IKATIK celebrates the love season with debut EP

Love is in the air and dancehall artiste Ikatik is celebrating the occasion with his debut EP, Style of Love.

"I mostly do love songs, so I thought that they could be a good Valentine's gift for the ladies," he told THE STAR. Excited that the wait is finally over, the Clarendon native hopes that the music from his debut EP can assist in mending broken hearts and adding some spice to relationships, if even for one day.

"I feel like dancehall is lacking this kind of music, so I hope they will appreciate and understand the story from the first track to the end, as it is an illustration of typical relationships," he added.

The majority of the songs were completed in the studio about two years ago, but he believes that today was the perfect date to treat women to his enchanting melody. He related that the EP's title track went through an interesting journey, particularly during recording. Taking him the longest to produce, he credits the song as his labour of love. Initially recorded on a YouTube beat, he decided to build his own beat for it.

Everything was in cruise control until his laptop crashed and burned. With the file now up in smoke, he had to go into re-recording mode. Luckily, he had emailed the beat to himself. But the second time around, he altered the song's original feel. He, however, was not mad about the change. He had finally found his 'sauce'.

Other tracks on the EP are My Side, Gimmi ur love, Risk it all featuring JimmyQ, who produced the track and Shake dat, which Ikatik recorded as a live performance.

"It was pretty easy working with the artistes and producers. I have a great chemistry and working relationship with them," he said.