Beenie Man scored two major hit singles during 2013, with his 'Dweet
Again', produced by Billboard chart-topping producer Rohan 'Snowcone'
Fuller and first-time executive producer Claude Mills, topping local
singles charts for several weeks. Another single, Gunshot, a combination
with hip hop superstar Nicki Minaj, generated over 2 million hits on
youtube without the benefit of a music video.
"Dweet Again was huge for me, and for the local dancehall audience, and
that song is just taking off now in the US, in the clubs, on IRIE JAM
in New York and Internet radio stations all over the USA, and Gunshot
was big, it has several million hits on youtube, everybody know that
song and love it, and it is popular even without a video. All now mi no
get fi perform it with Nicki Minaj yet because everytime it supposed to
happen, something come up. but ah just jah works," Beenie Man said.
Beenie Man will be releasing his album which he has tentatively titled
'Dweet Again' in March 2013 for the Universal Records label.
In the meantime, Beenie Man is experimenting with different genres of
music, and this year, he attemped to enter his year’s Power Soca and
Groovy Soca Monarch competitions in Trinidad, one of the biggest shows
in the calendar of the TT Carnival, but his submissions were late.
"The problem is that we have been touring hard overseas and I tried to
get both songs done in time for the Power Soca and Groovy Soca contests
but I just couldn't make it in time. I sincerely apologise to all the
Beenie Man fans in the Caribbean who expected me to enter the
contests...I was just unable to get it done, the circumstances were
beyond my control, but definitely next year, I will be there because ah
my show that," he said.
The announcement was made this week by the Caribbean Prestige
Foundation officials on Tuesday of this week that Beenie Man’s
recordings for preliminary judging which took place last Sunday were
received late, so the Doctor missed out on his chance to win the first
prize award of 2 million TT dollars.
