‘Nobody Man’ for Sevana - Artiste deejays ‘wifey love’ lyrics in new single

Today heralds a long-anticipated release from In.Digg.Nation-managed singer, Sevana. Her new single, Nobody Man, is different from what fans have heard the songstress do before, because it’s dancehall and she’s deejaying. More so, the song takes on another topical issue, one that has run rampant in the dancehall and in the annals of social media, pointedly with the emergence of Internet personality, Mackerel.

Though not as eternally traumatising as the climate change and pollution in her song, Justice, this issue also permeates society, threatening millennial sensibilities the world over. The issue is ‘tekkin’ people man’.

Nobody Man still demonstrates the singer’s earthy vocal chops, but opens with a few bars affirming that she has never before, and can’t foresee herself ever wanting ‘people man’. After opening with piano chords and delicate echoes, “If you want my love, have to make it worth my while...”, the songstress dives into ‘dancehall style’:

“Dem ah call fi a weekend love;

Seh dem wah be side piece, only a night piece;

Love-off, indecent love;

An’ ah try bully mi t cah mi wah be a wifey;

Whappen to the regal love?”

‘Tekkin’ people man’ is culture celebrated and consistently referenced in dancehall music. While combating the ideology, Sevana is not trying to pick fights with anyone who does subscribe. “I just want to say that it’s OK to say ‘I’m not interested’. I want to take a stand without being argumentative. I’m not taking on Shenseea or Spice. I don’t have the words to stand against either of them,” the singer laughed. “But I feel like I properly deejayed. I was keeping it unique with the presentation, but I still showed off the vocals,” she told The Gleaner.

Going the dancehall-deejay route wasn’t birthed from the kind of layered, esoteric reasoning with which some songwriters cushion their intentions. She just caught a vibe, and rolled some real-life troubles into it. “It wasn’t anything too deep. I was just up by JLL’s studio (Grammy nominated, Billboard chart reaching producer), and I was tired of listening to slow beats. Then we got to a dancehall riddim and I was obsessed with it.”

Inspired by real-life events

Sevana took the riddim home and did some writing. The topic that came up, that was rearing in her mind, was inspired by a collection of real-life events. She recalled multiple incidents of confrontations with women bearing accusations and malice for thinking she was – as it were – a side chick, or homewrecker. Hence the bar-spitting siren coming in, deejaying in her defence.

“There have been a few times of women thinking I was after their man, even some people I was close to. I was perplexed as to why – this history of me being caught in the middle with no ill-intent,” she shared, before offering some examples.

In one incident, working alongside her godfather’s friend, laying out food samples for a promotion, his partner entered the scene armed with a bottle of Pepsi. She threw the beverage at the young man, wetting Sevana in the process. On a separate occasion, after hanging out with another friend, it was assumed Sevana was the newly single beau’s new flame. “The ex ended up calling me and it became a whole situation. There is another guy I was very close friends with, and his girlfriend didn’t like it. So she maliced me, giving attitude and tweeting stuff. I have a whole lot of experience with it.”

There are still two sides to this fence. Nobody Man is also a song for those men who ‘slide in the DM’s’ while obviously, publicly in a relationship. “In the DM’s, obviously ‘taken’ people are trying to holler. So I also want to say I don’t want anybody’s man to ‘look me’,” Sevana said.

Nobody Man will be available for streaming or download on all digital platforms today.

kimberley.small@gleanerjm.com