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Following his successful Bring It Tour in April, which was spread across 13 cities in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland, with R&B legend Ashanti as co-headliner, Sean Paul is getting ready to pack his bags again.
This time, the dancehall and reggae ambassador will be joining hip-hop heavyweight Wiz Khalifa for the Good Vibes Only Tour featuring special guest DaBaby. Scheduled to run from July 6 to 27, the 16-show North American tour is special for Sean Paul for several reasons.
Not only will he get a chance to reconnect with fans and make new ones, it provides that vital platform for him to showcase Jamaica and its culture and play a greater role in opening doors internationally for other artistes.
When it comes to dancehall music, the Grammy Award-winning Sean Paul is currently as international as it gets. With massive hits such as Get Busy, Temperature, Gimme the Light, and his recent remix of Tyla’s Push 2 Start, Sean Paul enjoys streams on Spotify in the billions - double digits.
The Sunday Gleaner recently caught up with Sean Paul, who was back home in the island and was happy to share, among other things, that he even enjoyed putting his own spin on Carnival Sunday.
To prepare for these gruelling tours, do you have a fitness regimen that includes exercise, special diet, your own chef, perhaps, who travels with you? And do you have a rest routine following a long tour like the Bring It UK tour?
SP: I just keep active. Sometimes mi jog, sometimes mi swim ... sometimes mi get fi play water polo and I play basketball. When I’m on tour, it’s hard. First part of the tour, I went to the gym, sometimes even after the show. But then I got tired and couldn’t manage, and by the end of the tour, we all got sick. We got [the] flu ... the last show I had [a] fever. It is important to keep fit, and even when you do, sometimes you can still get attacked by these things.
Just try rest, but again, yuh cyaan just siddung because you will seize up.
Since I came home it was hard because on Carnival Day we went on the road with the Cybertruck and cook some food. We did that at a bredren venue when the carnival was passing by. But when there was no carnival, me did a play music from the truck .
For now I don’t have a chef, which would probably be a good thing. But for now it’s Uber eats ... but I look for the vegetarian [options], a simple steam [bok choy] with garlic, and that helped me through the last four shows.
Asian food have in a lot of vegetable and the Thai food have a lot of ginger, and those things help to fight disease.
How long has the Good Vibes Only Tour been in the making, and how did you feel when you heard that it was a go?
SP: The Good Vibes Tour has been in the planning for a couple months now. They wanted to tour longer, but I didn’t think I could manage, the reason being family time and certain other things, and physically, it is a lot. This show I just did 13 shows in 13 different cities. This next one is 16 in 16 different cities.
I was very happy to hear that Wiz wanted me to just headline alongside him. Wiz Khalifa is a big artiste and he was, like, “I want to do this tour with Sean because it’s a good balance.” It’s not like some other hip hop act that him haffi a compete against. Both of us have our own niche in music. And it was the same thing with me and Ashanti dem. She had her crowd that came to see her, and me [have] my crowd ... yes, them overlap. Some people love the both of [us], but some came to see [me] more and some came to see [Ashanti] more. And I think that’s what’s going to happen at this tour.
Why the name Good Vibes Only?
SP: It name Good Vibes Only because that reflects what we are about in our music. We a smoke, we a chill out, we not really into trying to prove anything to people. We just produce good music that people can party to and ... yeah ... good vibes.
How important is it for you to maintain your ‘Jamaicanness’ and rep di culture when surrounded by artistes such as Wiz Khalifa and DaBaby, especially since your own catalogue is so diverse?
SP: All of my tours, mi wave the Jamaican flag. I can remember the Rock the Mic [tour], which [was the] biggest hip-hop tour that I did in 2003 with Fabulous, Missy, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, and the headliner was Jay Z. I was blowing away the tour in terms of just the energy that me provide as dancehall. And it’s just that difference that people remember us for ... so always wave the flag and show them as much of our culture as we can.
I have accomplished everything that an artiste could want ... hit songs, accolades, awards, streams, record sale ... so the thing for me is to push the culture so that other artistes can forward through. That’s why I go on tour with Ching or Fambo or JCalm. It’s a surprise now, but I want to see if I can tek one of my artistes on this tour. But yuh done know it’s always Jamaica to di world for me, and for me to turn my back on that energy, that would be the worst ... I would be the worst.
Are there any possibilities for musical collaborations with Wiz Khalifa?
SP: I would love to. Me and Wiz have known each other for years. When he first come out, I toured France with him on a small tour. We buck up and smoke some spliff and always seh we were going to do some music, but we never get around to it.
The Good Vibes Only Tour kicks off on Sunday, July 6, at Darien Lake Amphitheatre in Darien Center, New York, and ends on Sunday, July 27, at the Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta, Georgia.
English (US) ·