Between the triumphant, over-the-top Bob Marley biopic and the much-anticipated release of dancehall legend Vybz Kartel, Jamaica had plenty to celebrate in 2024. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of Where we come from – the landmark 2014 debut studio album from Popcaan, one of the most important dance artists of the past decade and a half.
Following State's early crossover success with heaters like “Only Man She Want,” “The System” and “Unruly Rave,” Popcaan released Where we come from via Mixpak Records, the Brooklyn-based indie label founded by record producer Dre Skull. On release, Where we come from became the first of five consecutive Popcaan projects to reach the top three of Reggae Albums. According to Luminate, Popcaan has released over one million equivalent career album units, with Where we come from account for 130,000 of these units.
To commemorate ten years since Popcaan's debut, Mixpak released a new deluxe edition featuring three previously unreleased tracks: “Beat the Struggle”, “Don't Finesse Me” and an acoustic version of the set's title track.
“Part of me wonders why the hell it wasn't on the original album,” says Dre Skull. Bulletin board. “It's exciting to dust off some songs from that era and share more about what was going on in the studio and in Popcaan's head at the time.”
As its executive producer Where we come fromDre Skull developed an incredibly intimate partnership with Popcaan. The two dancehall maestros first crossed paths in 2010 while recording for Kartel's Kingston Storythe first full release for Mixpak. Although they met before “Clarks,” a world-conquering collaboration between Popcaan and Kartel, dropped, Dre Skull immediately recognized Popcaan's “natural star power.” By the end of 2011, he signed Popcaan to a three-single deal that yielded “The System,” a song that combined the politically aware lyricism of roots reggae with bombastic dancehall beats, setting the stage for an album that would launch the dancehall. in a new era.
Around the time Popcaan signed that initial deal, Kartel, his mentor since joining Gaza Music Empire in 2008, was arrested for possession of cannabis. That charge would trigger a decade of legal trials, including a life sentence on a murder charge that would take until 2024 to be overturned. With his mentor incarcerated, there was an opportunity for Popcaan to take over the lead role that Kartel had held for years – but this time with a twist that prioritized emotional vulnerability and melodic delivery over brash braggadocio. Dre Skull began talking to Popcaan's team about a bigger album deal around the end of 2012. Although he encouraged them to pursue major label deals if offered, his work with Kartel and Kingston History earned the trust of both Popcaan and his team, laying the groundwork for the first of two Mixpak-backed Popcaan LPs.
Unlike America's more mainstream genres, dancehall's affinity for the album as an artistic statement is relatively recent. Dancehall albums are often compilations of an artist's hottest songs over the past few years. “As a fan, I love that, but the press wasn't paying full attention to pure singles,” says Dre Skull. “You're going to have a hard time getting on the cover The Fader only with the hottest single. I'm not saying it's never happened, but it's rare.” Kartel came up with its cover The Fader for Kingston Storyas well as a print feature in its Arts & Leisure section The New York Times. These PR wins provided a blueprint for Popcaan's Where we come from release – and unmistakable confirmation that a fully realized LP was the best way to officially introduce and break Popcaan in America outside of Caribbean immigrant hubs like New York.
Ten years later, Where we come from it still stands as a stunning blend of mid-2010s dancehall and the noisy dance-pop that dominated the top 40 at the time. “Everything Nice,” the album's lead single—which was originally recorded at a completely different beat, according to Popcaan—combines wicked elements of sunny synths and dancehall drums with the languid emo-rap vocal stylings that were beginning to creep in. in mainstream hip-hop at the time.
There's also “Waiting So Long,” a dance-pop fantasy that casts Popcaan as the conductor of a kaleidoscopic orchestra of syncopated handclaps, strings, ethereal chimes and tinny cues that keep the track in lock-stop with the electro-pop of the times. Those bordering on EDM also flourish on “Addicted,” a song tucked away in the album's back half that showcases Popcaan's knack for catchy pop tunes that don't betray the rougher edges of typical dance tradition.
“There is so much subtlety. Because of his mastery of melody, his songs can be catchy in different ways,” says Dre Skull, who produced five of the album's 13 tracks. “For a certain subset of songs, my point was that the riddim should almost contradict that.
Where we come from was impressive on its debut – and remains so – because of how deftly Popcaan balances the record's party moments with its introspective moments on tracks like 'Give Thanks', 'Where We Come From' and the cinematic album opener , “Hold On.” After impressing Dre Skull with his take on heavier themes like violence, poverty, regret and guilt, the Brooklyn producer “had a feeling the melody and chords on 'Hold On' would resonate” with Popcaan . And they did. “What little we still have/ Society still treats us like criminals/ But one day we'll finally be free/ Jamaica,” he croons at the end of the song's first verse.
“The time of creation Where we come fromI said exactly what I wanted to say and I sang about how I felt,” says Popcaan Bulletin board. “I just wanted to touch people's hearts while being real. I always try to motivate struggling yuts to never give up, and by doing that through music you expose some vulnerability.”
For Dre Skull, “Hold On” was like a “mission statement.” “Some of these songs are like anthems,” he muses. “He gives music to help anyone get through the toughest day or week. At the same time, he sings hymns based on things that happen in his life. I understand that he writes them for himself and they serve a purpose internally.'
particularly, Where we come from hosts just one collaboration, the Pusha T-assisted “Hustle.” Popcaan and Pusha previously collaborated on 2013's “Blocka,” and the Virginia Beach rapper was the only artist he reached out to during the making of the album. “Sometimes it can make good business sense or be a good look [to have big-name features on an album] – but this was a very important building block in Popcaan's career. We wanted it to be a reflection of who he was,” notes Dre Skull.
Arrival on 10 June 2014, Where we come from it materialized at the same time that the music industry was on the precipice of a cultural shift to streaming as the dominant form of consumption. Bulletin board began incorporating YouTube data into its chart rankings last year Where did we come from? dropped – but Dre Skull was already familiar with how important the video-sharing app was to the dancehall ecosystem. He recalls a digital scene dating back to 2009 where kids in Brooklyn ran YouTube channels like music blogs, uploading the year's hottest dance singles to their tens of thousands of followers. “Dancehall artists and their managers were paying these teenagers to upload their music because they wanted to be part of that consumption stream,” he recalls. “It was kind of like the rap mixtape era, where there was all this moneyless, rampant consumption going on. These artists weren't getting any money from those streams, but they were getting bookings for shows.”
Following the strategy they followed with Kartel's Kingston Story – Dre Skull notes that they adopted early lyric videos for every song on an album – Mixpak capitalized on Popcaan's interest in YouTube with full uploads of his early radio interviews, the 'Unruly Clash Wednesdays' series (a weekly showcase for up-and-coming deejays in battle—testing their skills in front of a live, participatory audience) and commercials capitalizing on the album's rave reviews. Although streaming will really explode once Popcaan's sophomore effort hits in 2018 Everythingrolled, the intrusions he made on these platforms with Where we come from set the scene for streaming juggernauts like 2020's Drake and the Partynextdoor-assisted “Twist & Turn.”
In the ten years since the release of his debut album, Popcaan has transformed into one of the most recognizable dancehall stars of the 21St century, working with everyone from Chris Brown to Burna Boy. To date, it has earned over 1.7 billion official US on-demand streams – a testament to its remarkable ability to sustain crossover success.
“Popcaan showed how to be a successful artist in this new era,” proclaims Dre Skull. “He's proven to be a very strong operator who knows how to follow his own vision for his career instead of someone else's template. With [Where We Come From], showed other dance artists that albums are important and reminded them that it's a great way to push your career to new levels. More people are putting out proper albums as an artistic statement rather than just a collection of previous singles. And musically, it also showed that you can make a serious album and not chase hits, but come up with a few.”
As dancehall figures out where the genre will go next, other stars looking to emulate Popcaan's success would do well to revisit Where we come from and its nodal propagation. Although currently focused on celebrating 10 years since his debut, Popcaan has new music on the way with Dre Skull. Now signed to Drake's OVO Sound label, Popcaan and Mixpak officially parted ways in 2020, but their collaboration continues to inform the future of both Popcaan's career and dance as a whole.
“We made a classic,” exclaims Popcaan. “A timeless, boundary-breaking album that still resonates today. 10 years later and she's still going strong!”
