Beres, Popcaan link-up great for the music – analyst

With more than 800,000 views, and more than 1,400 comments, Beres Hammond's Love From a Distance concert, streamed live on Sunday, has been trending on YouTube all week.

The concert officially closed the curtains on Reggae Month 2021, and fans are saying it was of such magnitude that it would definitely be remembered as a 'On this day in history...' type of show.

A Harmony House and VP Records production, Love From a Distance showcased Hammond at his best, with his friends Buju Banton, Marcia Griffiths and the evening's surprise guest, Popcaan. It created a synergy which analyst Clyde McKenzie described as phenomenal, and set it apart from the numerous other virtual concerts which have not attracted this kind of attention.

"You can't use conventional metric like record sales to measure Beres' appeal because he cuts across so many sections and sectors. And in his special guests he had the current, the vintage and the classic, so the concert had all the elements, plus it was a good production. People are starved for entertainment right now and when they get something like this, they are going to gravitate towards it," McKenzie told THE WEEKEND STAR.

GREAT THINGS

Regarding the elder statesman Hammond, linking up with the Unruly Boss Popcaan, a collaboration which astounded many, McKenzie stressed that it was a great thing for the music.

"We can use this to re-energise the music. I like to think of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. She's doing songs with him, who is of another generation and it works. People who have not been paying attention to Popcaan because he is not of their generation will take a closer look, having seen him with Beres, and Popcaan's fans will be introduced to Beres and come to appreciate why exactly he is a legend," he said.

He opined that this kind of collaboration is the way forward, rather than young artistes saying "Mi nah work wid nuh old man" and the elders dismissing the youngsters as talentless.

Notably, when Popcaan took the stage on Sunday, he declared "Before mi even sing nutten, mi haffi say salute to a living legend ... salute, love."

In introducing Popcaan, Hammond said "There's a young man who I have so much admiration for and me and this kid yah happen fi just do a tune the other day. It nuh come out or anything but I so much love this song and I hope I memba it." They then performed their collaboration, God Is Love.