The World Is My Block

I did the first dancehall interview on SoulCulture (I think...?) recently. I had a quick chat with Serani when he was over here earlier this month.

My bredrin Singhstar (who LOL happens to look like one of the brothers in Serani's production team DASECA) wanted to find out what made him become an artist after helping so many to blow. I asked:

So when and why did you decide, “right, I’m going to step out from behind the mixing desk and become an artist in my own right?”

Serani: [I decided] in 2007. I wasn’t really trying to become an artist, the artist was trying to come out of me, in terms of, I’d be making beats all the time, and somehow I ended up just getting up from the keyboard and singing something that came to my head, you know? It’s not like I was thinking about it, it just happened. One day I got up and I started singing [bursts into song] “I got money in the bank, so my mama don’t worry no more…” and I was like ‘damn, that’s a hit!’ I knew it was a hit. The concept was the hit, the melody was a hit, so I was like damn, the following day, the song that broke me out.

My girl Charisma contributed to these questions:

Do you feel that Dancehall has slightly lost it’s way with all of the explicit lyrics?

Serani: No, I think dancehall was always hardcore, I wouldn’t say dancehall lost it’s way. It is what it is, you know what I mean? It’s an expression of reality. Dancehall was never “nice.”

What do you think about the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica’s response to it, the banning of explicit music from television and radio in Jamaica?

Serani: I think it’s unnecessary. It’s over-done. They’re banning conscious songs too. That’s stupid.