Johnny Wonder Blasts Shenseea For Not Acknowledging Skillibeng
Music producer Johnny Wonder, has mercilessly lashed Shenseea after the Run Run artist failed to acknowledge Skillibeng as being the creator of Crocodile Teeth, when she instead gave credit to Nicki Minaj for the associated riddim, during a Hot 97 interview.
The producer made a flurry of comments accusing Shenseea of being not only being ungrateful, but an opportunist, after he was tagged in an Instagram post, featuring a video clip from Shenseea’s interview on the Nessa On Air show, on Tuesday.
The post had pointed to the fact that the Trending Gyal had “bigged” up Nicki Minaj and said nothing about her Jamaican compatriot when asked about her recent freestyle on the Crocodile Teeth Riddim during a Hot 97 program hosted by DJ Funkmaster Flex in late July.
In the accompanying Nessa On Air video, the host asked Shenseea who picked the beat, to which she replied: “It was me; it was me. I know that beat is going crazy and I love the beat,” to which the host interjected: “Shoutout to Nicki Minaj for sure.
Shenseea then responded: “Yeah yeah, yea, for sure”, but there was no mention of Skilli.
Crocodile Teeth was among three songs Minaj had remixed and placed on her new mixtape, a re-release of her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty, and it was for perhaps this reason fans were disappointed.
The Instagram post said: “Me nah lie me disappointed in this, nah mek a big deal but crocodile teeth was a mega hit before and after Nicki verse, special shout out to skillibeng and Johnny wonder and adde, I think it was just the moment maybe or sumn nah knock her but give skillibeng his flowers come on,” the post said.
It added: “Crocodile teeth was built inna dancehall by a dancehall producer and executed by a dancehall artiste , the songs get co-signed by tekashi ,rich the kid ,Cardi B ,Bobby shmuda Tory lanez and the big cheese drake cmon now we got to celebrate our own bro @jwonder21st @addeprod @shenseea One Love same way shen yeng @skillibeng.”
Johnny Wonder, who had told The Gleaner in an interview that Crocodile Teeth had “already blown up before they (Nicki’s team) wanted to go on it”, was incensed that Shenseea had whether wittingly or unwittingly rained on Skillibeng’s parade. He took full aim at her.
“Interscope (Shenseea’s label) Begged Me; She never thanked us; Dont Get Me Started,” were the Dancehall producer’s first three posts.
He then went on: “Tired of her now; why didn’t she use @rvssian @djfrass or jordon’s riddim?”
The producer then seemingly decided not to hold anything back, as he came out to protect the intellectual property rights of his star, noting, among other things, that Shenseea was not competent to ride the Adde Instrumental-created riddim.
“So @shenseea stay. i shouldnt have signed the waiver. but they begged me. KMBCT; she couldn’t even ride the official riddim she had to use the lick over one from youtube. KMT,” he wrote.
“ANYONE else use crocodile teeth I will sue them relentlessly,” he warned. “All the riddims in dancehall why crocodile teeth? answer that.”
As he continued his broadside against the Sidechick artise, he added: “Crocodile Teeth is the biggest independent song out there right now. no boy can license it.”
The producer was supported by westerngaza who replied: “@jwonder21st she shuda give #Skilli his credit fi real”. In response Johnny Wonder disparaged Shenseea, writing: “@westerngaza a waste gal.”
The user then recalled up the controversial Vybz Kartel and Shenseea collab, Loodi, and compared it to the current situation. “Just like when dem did thief d Kartel song n never wah give the man his full credit smh,” westerngaza said.
“@westerngaza exactly I was part of Loodi coming out. Kmt”, Johnny wonder responded.
This is the second time that Skillibeng has been seemingly slighted over his own song. In May, a day before the re-release of Beam me up Scotty, Minaj had mentioned on her live IG feed, that Crocodile Teeth was featured as a remix on her mixtape, but failed to acknowledge Skillibeng as the mastermind behind the hit song.
Many people though, felt that with the quality of the Crocodile Teeth riddim, and Skilli’s remarkable delivery of the lyrics, she had not done justice to the track with her verse, and that they still preferred the original, as she had watered down the song.
Skillibeng’s original Crocodile Teeth, which was considered a diss track aimed at Intence, has cumulatively racked up more than 28.5 million views on YouTube, since the song was released 10 months ago. The remix with Minaj has accumulated 4.7 million views. In terms of chart performance, the remix spent just one week on Billboard’s Global 200 charts, peaking at number 182 and debuted at 100 on the Billboard Hot 100.