Skillibeng Says He Did Not Diss Shenseea On ‘Love Handles’
Skillibeng has cleared up the notion that he dissed his compatriot Shenseea in his track titled Love Handles, which later appeared on his Mr. Universe EP.
In the song, the Blessed singer is referenced in the first verse when Skilli deejays: “Mi will dead fi yuh, You nuh have ten man ah touch you one time like Shenseea…”
The lyric refers to a photo that Shenseea had shared in February to promote her single R U That with 21 Savage. The image showed a bikini-clad Shen laid up poolside and surrounded by four gentlemen—one of whom was busy sucking on her toes. At the time, even though Skilli prefaced the track with the intro “No disrespect, Love in all aspect, baby, heh heh,” many fans expressed shock at the line, and coincidently, within a matter of hours, the audio track was removed from the deejay’s official YouTube page. It was later restored two days later.
While Shenseea has not commented on the lyric, the version of the song that appeared on Skillibeng’s Mr. Universe EP omitted her name.
Speaking with Ebro Darden on Apple Music 1 on Monday, Skillibeng explained his thought process behind the track, when he was asked about the backlash that followed its release.
“I saw a picture with Shenseea on the internet,” he began.
“I was freestyling… And I was like, ‘yo, this is tough, but I just hope she doesn’t take it in the wrong way’ because I’m not literally dissing her, I’m just talking about what I saw in the picture.”
Skilli could not recall why the track was removed amid the backlash. “And when I did that and I released the song, it was going crazy, but I had to take it down. I don’t remember what I had to take it down for, but I had to take it and re-release it.”
He added, “So it is been released like three times, cause it released on YouTube and it released on the EP.”
There appears to be no bad feelings between the two, as Skillibeng and Shenseea were pictured together after they both performed at Hot 97’s Summer Jam earlier this month.
They will join Popcaan for the Wireless Festival across three locations in the UK, come July 2022.
Skillibeng and Shenseea will also meet again for the 2022 New York installment of Rolling Loud, which is set to take place between September 23 and 25 at Citi Field in Queens.
Skilli and Popcaan
Skillibeng’s Mr. Universe EP, which was released on May 2, also features Rocket Launcher with Rich The Kid and Popcaan, which prompted Darden to ask about Skilli’s relationship with the Unruly Boss.
“Popcaan is from St. Thomas, I’m from St. Thomas too,” Skillibeng responded.
“But I knew Popcaan through the whole Vybz Kartel era music, because Popcaan was Gaza and I started listening to Popcaan from 2010, so I didn’t know Popcaan at first. I only knew his music. I was a fan of Popcaan first, just like Vybz Kartel,” he added.
The Brik Pan Brik singer revealed that they connected through a mutual friend.
“As a youngster, I started to do music locally. We was some mad, crazy underground artist coming up. So he was hearing about me, and his friend had a security guard that was his friend and that was my friend too,” he said. “So he would always say to Popcaan, ‘yo, this kid I’m telling you, you need a song with this kid or you need to do something for him’. And like one day Popcaan came from tour or something came to St. Thomas and they invited me up to his house and we was just vibing…”
“We just became friends and he been looking out for me. He called me up on Unruly Fest. It’s a big show. He gave me countless amount of features. So big up Popcaan every time,” Skilli continued.
In addition to Rocket Launcher, they’ve also collaborated on Pree, which appeared on Skilli’s Prodigy mixtape, and on Have It with Quada, which appeared on Popcaan’s FIXTAPE mixtape.
Skilli’s Sophomore Album Could Be Titled Mr. Universe, Too.
As for why the EP is called Mr. Universe, Skillibeng told Darden that he’s been thinking of calling his sophomore album that too.
“Cause Mr. Universe is a song that people always wanted to hear more of that side of me,” he explained. “Mr. Universe is a very lyrical song, it’s very technical, very informative. That’s a side of me that people really like. And they say I haven’t been really been giving that side to them cause I’ve been going to the simpler forms of music like Whap Whap and Crocodile Teeth”.
“But that’s the music that’s getting me places, like people are really hearing me on a international basis,” he added.
Mr. Universe, produced by Cubanlynk Records & Eastsyde Records, was released in April 2020 and has so far picked up 12 million views on YouTube.
Skillibeng continued, “My real fans from the get go, they know what I’m on, so they’re always like ‘we need something like Mr. Universe’. I’m building a momentum, a little build-up of the album, cause the album is gonna be Mr. Universe too. So I just released the EP with the same name, it’s gonna be same cover..”
His 12-track debut album, titled after his biggest song to date, Crocodile Teeth, was released in October 2021. The project featured Bobby Shmurda, Rich the Kid, Lil Zack, Stefflon Don, Popcaan, Spice, and Davianah.