POPCAAN with MYA, TONY MATTERHORN, ORLANDO OCTAVE and others at Coconuts (2180 Steeles West, Vaughan), Saturday (August 4), 9:30 pm, all ages. $40-$100. PDR, TG. See listing.
Where can you find one of dancehall’s biggest stars on a Thursday night? Chilling at his mom’s house in Greater Portmore, Jamaica. Across the bay from Kingston, it’s a neighbourhood Popcaan refers to as “gangster city.”
Andre Sutherland, 24, a one-time church DJ christened Popcaan by a friend, is a cherubic aberration amongst the deadpan bad men of popular dancehall.
“Growing up, me favourite artists was always Vybz Kartel and Sizzla Kalonji,” he says, referring to two of the genre’s most forceful artists.
But interestingly, his singles Ravin’ and Party Shot are all confection: schoolboy pitch, fizzy synths, elastic drums and a graceful manoeuvring of dancehall’s trademark minor keys into big-room, radio-destined earworms.
Earlier this year, Only Man She Want, a minimalist Casanova anthem with a soaring hook, landed on the Billboard R&B chart. Popcaan’s also collaborated on songs with Snoop Lion (né Dogg) for possible inclusion on the rapper’s upcoming reggae record.
Kartel, currently imprisoned on a murder charge, debuted Popcaan on 2010’s fiercely popular single Clarks, dedicated to the British shoe brand as ubiquitous in JA as Nikes around these parts. So Poppy isn’t just poised to match his mentor – he could go further.
Crediting “teacher” with his success, Popcaan is humble about his position within Kartel’s clique, Gaza, a name that parallels a troubled section of Portmore with the beleaguered Middle Eastern strip.
“He takes music very serious, so I get my work ethic from him,” he says. Just today, for example, Poppy wrote three songs, and there’s a full-length studio record planned for 2013.
A desire to counter the negative publicity surrounding Gaza also figures into his music. “Believe in yourself, be a man,” he sings on System, a relatively sombre “conscious” tune produced by New York’s Dre Skull.
“Life is not always about partyin’ and raving,” says Popcaan. “You have ’nuff people who can’t afford food, much less money for rave, and you still have to speak to their reality. At least them can hear a different side of me – not just the partier. No madness, no derogatory things.
“It’s not only because of that, but when Vybz got locked up it made me adjust myself and say, ‘Yeah, you must be careful in life.'”
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