New York:
Castaway (Don’t Leave Me) by King Deco, a Jordanian born, US-based, indie pop singer, songwriter, and producer known for A-list collaborations with Melanie Martinez, Larzz Principato and Kinetics & One Love, is a trending pop single in the United States and is getting heavy rotation on urban radio.
The breezy single, which boasts a distinctive dancehall beat, samples Tony Kelly’s 2001 Buy Out ‘riddim’, which featured the singles Money To Burn (TOK), Miss LAP (Beenieman), Nuttin Nuh Go So (Notch), Gal Dem Everytime (Sadiki), and Tonight (Sanchez). Mr Vegas’ voice is also heard on the King Deco track.
According to Vegas, King Deco is a major artiste with all the elements of a superstar. “She is one of them artiste who when you hear her, you just know she gonna be up there. So when Danny C (Congolito) reached out to me and I heard the song, you know that I had to jump on it. It’s getting a lot of airplay, so, hopefully, it is gonna blow up big,” Mr Vegas told The Gleaner.
Kelly is no stranger to mainstream success. He blew up pop charts in the ‘90s with a slew of hit songs, including Sean Paul’s Like Glue that was also recorded on the Buy Out riddim, and Everyone Falls In Love by Tanto Metro & Devonte that was sampled on Luv by Canadian rapper, Tory Lanez.
Kelly found out about his riddim being sampled when he heard Castaway playing on the radio.
“I don’t remember anyone from King Deco’s camp approaching my team about sampling the Buyout riddim,” Kelly told The Gleaner.
“I found out about it when I heard it on the radio while driving in Jamaica and Shazam (music app) it to find out the name of the track and who is the artiste,” he disclosed.
BEING ORIGINAL
Reflecting on his journey as a music producer and writer, Kelly said, “To be honest, I started out with the mindset that I wasn’t going to sample anyone’s music but would rather make riddims that everyone would sample, because I saw how much people would sample James Brown’s catalogue back then.”
Mr Easy, whose popular single, Drive Me Crazy, was another of the big songs recorded on the riddim, was elated when The Gleaner informed him about the re-emergence.
“To be honest, the Buy Out’ riddim is one of the biggest ever been made in dancehall,” he explained.
“I am not surprised that someone sampled the riddim. This is not the first time they used the riddim. It is gonna be used in the future as well because this riddim is unique. Everything about the riddim is perfect ... . Right now if you are in a party and the party is dead, all you have to do is drop the Buy Out riddim and the whole place tun up” he said.