The multitalented artist Mr. Vegas has recently released a new single titled “Dancehall Dab”, drawing a lot of attention on him from social media but also attiring big critics from fans. The video, directed by Ty Black and coproduced by Vegas and Riva Nile Productions, appeared for the first time on the website Worldstarhiphop.com on the 12th of January 2016 and collected more than 100.000 plays in few days. This single directly reminds to the new US trend of “Dab Dance” made famous by the rapper Migos that virally widespread in sport’s world as well.

The choreography for this video has been created by the famous dancer and choreographer, the Canadian Tabby Rockstar, which worked on it with famous dancers from Canada, Africa and Caribbean. As it often happens in these cases, the public opinion was splitted between people appreciating and those who criticized him, saying that he “sold” his yardie identity.

With this interview Mr. Vegas wants to reject the blame and explain his side of the story on the recent controversy where Parris Goebbles (the author of the choreography for the video of the song by Justin Bieber, “Sorry”) was involved.

WILDCAT: Big up Mr Vegas! Everybody is talking about "dab". Why a jamaican artist like you chose to "jump" in this new Usa trend?

MR. VEGAS: I decided to jump on the Dabb trend, because I want to bring back dancehall to the international community. In America new dancehall is not playing on cross over radio, maybe because we are not using the authentic sounds and catchy hooks like before. With Dab being a hot thing in America, I just did my Dabb style on an original dancehall beat. The hand movements also reminds me of the dancehall dance move called Chaplin.

You said that you've never heard any roar when pop artists use dancehall steps for their songs. To be honest, nowadays many jamaican dancers are showing their dissent to Parris Goebel about not giving any credit to jamaicans in last Justin Bieber's video "Sorry". What do you think? We can call that a "stealing"?

I don't have a problem with anyone using something from our culture. I just wished they would call it dancehall or reggae. I think, that would have helped the genre. I know Parris before she did this choreograph and she is a big fan of dancehall. She did that choreograph based on what she heard when she listened Justine Bieber "sorry". So she did not steal anything. It's just dancing.

Recently, veteran dj Bounty Killer released a statement addressing to Ja governement and mainstream artist like Marley's family the lack of interest in defending Jamaican culture worldwide. What can Jamaicans really do to protect their own culture?

We need to do more to unite with each other. The government or Marleys are not the problem. We who choose not to unite is a bigger problem.

You have plenty dancing songs in your catalogue. What contribute can dancers give to spread the dancehall culture nowadays?

I am the worst dancer, but I just like to do music, where people can just enjoy themselves. If the Dancers can simplify their moves the world would catch on easier.

Jamaican music is still influencing a lot of mainstream artists. From edm producers, to major hip hop artists, almost everybody "picked up someting" from reggae and dancehall world. So why so many jamaican artists are still so much under rated in the global music industry?

We are underrated because people love our music more than us. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves, if we only want to do music that plays in Kingston, or do we want to make music that the world can dance and sing to.

From dancehall to gospel, edm, reggae revival.. You showed the world how versatile you are. What are you going to do next?

I have two albums ready to go. I am a bit undecided on which one to drop first. Real Dancehall and Gospel Rock are the titles. Dancehall Dabb is really going well and I am about to drop "Identify My Love" so I am more leaning towards the Real Dancehall Album next. Stay tuned.