SOUTH FLORIDA – Concerned that a lack of standards in dancehall music has made the genre unpalatable, singer Alfa Wraif has conjured a new sound aimed at returning it to pop charts.
Island Romance is the name of an hybrid he created with producers Antropolita Beats and WLDN. Alfa Wraif also collaborated with Storm from Greenzlion Production and Stillyet on the project.
According to the United States-based artist, his upcoming EP will showcase the Island Romance. He is looking to attract one of dancehall’s most loyal blocs.
“The new direction is to balance the scale, avoiding the very oversight that caused the decline in dancehall music to never happen again. It also aims to cater to women who want to bask in the sensual and romantic vibe. Adding a slower bedroom music for the women who have been neglected in this area,” he noted.
Alfa Wraif is from rural Westmoreland parish in western Jamaica. Although he has been recording music for the past three years, his latest venture excites him most.
He said the lack of a dancehall presence on American charts is worrying, considering how competitive the genre was during the 1990s and early 2000s through acts like Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Patra, Shaggy and Sean Paul.
“In my opinion, dancehall needs its version of rap’s RnB. The radio stations were no longer accommodating dancehall artists because of the vulgar lyrics. These would be very difficult to edit. Even when edited, it doesn’t sound like a song with all the blank spaces,” Alfa Wraif stated. “I didn’t want to sit back and allow the hard work of our musical forefathers to be torn down. It was overshadowed by Afrobeats, which was taking advantage of the oversight dancehall artists were oblivious to.”
