Tielo Lanez never got a formal introduction to Valiant. He walked straight up to him at an airport in Tobago, and that moment set off a chain of events that eventually carried him to Jamaica and into one of his biggest viral moments with “Muk Truck.”
The story begins with a booking in Tobago. Someone Tielo knew was hosting a welcome party with Valiant’s name on the flyer, and Tielo and a friend went to the venue expecting to see the dancehall star.
Valiant never made it to the party. Tielo believes the artist had been performing in Trinidad and was flying in on an early morning flight the next day.
So Tielo and his friend went home, changed their clothes, grabbed the car and headed to the airport. When Valiant and his companion came through, Tielo approached them directly, and he was stunned to find they already knew who he was. “I was like for real this is crazy,” he said. “This is crazy. The greatest feeling.”
The encounter showed him how far his online presence had travelled. Viral numbers on social media rarely come with faces attached, and it meant something to learn that artists of that stature had been watching. Valiant even asked whether he would be coming to the show later.
Tielo did everything he could to be ready. He said he spent the last of his money on one outfit for the night. The show never happened, and he put that down to the promoter.
The night still turned into the connection he needed. Back at the B&B, he met the wider circle around the artists, and they told him to come to Jamaica.
He spent the rest of June saving every dollar he could, then bought a one-way ticket. “You just have to do it, you can’t be scared,” he said.
That leap led to “Muk Truck,” a song that started during one of his long weekends sleeping in the studio with another artist, whom he chose not to name.
Tielo had been using software that could separate vocals from a rhythm, and he pulled apart a Valiant song with the idea of making a remix.
He had been experimenting with different accents and languages, and the first line that came out was “baby you and me I can see it in your eyes.”
Then the rhythm dropped and the hook arrived. The other artist in the room loved it right away. Tielo did not. He told everyone “this is crap,” he recalled.
The next day he wrote the song out and recorded it with someone in his community. Again he heard praise, and again he was not convinced. Even after the stems came back and the mix was done, he said he “still never like the song.”
The producer did not seem to share the others’ enthusiasm either. Tielo had already released another song, “Genesis,” which went viral.
When he sent both tracks to the producer and asked which one to push, the producer picked “Genesis.” Once “Muk Truck” took off, the producer came back with a different opinion.
Both songs caught on, but “Muk Truck” quickly overtook everything else. Tielo said he stopped posting about “Genesis” entirely.
Finishing the song took far more effort than starting it. Tielo said it took him two weeks to complete the track after the opening eight bars.
Writing a party anthem was harder than it sounded. “I’m not a party person,” he explained. “We don’t really have much party experience.”
His answer was research. He and the producer went out to parties, including some very quiet ones with only a handful of people, to soak up the energy. He said the dull nights still gave him enough inspiration to finish the record.
The effort paid off. “Muk truck just become this big song,” he said. It also brought things full circle: the track that started as a remix of a Valiant song ended with Valiant appearing in the visuals.
The shoot ran from day into night, and Valiant came through for a night scene.
