Skull & HaHa get Marley boost
Published:Monday | May 23, 2016 | 12:00 AMCurtis Campbell
Korean reggae artistes Skull & HaHa have collaborated with multi Grammy Award-winning reggae artiste Stephen Marley for a recently released single titled, Love Inside. The single has already received over 200,000 views on YouTube and is a hit in the Korean reggae market.
A Stephen Marley collaboration might not be the easiest to nab, however, Skull and HaHa told The Gleaner, "We've always been big fans of Stephen Marley and reached out to him after being introduced by Rohan Marley and Spragga Benz. We got the chills when we first heard him give us a shout out in the intro, and it felt like we were dreaming when he started to sing over the track," the duo said.
Growing genre
Korea is not the biggest market for reggae music, however, the duo believes the genre is growing at an impressive pace. They also hope that Love Inside, will break into the competitive Jamaican market.
"We're planning to get the word out in Korea through TV, radio, Internet and performances.
"And if it's possible, we're hoping lots of people end up
listening to the song back in Jamaica, where reggae was born. Since the Korean reggae scene isn't that big, there are a couple Korean fans that are just now hearing about Stephen Marley.
"But everyone that's heard it (the song), has fell in love with his voice, and all the musicians around us tell us they wish they had the opportunity to work with him," the duo said.
The single was produced by Skull & Beom Park along with Gun-Hyung Yoo, most
popularly known for his work on the massive hit record, Gangnam Style.
Released under the Quan System record label, Love Inside, is also benefiting from a distribution deal with KT Music. Skull & HaHa believes Stephen Marley's addition to the song will increase its
international appeal and expose them to a new fanbase.
"For the last two years, there have been a number of songs that we have been writing with Stephen Marley in mind, but the song we felt had the most appropriate style and theme was Love Inside.
The fact that Stephen Marley participated in the project was definitely a great honour to us, personally, as well as the Korean reggae scene as a whole.
We're grateful to even be able to work with such a great reggae artiste and hope that fans will show the song a lot of love.
The duo will be performing at several festivals in Asia during the summer and will continue to release albums and new singles throughout the year, while Stephen Marley is gearing up to release a new album next month.