Nigy Boy Says He’ll Only Create Enduring Music With Universal Appeal

Dancehall singer Nigy Boy says he takes a strategic approach to songwriting to ensure that his recordings not only capture immediate attention but resonate with a broad audience and can withstand the test of time.

In an interview with Television Jamaica’s Anthony Miller on The Entertainment Report, the Continent singer said that music does not need to be overtly explicit to convey titilating content. As such, he says his intention is to deliver songs that people of all ages, even tiny tots, can sing along to without realizing the deeper meanings.

“How I look at things, you don’t need to be explicit to be explicit, right? You could be explicit in code, and that’s what I try to do. I don’t want my music to cater to only one audience. No, I want babies to be singing it and don’t know what they’re singing. Children, people in their 20s and 30s, the elderly. So I want it to span all age groups, ethnicities. I want it to go everywhere, as far as it can go, no matter what,” the Montego Bay native told Miller.

Following the release of Nigy Boy’s Continental on producer Rvssian’s Dutty Money, Dancehall fans had rained condemnation on the heads of artists who had voiced on the beat prior to him, stressing that their lyrics were all predicated on the same overused topics, namely taboo sex acts, drugs, depravity, and misogyny.

Some had insisted that the artists, among them Najeeri, Rajah Wild, Brysco, Valiant, and Kraff, ought to be “ashamed of themselves.”

In contrast, they praised Nigy for having the only song on the beat, which was not only free from expletives and depravity, unlike his counterparts, but also well-written and catchy, declaring that “it took a blind man to see what Dancehall needed.”

During the Entertainment Report interview, the Judgment singer explained that his ultimate satisfaction comes from listeners deconstructing his lyrics to his songs (which are oftentimes peppered with peppered with double-entendres), and discovering the underlying messages.

“So I try to create the music with that substance that it can resonate across the board, and I want my delivery to be clean, clear-cut, concise, catchy, and people can run with it. And then when they sit down and they deconstruct and they’re like, ‘oh, this is what he was saying? That boy ain’t have no behavior, you know’,” he added, chuckling.

Nigy Boy also explained that another of his strategies for connecting with his audience is to assume a dual perspective, both as creator and listener, putting himself in their shoes and contemplating what they would want to hear.

“I picture myself as the audience. What would they want to listen to? How long do I want these songs to last? I create the music being in both the creator’s shoes and the audience’s shoes to try to get a track out there that has longevity to it, but at face value it just sounds so catchy, it doesn’t matter where you go, whether it’s a barbershop or, you know, it’s in your car,” the 23 year old emphasized.

In January this year, Bounty Killer had also hailed Nigy Boy as a visionary, following the ascension of the singer’s Continental to number two on the Reggae iTunes chart. At the same time, the Warlord had also upbraided his compatriots who voiced songs promoting taboo sex acts on the Dutty Money riddim.

“All those graphic gothic songs of vulgarity, none made it among those great timeless classics straight to the top. The blind man has the deepest vision. Mi and Russian nuh friend, but awesome job highlighting one of the hidden gem 💎@nigyboyagain,” Bounty had noted on Instagram where he shared an image of the chart, which showed Continental sandwiched between Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds and Shaggy’s Angel.

Days prior, Bounty had declared the song “the baddest song on dutty money riddim so far”, noting that Nigy Boy had “find it to bloodclaath,” meaning that the blind singer had a hit on his hands.