Konshens, Christopher Birch’s ‘Bruk Off Yuh Back’ Certified Silver In The UK

Dancehall artist Konshens has earned his first Silver certification in the United Kingdom with his 2016 hit, Bruk Off Yuh Back.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) issued the song a Brit Certified Silver Award on Friday (June 2), marking over 200,000 units sold in the country, according to data from The Official Charts Company.

Producer Christopher Birch of Birchill Records, in an interview with DancehallMag, shared how Bruk Off Yuh Back, recorded on his Moskato riddim, was first conceptualized.

“In 2016, I started working on the project, the Moskato riddim, I voiced two artists before I voiced Konshens. I had the riddim and Jeremy Harding started to do some management stuff for Konshens. Me and him always link, when it come to music production and equipment, so he asked ‘Birch, you have anything working on?’ And mi shot the Moskato to him right away,” Birch reminisced.

Konshens, not much later, connected with Birch to confirm the ownership of the riddim he had stumbled upon. “Two days after that, he sent the track, and the rest is history,” said Birch, harking back to the unexpectedly swift genesis of a soon-to-be hit.

The 38-year-old artist, in an interview with VladTV in 2017, had described Bruk Off Yuh Back as a song about “aggressive sex.” The song’s original title had been revised for broader appeal, drawing inspiration from a popular Jamaican dance in the mid-2010s.

“The original title was Bruk Off Yuh C–k. So, it’s a girl, she’s going so hard having sex that my d–k actually broke,” he explained.

“But then when we wanted to get it played on the radio and for party purposes, we had to clean it up. There was a dance in Jamaica that the girls do, named Bruk Back. So we just took out the whole sexual suggestive part of it and seh alright — Bruk Off Yuh Back — and that was it.”

Asked if he was surprised at the song’s longevity, Birch told DancehallMag that, “Music lasts forever, the minute you record and sent it out to the world, it is always out there, it is just the sustainability of the song.”

“I am kinda surprised but not really so much again., I always put my best foot forward all the time, anything just happen, just happen, a lot of times you win, a lot of times you lose, so you have to just give thanks. Enjoy the process and give thanks for the results at all times,” he continued.

The Moskato riddim featured artists such as Vershon with Barbie Doll, Charly Black with Hoist and Wine, Busy Signal with Wuk It Wuk It, and Tifa with Big Bumper. Other artists on the project included D Major, Devin di Dakta, Road Elf, and Voicemail.

The official music video, directed by Dameon Gayle, has accumulated over 169 million views on YouTube, while the track has over 80 million plays on Spotify.

In 2017, Konshens teamed up with R&B artist Chris Brown for a remix of the track, which has over 13 million views on YouTube.

Brown’s enthusiasm for Dancehall music and his appreciation of the track expedited the collaboration, according to Konshens. “He’s a fan of Dancehall music,” he said of Chris Brown.

“He actually has videos where he’s dancing with girls to that song. So we reached out, he said it was fire, it did it and sent it back,” Konshens continued, adding that Brown didn’t charge him for the remix.

Two years later, the song was sampled in Farruko and Konshens’ Roatán.

Konshens started his musical career in 2005 as part of the duo Sojah alongside his late brother, Delus. The siblings, using Cash Flow Studios as their base, laid down a collection of demos before breaking through with their reggae single Medz (Pon Di Corner).

In 2008, Konshens emerged as a solo act with his first major hit Winner, which kicked off an impressive run of successful tracks, including This Means Money (2009), Good Girl Gone Bad with Tarrus Riley (2009), Realest Song (2010), Gal A Bubble (2012), Do Sum’n (2012), Bad Gal (2013), Pull Up To Mi Bumper with J Capri (2013), Couple Up (2013), We No Worry ‘ Bout Them with Romain Virgo (2013), Turn Me On (2017), and Simple Blessings with Tarrus Riley (2018).

He celebrated amassing over a billion streams worldwide via YouTube and Spotify, last year.

“Konshens is a bad artist, him have a wicked voice, very dynamic, solid range, so when we link up together, when it comes to making music, ah chubble! It always work, music and dancehall to the world,” said Birch, who also worked with Konshens on the 2013 song Show Yourself off the Tun Ova riddim.

He’s currently working on a project called Birchill Featuring which he began compiling in March of this year.

“I am putting stuff together, my priority is to be more in the forefront going forward, you know, as a producer-artiste, like David Getta, like Sly and Robbie…hence ‘Birchill featuring…’,” he said.

Birch, a renowned keyboardist, started out with the SANE Band, and then transitioned to the 809 band. He also worked with several bands on the hotel cabaret circuit and later ventured into music production.

He became known for his work with Big Yard and his collaborations with Shaggy.

“As a musician, as a keyboard player, a piano player, I am an artiste in my own right, so is not like I am guessing this thing, I know what I am doing. I am just having fun with it and just being at the forefront,” he said.

Birch co-produced the Shaggy tracks Hey Sexy Lady (which also features Brian and Tony Gold) and Those Days. He played on the hits Church Heathen and Strength of a Woman.

“Hey Sexy Lady is such an amazing record, I remember when me and Robert started that project and it is still going so strong, so many movies, that song is avery powerful song. It went gold in Belgium, don’t know about England, I am just here making music, sometimes I don’t pay that stuff any mind, it just happen.”

Hey Sexy Lady, which appeared on Shaggy’s 2002 album Lucky Day, peaked at No. 10 in the United Kingdom and has been certified gold in Belgium and platinum in Canada and Australia.

“I played some keyboards on Church Heathen it was a Tony Kelly production, at the time at Big Yard, some nice keyboards on that. Strength of a Woman, that is another incredible record, that song started in South Africa with just me and Shaggy on a piano, started right there is South Africa, good vibes,” he said.

The Strength of a Woman single appeared on the Hot Shot album released in 2000, and soared to No. 39 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart.

Birch initially blew up with Thrilla riddim, released in 2004 on his Echo label. The project signaled the rise of Macka Diamond with her breakthrough hit Done Already, and also featured T.O.K.’s Solid As A Rock, Elephant Man’s Get On Up and Dance, Vybz Kartel’s More Life, Lady Saw and Ce’cile’s Loser, and Beenie Man’s Not On My Team.

He followed up that effort with projects such as Military, Gangsta Rock, Baddas, Ghetto Blues, a Big Yard project called Sexy Lady riddim (with Shaggy’s lead song and Marshall Town by Wayne Marshall) and Stagetime.