Scantana Breaks With Dancehall Briefly To Combat Mumble Rap With ‘Sir Come Vent’

“I am still a Dancehall artist!” That’s what Scantana told DancehallMag following the release of his Sir Come Vent freestyle which dropped in late July.

While Sir Come Vent is definitely hip-hop and not dancehall, the artist said it was necessary to take a break from his usual style to combat mumble rap – a subgenre of hip-hop in which the artist’s delivery of vocals is mumbled and breaks from the genre’s emphasis on lyricism.

Scantana shared that he has nothing against the emerging sub-genre, but he believes that there is still a place for lyricism and old-school rapping, a style of music he traces to Jamaica’s toasting culture and to the griots of West Africa.

“I understand that the cadence of hip-hop has changed with the new era and I’m all for the evolution of music, however I wanted to showcase what spitting was and still is about when it’s done with intent,” Scantana said.

“Sir Come Vent is my way around the views that rap is not about bars anymore, its about style and a sound. That’s great and it works for that vibe but you still have listeners that want to hear bars,” Scantana added.

Scantana shared that while he is most known for his dancehall tunes Goodie Goodie and Money Mecca, hip-hop is his first love.

“I’ve been doing mostly dancehall but hip-hop is my main genre. Like hip-hop is what I started out doing. And it’s been a while since I actually posted something like a solid hip-hop track. This was actually just like a treat for my viewers. It wasn’t really nothing planned. You know, I mean, I just came up with it, ” Scantana said.

“And I was supposed to just drop it spontaneously, but then it got changed. Like, I guess, they all loved it so much they started putting a little single energy behind it; but it was just supposed to be just a freestyle,” Scantana added.