I-Octane defends ‘Dancehall Gift’

He dubbed himself 'dancehall's gift' and produced an album that was similarly titled, but when local listeners caught wind of I-Octane labelling his work a 'gift', the negative comments flooded in.

Undaunted, he said that he's sticking by his label, and said that his latest album's short-term achievements are a testament to the quality work he consistently pours out.

According to the artiste's management team, in its first week of sales, Dancehall Gift managed to knock Bob Marley out of the top spot on the iTunes Top 100 Reggae Albums chart, a photo of which the artiste posted on social media.

"Bob Marley is one of the greatest reggae artistes to ever live, and my album, weh people a cuss mi 'bout, was the one that take over the iTunes chart in the first week of it being released," I-Octane told THE WEEKEND STAR. "Yuh see why mi nuh listen when people talk? Mi just do mi thing and make my music speak for me." Dancehall Gift was released on July 7 and features 10 songs.

I-Octane shared that he has no regrets in naming the album the way he did. He said that although the naysayers label him as 'cocky', he prefers the term 'confident' and will never apologise for displaying the latter.

"Marcus Garvey did say, 'without confidence you are twice defeated in the race of life', so I couldn't care less who wah say Octane cocky. I am confident in my music and I will always let that be known," he said. "History can tell yuh say Octane pay him dues, and so mi deserve fi call mi music a gift. It nuh easy fi run the place. A lot of artistes out there have popular songs, but is only few artistes run the place, and I am one. So, if I say I am dancehall's gift and people take offence to it, then that's OK. You will have people who love the work and people who hate it. A just so life set."

Revealing the reason behind the album title, I-Octane said that in recent times, the narrative that dancehall is dead has been making headlines. He shared that having dominated the local music scene early in his career, he believed himself the perfect person to show people that dancehall is alive and well.

"That's how this album came about. My fans have been asking me for some uptempo dancehall tracks and this project is giving them just that," said I-Octane. "Dancehall is not dead and will never die, and as long as my music keeps giving, it will be alive for a long time."