During a recent broadcast of Hot 97’s Ebro, Afrobeats superstar Rema is known for hits such as “Calm Down” was so ecstatic when Ebro and the crew played the remix of his Billboard-charting hit song Calm Down by Jamaican Dancehall artist Busy Signal that he was unable to control his joy.
“That’s hard,” The 22-year-old powerhouse exclaimed, “I swear that’s hard! ” He admitted that it was his first encounter with the Busy Signal verse.
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“Nobody told you they had a Jamaican cat – a Dancehall cat on your record?” Ebro questioned Rema, but he merely repeated his denial that Busy Signal had remixed his song.
He constantly remarked to the crew of the show, in between fits of laughing, that Busy’s take was “…so, so hard,” yet he was unable to disguise the fact that he was really thrilled with the cover. The Afrobeats artist noted that “It blew my mind, blew my mind.”
Rema acknowledged the effect of dancehall on his work as an Afrobeats singer and said he was familiar with a handful of Busy Signal’s tracks, but not as much as one might expect given the veteran dancehall musician’s artistic abilities and skillset.
After the 2019 Dumebi, the former Gospel performer’s biggest song, Calm Down, climbed to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 before moving to the top of the Global Excl. U.S. chart thanks to a duet with pop sensation Selena Gomez.
The song has earned Platinum certification in the US for sales of more than 1 million units, as well as Platinum in the UK for sales of more than 600,000 units.
Fans of both artists are asking for the track’s formal release despite Busy Signal’s interpretation not being an official remix.
After Rema’s statement that he was not aware of Busy Signal’s remix, one supporter attempted to defuse what may have easily turned into a legal issue by asserting: “Nigerians love Jamaicans. We are never suing Busy.”
Remixing successful songs, frequently for the better, is something that Busy Signal has a solid reputation for doing.
The Dancehall artist remixed Phil Collins’ 1985 No. 1-charting Billboard song, One More Night, and it is still being played across the country and beyond as a lovers’ hit.
Reanno Devon Gordon, better known by the stage moniker Busy Signal, has also remixed and recorded Beres Hammond’s Tempted To Touch, The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, and Lionel Richie’s Hello from 1983.
