Skillibeng Explains Why He Feels Safer Flashing Diamonds In Jamaica Than The US
Dancehall star Skillibeng says he feels more comfortable moving through the streets of Jamaica with his jewelry than he would in certain parts of the United States.
The St. Thomas-born Dancehall star made the comments during an interview with the Mornings With Mero crew on HOT 97, while discussing life and work between Jamaica and the US, and why he has no plans to relocate permanently to America.
“I’m in the street every day,” he said of Jamaica. “I be just there all my diamonds in my mouth…I don’t take no jewelry off because I always have jewelry in my mouth.”
Asked whether he also gives money to children while out in Jamaica, Skillibeng said it was part of the responsibility that comes with being in that position. “Yeah, of course,” he said. “You got to do it.”
One of the hosts suggested that Jamaica may treat its artists and athletes differently from parts of the US, where some rappers have been robbed or attacked after returning to their old neighborhoods.
Skillibeng agreed that Jamaica felt different for him, partly because of the island’s size and the familiarity that comes with home. “It’s small in Jamaica,” he said. “I mean, for money like me, I got money. Like, why would you do that, right? It’s small out there.”
He was more cautious when speaking about the US.
“I don’t play games with America like that,” he said. “Certain places in America, I’m not just going to go with my chain like that. It’s up. You see what I’m saying? I got to get locked in. I got to know people there or something like that. But Jamaica, I got locked in. It’s home. It’s different.”
Why He Refuses to Relocate to the US
That sense of home is also why Skillibeng said he has no plans to fully relocate to the United States, even though much of his work now takes him outside Jamaica. Asked whether he would ever leave Jamaica and settle in the States, he answered plainly: “Not leaving…Jamaica’s home.”
“For me, family is very important,” he added. “So my dad, my grandparents, all my cousins, everybody out there. Yeah, it’s home.”
He also shot down the idea of becoming an artist based overseas who only returns to Jamaica for short visits. “I wouldn’t think, like, yo, I’m just going to come over here to live…and then I go vacay in Jamaica? No, no, that’s crazy,” he said.
Skillibeng said his career now moves between Jamaica, the U.S. and Europe, but that kind of mobility was not always part of his thinking. As a young artist in St. Thomas, he said he was focused on building a name locally, until one event outside the parish showed him that a song could be hot at home and still unknown elsewhere.
He recalled hearing selectors play the same juggling his song was on, but not his version. “They don’t know it,” he said he realized. “I didn’t cross over that much yet.”
That moment pushed him to Kingston, where the radio stations, selectors and bigger Dancehall connections were. The move paid off with Brik Pan Brik, which he said gave him his first national hit in 2020.
After that, he said, the same lesson applied internationally. “People want to see you. People want to hear you outside of this country. You got to go,” he said.
Skillibeng is currently taking that advice to the bank. Alongside Ghanaian singer Moliy, he is set to kick off a 20-city North American tour this Sunday, May 24, in New York City.