Sean Paul Says He Offered This Advice To Byron Messia

Grammy Award-winning superstar Sean Paul said he offered a piece of advice that resonated deeply with rising star Byron Messia, who made a splash this year with his hit song, Talibans.

Speaking with Distractify, in an article published last Thursday, the Check It Deeply deejay said he emphasized the power of memorable melodies, advising Messia to continue crafting tunes that linger in listeners’ minds.

“I saw Byron Messia [the] other day, and I gave him a piece of information, a piece of advice, and the next day posted about it, and he was like, ‘Yo, nobody ever told me that before,’” Paul recalled. “I said to him, ‘You know, you have this banger in the airways right now, and it’s an awesome thing. But let me tell you something: keep trying to put dope melodies that people can sing back. Because that’s the awesome thing.’”

“It doesn’t matter about your lyrics,” he added.

“I mean, there’s a lot of people in hip hop culture that is like, ‘Yo, it’s the lyrics,’ but those things do not translate as well as melodies do. And so I hope that the younger artists can gravitate more towards melodies.”

In a twist of fate, Messia declared on Monday that his UK Silver and Canadian Gold-certified Talibans was the “biggest Dancehall track” since Paul’s 2005 hit Temperature, much to the confusion of many. 

The song, a standout from Messia’s No Love album, climbed to No. 12 on the UK Singles chart. Its subsequent remix, Talibans II, featuring Burna Boy, reached No. 53 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart, No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 3 and the Billboard US Afrobeats Songs chart.

Paul has not yet responded to Messia’s claims. Instead, he’s been focused on promoting his new single, Summa Hot, and a remix of Davido’s Unavailable with Ding Dong and Musa Keys.

Paul recently left his mark at a Hip Hop 50 event organized by Hot97’s Funk Flex at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

From Gimme the Light to Temperature and global hits like Cheap Thrills and Rockabye, the Jamaican artist held the audience spellbound, according to a release.

Funk Flex, never one to mince words, lauded Sean Paul’s electrifying set, saying it “tore the paint off Madison Square Garden.”

“The night was a celebration of Hip Hop’s milestone anniversary, and the symbiotic relationship with dancehall, Sean Paul truly embodied the spirit and energy of the genre throughout his performance,” added an event organizer.

Sean Paul will tour Canada this fall, kicking things off at the Harbour Convention Centre in Vancouver on November 18. He will also be performing in Edmonton, and London and Peterborough in Ontario.