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Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, the fourth instalment in Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s Bad Boys franchise, hit theatres last Friday, and as exciting as the film is anticipated to be, of equal import is the fact that Smith has returned to the music scene with a collab with none other than dancehall great, Sean Paul.
The song, which is titled Light Em Up, is Smith’s first release following his 2020 cameo on Joyner Lucas’ Will (Remix). One of the 10 songs from the Bad Boys: Ride Or Die soundtrack, Light Em Up is being used extensively in the promotion of the movie. For Sean Paul, who actually has two songs on the soundtrack – the Will Smith collab plus Bad Boys, with Argentine rapper, singer and songwriter Trueno – it was simply a joy to represent.
Light Em Up is a real bad man “chune” and Sean Paul told The Sunday Gleaner that he “doesn’t usually do bad boy songs” but when the offer came for him to do the verse, he accepted it and “dug in deep”. The Dutty Rock Productions producer punches hard, taking no prisoners as he single-handedly lights up the track, reminding that “o ur badness you know it’s well different ...so you know we shoot straight our shot never bend” and throws in a word of caution – “ cross the line then you know seh your mama gwaan bawl and cry...Man a badman boy you know you can run but you cannot hide”.
Definitely real ’90s dancehall badness on the soundtrack and fans are loving it. Over on Instagram, Sean Paul’s page is about to turn into cinders with the over-abundance of fire emojis from fans endorsing Light Em Up.
Sean Paul, who is currently on his first extensive tour of the United States in a while, shared that a writing boot camp where secrecy was the name of the game, was the catapult for this part of his journey. “It’s where you do a lot of songs and then they pick one for the album. We didn’t even know whose album the songs were for,” Sean Paul shared with The Sunday Gleaner.
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A few weeks after the first song was submitted, he received a call about doing the verse on Light Em Up, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I like how I sound on both tracks. It feels good to represent the culture on this platform,” he shared.
The Bad Boys: Ride or Die soundtrack is available on Apple and Spotify. The official soundtrack released by Sony includes 10 songs.
The year 2024 is certainly a busy one for the in-demand Sean Paul. A six-week-22-city tour in the United States, which will move over to Europe in June and July for 15 dates and then into Canada in August for another 15 dates keeps him on the road for the next few months. Determined not to leave his Dutty Rock artistes out of the loop, Sean Paul had some of them along as his opening acts. And he is also working on releasing new music.
“We have a song with Charly Black and Farenizzi titled Perfect Timing that is out now; Looga Man’s song is titled Air Force and Bad News with me and Jada Kingdom will be released by mid-summer. This is not the first collab with me and Jada ... there was one on the last album and both of us loved it ... but we love this one even more,” he declared.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 organisers came a-calling and that translated into a collab with soca superstar, Kes, titled Out of This World. The anthem has been racking up figures that are just that. One month after its release, the song, which Sean Paul describes as “uplifting” has more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Despite being on tour, he has been keeping up with the cricket matches. “It was interesting to see USA beat Pakistan the other day,” Sean Paul commented.
Sean Paul and Kes have now collaborated with three renowned South Asian artistes to create special remixes of Out of this World. In India, the track features rapper, DIVINE, who is internationally known for his collaborations with Stylo G and partnerships with Mass Appeal. Pakistani artiste, Bilal Saeed, helms the second remix, which showcases the country’s vibrant music scene. Yohani one of Sri Lanka’s major stars controls the third remix. These remixes are currently being featured in each region of the respective artistes, setting the stage for an electrifying musical celebration of the ICC T20 World Cup, which is being hosted in the United States and the West Indies.
The T20 Championship first round runs from June 1 and will see the last ball bowled on June 15 at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia. The ICC T20 Cricket World Cup will end on Sunday, June 29.
English (US) ·