Dancehall artiste Popcaan has once again tasted success with his Only Man She Want song debuting at # 89 on the R&B/HipHop Billboard charts.

Of the achievement, Popcaan told The STAR, "Entering the Billboard charts is a good achievement and also can help keep international focus on dancehall music. We are happy for this and grateful to all the fans and the industry people working to make it possible. We will keep making songs and work to build on all our success. Big up and respect to dancehall fans worldwide."

The STAR also spoke with the song's producer, Elvis Redwood and Johnny Wonder of Hapilos Entertainment, who were the distributors of the song, and they said they both had believed that it was only a matter of time before the song took off.

"Is a good feeling, as it was brought about by a combination of efforts from Vybz Kartel, Popcaan, So Unique Records and Hapilos Entertainment. I met Vybz Kartel, we had a long conversation and him seh mi a good producer and him ago give me the break," said Redwood.

Long time coming

According to Johnny Wonder, executive vice-president of Hapilos Entertainment, "We're proud of it (the song). It was a lot of hard work and it was a long time coming. Hot 97 took it up and pushed it and from there it started spreading to other stations like Power 105.

He added that the only regret he has is that Popcaan is not in the New York/Miami area to reinforce the song's success.

He said distributing and promoting the song was hard but worth it.

"You have to be maintaining things with the programme directors you know, communicating with them, and follow up on how well the record is doing. In the Caribbean core market, everybody already loved it so it was just to get it overseas," he said.

He compared its success to Gyptian's international hit, Hold Yuh, which earned a remix from superstar Nicki Minaj, saying that both took a while to finally bloom.

"It came out a long time ago and now it has finally blossomed. It has a whole new life in this region now, although people in Jamaica may say its old there. It came out in August and eight months later here it is. Hold Yuh took 18 months before it went big," said Johnny Wonder.

Hasani Walters, STAR Writer