Don Yute teams up with Half Pint for ‘Beautiful Girls’

Sometimes all you have got to do is ask. Dancehall star Don Yute found out that universal rule of life when he landed a collaboration with reggae legend Half Pint this year, and all he had to do was simply ask the Greetings legend for a hook during a chance meeting at a studio.

The result of that biblical St Matthew 7:7 moment was the Afrobeats-inspired Beautiful Girls, which has been lighting up the airwaves since its release recently.

“I was in the studio and Half Pint was doing some dubplates and I had the rhythm and I just asked him if he could do a hook for me and he said yes, just like that,” an ecstatic Don Yute said.

“We just started cooking it up on the spot. I already knew it was gonna be classic and different because, with his legendary vocal skills and experience, he excelled on an up tempo rhythm like this, that’s something we’re not used to seeing from Half Pint.”

The artiste is best known for the Dave Kelly-produced 1993 Loving Excess hit with Wayne Wonder on the Pepperseed rhythm , and which is still popular more than 30 years later.

“Working with Mr Pint was easy, fun and a dream come through for me, because he’s one of the greats in reggae music. Everything just flowed, no hitch,” Don Yute said.

The single, released on the Manatee Records-Golden Child Records imprints, has been racking up streams on Spotify in Europe and Boomplay in Africa, fast-tracking plans to bankroll a music video for the project.

“A video is definitely coming, it’s just to make the schedule work. Whoever so far has heard the song, especially the ladies, loves it because it’s so unique,” Don Yute said.

The track is included in Don Yute’s soon-to-be-released eight-song EP, dubbed Resurgence.

“My EP is in the final stages of being organised,” he said.

Numbered among the songs on the EP are Diamonds and Pearls, Live Life, the aforementioned Beautiful Girls, and Pop It like a Bottle.

SECURED PLACE IN HISTORY

Don Yute’s place in history is secure as one of the early success stories of 1990s dancehall, a seminal period where the fashion, flavour, violence and authenticity of local dancehall fuelled an intense period of musical creativity and experimentation that is yet to be matched by subsequent eras.

His other hits include You Own The Man,with Dave Kelly again, and Hardcore with legendary producers Steely and Clevie. Then he migrated overseas in 1996, in an effort to get his music and brand in international markets.

He started out in Atlanta, where he got the ears of Lil Jon with a song called Putty Cat on the More Gal rhythm, while Lil Jon was a disc jockey on Atlanta Hot 97.

He established his own recording label, called Golden Child, and produced a host of singles for artistes like Akon, Pitbull, Trina, and Trick Daddy. He worked closely with SoSo Def Records CEO and producer Jermaine Dupri, dropping gold-selling singles Sexiest and Hardcore Wuk for So So Def Bass All Stars in 2008. He toured the United States with G Unit, Omarion, Ying Yang Twins, Rick Ross and Musiq Soulchild.

Don Yute has four collaborations with Akon, produced by Konvict Music for Golden Child. He has enjoyed placements in NBA games, movies and television series and has represented dancehall at the highest level for decades. But he still has the passion to keep churning out songs.

“What’s next for me is just to keep dropping different sounds on the digital platforms and keep making music that every culture can appreciate. Check me out on all my digital platforms,” he said.