Beenie Man's album Back to Basics was launched as scheduled on Wednesday, but the deejay launched it in style.
A bubbly Beenie Man popped up on BET's 106 and Park show, chatted with host Free about the album, and introduced his new video King Of The Dancehall which is the title track for the album.Beenie Man had the front section of his locks braided, and was dressed in full white for the interview. He gave props to the video's director Little X, Ras Kassa, and John Hype as a featured dancer.
Little X made a full diversion from the myriad of colours which are now prevalent in dancehall music videos with King Of The Dancehall. The video appears in black and white, and features Beenie Man as a 'King', complete with crown, robe, and staff. He sits on his throne with his 'queen' beside him.
Dangerous moves
Added to this mix, Beenie Man and John Hype are featured together and separately doing some dangerous moves with their feet, most of which impressed the live BET audience.
When host Free told him he had ten seconds to convince the audience why they should vote for his video to appear on the countdown, Beenie got up, threw his jacket to the side and danced away.
Back To Basics features an accomplished list of both local and international hit makers. The roster of those who worked on the album includes Tony Kelly, Timbaland, The Neptunes, and among others, Stephen 'Lenky' Marsden.
Despite coming under fire recently with some dancehall colleagues for his proported anti-gay lyrics, Beenie Man has been relatively consistent with his international presence.
At 28 weeks, his single Dude with Miss Thing and Shawna stood at number 25 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles and Tracks chart, while the video is a regular on the playlists of MTV, MTV2, and VH-1.
On Tuesday, USA Today published a review which gave the album 3 1/2 stars for the effort. Added to this, Beenie Man is featured on VH-1's website, and the track King Of The Dancehall has been added to MTV's Jams Mixtape Weekend. This show will air this Saturday and Sunday on MTV.
