Pamputtae Happy Her Debut Gospel Song ‘God And Time’ Doing Well In Dancehall
Dancehall artist Pamputtae says her debut gospel song God and Time, a collab with Minister Taneisha Shaw, is gaining momentum and is a hit at dances, especially in her home city, Kingston.
In a SunCity Radio interview several days ago Pamputtae said, among other things, the song has been impacting people from all walks of life.
“Mi step inna one party and when mi step inna di all-white party, di selecta seh ‘Pamputtae and Tanesha Shaw have a powerful song’, and di man cut everything… Unknown cut everything an just draw fi di song and seh ‘people with how wi a live right now, all di likkle pickney dem, to how tings a guh, wi haffi play dah song yah, caw dah song yah jus a powerful song. God an time,” the Fletchers Land native said.
“Suh di feedback inna Dancehall a waa good feedback. Mi love it. Suh anybody weh play music, any radio disc jockey, any selecta, yuh haffi have dis, caw if yuh nuh have dis, yuh inna problem,” Pamputtae added.
A few days ago Pamputtae posted a video of the song being played at a party, with women dancing in wild abandon to it, as Sound Govament music selector declared it the “biggest gospel song” and urged the audience to “feel the fire” .
Gospel songs paradoxically, have been hits in Dancehall over the years, case in point the Grace Thrillers whose songs are embraced by party-goers to this day, and during their heydays were on the play-list of the hottest radio disc jockeys and music selectors, who in many cases used their songs as opening tracks to “bless the dance”.
Among the biggest gospel songs to run Dancehall was Marvia Providence’s Hear My Cry on what was later dubbed the Tabernacle riddim, on which Elephant Man, voiced his Bun Bad Mind hit song.
As she did in a previous interview with The Star tabloid in February, Pamputtae said that people who took issue with Shaw collaborating with her because she was unbaptised, and who were saying that the song was “not gospel”, should be more supportive, as the song is godly.
“All a di Christian dem out dere, weh always seh mi nuh sing dis and mi nuh sing dat, I come togedda now wid a Woman a God an a sing good gospel, powerful gospel. Suh oonu need fi support it. Stop look dung and talk she Pamputtae a sinna. Support di music because a good music. God nuh pick and choose who fi bless,” she said.
She also said that the reception of the song from students at schools which the duo has been performing as part of their SunCity School Tour, has been fulfilling.
Some principals she said, have been heartened by their interventions noting that some have pointed out that “the kids dem come back with a different energy, suh dem need like we inna di school…”.
“Di feedback really good. Yuh si especially di kids dem, a do di dancing. How dem pout di dancing dem togedda is a really, really, blessing and good feedback. Mi love it. I am so happy for the feedback,” she said.
The Come Out deejay said that despite her being a secular artiste, known for her raunchy lyrics, she maintains a strong relationship with God.
“Mi an God a good good fren. Mi an God have a relationship. Mi worship and praise him every morning,” she stressed.
“Mi talk to my God; mi an mi kids dem. Even when wi a guh school from a longer time, mi do mi likkle worship a morning time and give God tanks and tell him fi guide and protect mi through di day…,” she said.
As for how the collab came about, Pamputtae said that Shaw was a long-time friend of hers, who prior to getting baptised in 2014, like her had been a huge party-goer. As a consequence, she said that when the Minister linked her about the song, she did not hesitate to respond in the affirmative.
“Tanesha call mi an mi neva back dung. As mi tell yuh, me an God neva inna malice yet. Mi an di man always good. Every morning di man wake mi up an put mi to bed a night time. And give mi all a weh mi waa. Sometime mi nuh get it at di same time, but when a fi him time a di real time,” Pamputtae said.
She hailed Dancehall music producer Esco, who was the mastermind who guided them into making the track, a process which she said was “easy” as they both liked working with Esco and had good chemistry with each other.
“Big up Esco; wi haffi big up Esco straight,” Pamputtae said, adding that Esco also directed the music video, which was released a four weeks ago.