American rapper Nicki Minaj and her boyfriend, Safaree, recently performed several dancehall songs during her set at the Barclaycard Wireless festival.

According to the Young Money rapper, she grew up listening to dancehall music and she proved this claim by doing renditions of some of dancehall's most popular hits.

She started her set with Beenie Man's Who Am I, then going on to Vybz Kartel's Tek. For this song she received a huge roar of approval from the audience. "Mi know sey wi have children inna di place, suh mi cyaan give unno too much of dat," she said, then went on to perform Tony Matterhorn's Dutty Wine.

She then sang Dutty Love by Jamaican-born rapper /reggae artiste Sean Kingston before concluding her set with Hold You by Gyptian. After getting an encore for her effort, she said to the audience, "I didn't even believe that you guys knew these reggae songs, so make some noise for yourselves".

The STAR contacted Elephant Man whose song was not in the mix this time around. However, he believed these developments are good for reggae/dancehall music. He also says local entertainers should unite and work to capitalise on the opportunity that is now being offered to dancehall music.

"This means a lot for dancehall and reggae music. USA is the biggest market for music as they say, and dancehall is becoming their thing, more and more. So I'm asking all the teachers and the government to support the music because it's making everybody happy, and they can't get enough of it," Elephant Man said.

He says that hip-hop artistes are doing dancehall and reggae music because it is marketable internationally, therefore more interest should be placed in developing the music properly.

"Right now, we just need to unite because with the love they (international artistes) have for our music, it's only better for us," he said.

Elephant Man is spending his holiday weekend at Dream Week. He also revealed that he has upcoming shows in the US, as well as the Sun Dance Festival in Amsterdam.