The top dancehall producer released a new collaboration featuring his longtime friend, Jay-A, Mavado, and Dexta Daps, determine to reap success with Valiant's 'Bruk Days', and talks about the difficulties in the industry. A man on a mission
Sponge alongside dancehall star, Mavado, "I always give them respect, no matter what"
The global pandemic has stopped quite a few industries on a worldwide basis, but there are those who used it as an advantage of the situation and took their careers one step further.
Charles Sponge, more popularly known as Sponge Music, is one of the producers who hit it big with a juggling riddim in 2020. Songs like 'Not Prefect' by Mavado and 'Real Dawgs' by Alkaline have pushed his career to the next level and quickly made his name as an in-demand producer. "Working with Mavado is easy. he is like my bredrin. so it is with Alkakline. I've been around dem for years. alkaline push me to produce songs. I always give them respect, no matter what", he stated.
The riddim which came out in December 2020, and also includes other songs from reggae artistes and dancehall artistes such as Bugle, Jahmiel, I-Octane, Capleton, and females ones such as Shaneil Muir, Denyque, Dovey Magnum, and Ikaya. The project recorded a lot of success and created a buzz on the airwaves. "it's definitely this riddim buss my career. I've been in the music industry for 6 years but it was in 2018 that I took things seriously. this riddim actually put a lot of hope about who sponge music is", stated Montego Bay-Born producer.
"I kind of expected this a great success because of the variety of the artists and type of songs on it. a lot of heavyweights in dancehall from back in the days into modern times. but its really amazing to this day that it's still playing", the producer explains the success story. "If you want a successful riddim, you definitely need some heavyweights on it. if you have young artists, you must have heavyweights that have a fanbase. what is juggling without them?", he added.
Sponge Music and upcoming artiste, Jay-A, friendly connection
But when it comes to juggling riddim, lots of people in recent years talked about a lack of it from the dancehall area, when most of the power is directed to singles. "i'ts very difficult to tell an artists to voice on a juggling riddim. they focused on their own development. you have artists that just doing singles, but they still doing music. it's also hard for the producer to voice a juggling cause it coulda take all the year. just voice up everything, make sure the artists is alright, do the videos and stuff like that. so sometimes it's just to pick and choose who you are with", the producer explains.
Sponge provides explanations of the difficulty of creating juggling but explains his perspectives in choosing the artists he wants to work with. "you have to pick up your buckles. Working with some of these artistes is very difficult. I'd try to step out of the box and it turned back to me. them no listen, wanna do them own things, and mi a producer, it's not like a just send a beat to an artiste and tell 'Yea, let's voice'. I'm a producer who is inna position to tell an artiste, 'this line nuh good', 'this song no sound go, fix the line deh'. so I pick who I want to work with", he said.
Since he chose who to work with and after he recorded this success, he has worked with some top acts in the business. Sponge joined forces with the hottest dancehall act in recent months, Valiant, while producing his song, 'Bruk Days' which is close to a million views YouTube to date. "he has the unique voice, the unique sound. him have the right people around him. the right management weh can get you to that point in life. there are many artists that fall off that part and valiant deh pon a part him attacked the game the right way. he is one of the artists that actually gonna last", Sponge compliments the rising star.
He hasn't stopped just at Valiant, as he works with the dancehall artiste, Rytikal on the song, 'Fight', and Ikaya on 'Dissloyalty'. "he is on the rise, and he is back. the king is back, trust me. and Ikaya has a voice of a golden angle. rarely find artiste like Ikaya again", he full confidence on his latest projects.
From Left: Mavado, Jay-A, Dexta Daps
But probably his biggest bombs in recent times, come out when he brings his longtime friend and upcoming artiste, Jay-A, which was growing up with him in the same community of Montego-Bay, together with two dancehall heavyweights, Mavado and Dexta Daps into a collaboration with the release of a new single titled, 'Pain' on February 24th.
Sponge chose to compliment this rising talent: "Tarik Morris professionally known as Jay A is my friend for a long time, and now this friend collaborated with Vado and Dext on a hit song, he has a next big collaboration that will be dropped soon".
To the single track 'Pain, is also joined Tommy Lee Sparta with his song on the Forgiven Riddim which will officially drop next month. "I’m currently working on a whole heap of things. singles, juggling. much more music, hit songs coming out. many more mega stars will be featured on the riddim", he promised.
"Tarik Morris professionally known as Jay A is very talent and for the artiste of the week. he just collab with Mavado And Dexta Daps on the hit song produced by me".
