Nobody had an Atlanta snap classic getting a Kingston makeover on their bingo card, but here we are. Masego’s new single “Hello” flips Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know” into something built for a Jamaican dancefloor, and now it has a video to match.
The track features Buju Banton and comes from Masego’s album “Fix Your Face.” The visual leans all the way into Dancehall culture, dropping both artists into the middle of a party packed with dancers showing off their moves.
Cam Hicks directed the clip, and he keeps the focus squarely on the crowd and the movement. It plays less like a polished performance piece and more like you wandered into the right yard on a Saturday night.
The sample is the hook that grabs you first. Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know” was a 2008 staple out of Atlanta, and the late rapper’s bounce gets reworked here with a Reggae lean that somehow feels natural rather than forced.
Masego leans into weekend energy on the chorus. “We be outside on the weekend / I’m like hello / To my good friends / We gon go dive in the deep end / I’m like hello / To the women,” he sings, after opening with lines about tattoos on his wingspan and keeping his eyes on someone across the room.
For Masego, this direction isn’t a random detour. He was born in Jamaica and raised in Virginia, and his music has always blended jazz, R&B and hip hop into what he calls TrapHouseJazz. Leaning into Dancehall feels like him circling back to where he started.
A lot of listeners still know him best for “Tadow,” his 2017 collaboration with FKJ that blew up online and became a live session favourite.
Since then he’s released “Lady Lady” and a self titled album, each time stretching his sound a little further.
Then there’s Buju Banton, who brings decades of weight to the record. The Jamaican veteran rose in the early 1990s, made the classic album “‘Til Shiloh,” and later won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album with “Before the Dawn.
Having Buju on a track that samples Southern rap says plenty about how freely these genres trade ideas now.
Dancehall and Atlanta hip hop have been borrowing from each other for years, and “Hello” just puts that conversation front and centre.
Some purists might raise an eyebrow at a crunk era sample sitting under a Reggae groove. Others will hear it as exactly the kind of cross pollination that keeps both scenes moving, and the dancers in the video clearly aren’t overthinking it.
The video lands while Masego is out on his Fix Your Face Tour supporting the album. That timing means fans catching the shows may get to hear “Hello” in a room full of people ready to whine up.
Whether Buju turns up for a surprise appearance on any of those dates is the question fans will be watching for next.
