Contractor explains ‘sexy’ feel to Christmas album

Garrison Christmas Vol 2: The Sexy Edition is this year's treat from Contractor Music and everybody is asking the same question, why sexy?

Well, it would seem that for producer Sean 'Contractor' Edwards, gangsta and sexy are two opposite ends of the same pole and this year, with his social consciousness at the fore, he opted for the latter.

"Last year's Garrison Christmas album was more of a gangsta approach with people like Squash, Aidonia and Jahvillani, so this year we decided to change the concept a little because of the gun violence that has increased in Jamaica. A lot of these gangstas don't realise that guns are to defend, not to offend. When I look at the crime problem in Jamaica, I said, let me change the approach a little this year and keep it dancehall but on the more fun and sexy side," Edwards told THE STAR.

He specially hand-picked the artistes who he wanted to represent on this 'sexy' Yuletide collection, which officially dropped last Friday.

"I decided to go with Charly Black as the headliner this year as he is good with the girls. I brought back Jahvillani with a girls' song. We also have a man who crossed over with a big girls' song, Gyptian. We decided to incorporate a Mexican with Jah Fabio because it opens up the Spanish market," he explained.

Edwards is excited about having Lisa Mercedez, not only because she is "a female from London who we know big things are going to happen for," but also because she is reported to be good friends with Vybz Kartel and even visits him at times.

"We also have another female, Kashan, who is growing in popularity and we have two young artistes from America. It's the fun, sexy edition of the Jamaica Garrison Christmas, but it is still dancehall," he added.

Edwards shared that last year the support from the dancehall community was overwhelming and he is hoping to repeat the success.

"In America, it [the album] went to number 7 on the iTunes Reggae chart, we had the African King of Dancehall Shatta Wale and that propelled the album in the top 10 of Apple streaming in all genres in Ghana, which is a country of 10 million people. It was number one best-selling reggae album on Amazon. We are eager to see the reception to this year's sexy edition," Edwards said.