Sean Paul – “Hold On” | New Music

A new leak from Sean Paul‘s forthcoming coming LP Tomahawk Technique. “Hold On” is one of the tracks he described as one of the deeper songs on the album in our recent interview. Following the same production theme of dancehall drums with mainstream pop melodies, the song is an anthem inspired by the Jamaican national team heading to the 2012 Olympics and also the victims of natural disasters such as those in Haiti.

I actually quite like this but once again, it’s not the Sean Paul we’re used to. It would be nice if the label were to remix some of these songs by the hot producers in Jamaica. I understand a more pop sound is order of the day for the originals, which is fine if it works, but what about the long time Sean Paul fans?

Just so you know, dancehall made in Jamaica has slower tempo anthems like this. It isn’t all high energy, gun-finger raising (Jamaican equivalent to “fist-pumping”) music.

I uploaded some footage from the interview I did for SoulCulture with Sean Paul talking about this song and his desire to do more songs like the above. The video also contains his manager/producer, Jeremy Harding talking about why he steered him down the route of songs for ladies instead of more songs with emotion and social commentary that Jamaican music is known for.

Tomahawk Technique release dates: France, Belgium & Switzerland on 27th January 2012; Germany & Austria on February 10th; UK & Ireland on March 12th; US to be announced soon.