Cutty Ranks To Release New Album, ‘Black List’

Cutty Ranks will be releasing his latest 15-track album, ‘Black List’, with a release party on February 27th, at Rebel T Headquarters in the Corporate Area.

The Dancehall star produced most of the tracks himself using rhythm tracks provided by beatmaker Richard Kerr.

The album features collaborations such as a remake of a Marcia Griffiths hit called ‘Back in the Days’ with Marcia Griffiths herself, ‘Better Tomorrow’ featuring Lukey D and ‘Mi Amor’ featuring Singa J.

He has high hopes for the collabs.

“The song with Marcia Griffiths has a very powerful message, as it tells you about the music business and what we remember about how the music was in those days compared with now. And the collab with Singa J, Mi Amor, was written by me entirely in Spanish, so the album has a lot of variety,” Cutty Ranks said.

‘The Bomber’ has always had a great relationship with the Latin American market and the reggaeton industry.

He feels great that the single, ‘Dame Tu Cosita’ featuring El Chombo and the Dancing Green Alien, has racked up billions of views on YouTube, but that elation is bitter-sweet.

“The Latin America market has embraced me…and if you check Spotify, Apple Music, the song has billions on other platforms but I still have not got the credit I deserve or the compensation,” he said.

“Dame Tu Cosita” ( translated as  ’Give me your little thing’) was originally recorded in 1997 by Panamanian artist El Chombo and Cutty Ranks. The single was extended and released as a single in 2018. Then a remix with major stars like Pitbull and Karol G was released on August 29, 2018.

The success of the song was 20 years in the making.

“I met Rodney Clarke, who goes by the name El Chombo, in the ‘90s in Panama, and I wrote a song originally called El Cosita in English and then he translated it into Spanish. It was my first Spanish song,” he said.

CONTACT LOST

According to Cutty Ranks, he lost contact with Clarke, but a song called Cosita Mix was included in the 1998 album Cuentos de la Cripta Vol. 2 ( Tales from the Crypt Vol. 2).

Cutty Ranks, however, went on to do other Spanish songs over the years and carved out a little space for himself in the then emerging reggaeton genre.

In a May 2018 interview with Billboard, just after the song entered the Hot 100 chart at No. 81 with 10.4 million US streams, El Chombo made no mention of Cutty Ranks’ contribution to the song.

Cutty Ranks is still miffed that he was excluded from the video of a remix of the song featuring Pitbull and Karol G.

“I believe that it was El Chombo who deliberately excluded me from the video,” he said.

He is a bit upset at how reggaeton artistes continue to repurpose Jamaican dancehall without giving credit. That is why he actively supports the major copyright infringement case filed by the Jamaican production company Steely & Clevie Productions against numerous prominent Latin American reggaeton artists and labels.

The core argument of the lawsuit is the claim that a vast number of reggaeton songs have illegally copied elements of Steely & Clevie’s 1989 dancehall track, the “Fish Market” riddim (also known as the “Dem Bow” rhythm). This rhythm is considered foundational to the entire reggaeton genre.

He doesn’t believe that the lawsuit will damage the creative synergy between dancehall and reggaeton artistes.

“The lawsuit will not mash up the relationship, once yu is a tief, yu is a tief no matter where yu come from. What tief have in common? Dem tief things , people have tendency to claim ownership of other people’s work and IP and tings when dem know is not fi dem creation. My comment is directed to those who know what they have done, so when dem hear this, if dem say nothing, then we will know who is offended,” Cutty Ranks railed.

“…dem a some slick kind of tief that use people….I have bad experience with them, once bitten, twice shy, a criminal will always be a criminal,” the Bomber concluded.

Still, he has major love for the reggaeton community in Spanish-speaking communities across Latin and South America.

“The Latin American market embrace me. Especially in Panama and Costa Rica, Medellin in Columbia, DR shows me a a lot of love , from back in the day, but it explode because of Dame Tu Cosita because that track was a monster and it opened door in the Latin circle . Big up Panama City, it makes me a household name , with the radio stations in City, Fabuluso and DJ Delano on that station in those days and others must get their props as well,”: he said.