Mýa Marie Harrison, the poster child of 90s R&B (‘Case Of The Ex’, ‘My Love Is Like…Wo’) enjoys the freedom in music since deciding to step into independent territories in the late 2000s. Never stopped creating new music, Mýa mostly stayed in the urban world and followed up her R&B collection of hits with positive reviewed slow jam 2017 single ‘Ready For Whatever’ where she impressed with sensual dances in either sexy outfits or casual in an army jacket, and also in last year’s ‘G.M.O. (Gots My Own)’ where old school is mixed with hip-hop elements with the help of rapper Tink. Her hard work still paid off to this day, even managing to receive a Grammy nomination as an indie artist for her 7th studio album ‘Smoove Jones’ (2016).
Outliving her independence with her self owned record label Planet 9, Mýa, therefore, created a space of professional freedom for herself that allows her to step into different territories. This time, tropical vibes take the lead as seen on her recent dancehall single ‘Handsfree’, taken from ‘Sexting Riddim’, an 8-track Southern mix that features various artists from Kes to Hey Choppi to Beenie Man. ‘Handsfree’ strengthens the summer vibe in its September released music video where Mýa rocks out her hair in a fiery red color and impresses by singing in a complete Caribbean accent. This is underlined with the help of Kemar Christopher Dwaine Ottey, a dancehall reggae artist and dancer from Kingston, Jamaica, who’s known by his artist name Ding Dong. A trailblazer since the early 2000s, Ding Dong made a name for himself in the Caribbean as a noticeable dancer, establishing own dance moves like ‘Chakka Chakka’, ‘Flowers A Bloom’ or ‘Part Di Crowd’, later on leveled up his passion as a dancer by making songs and becoming a recording artist since 2005s ‘Bad Man Forward, Bad Man Pull Up’ (which, associated to the dance of the song title, made him known as ‘Mr. BadMan Forward’).
The smooth reggae vibes of ‘Handsfree’ are supported by Mýa’s relaxed melodies and Ding Dong’s reggae flair when he raps in traditional Jamaican slang. As earlier mentioned, Mýa adapted a tropical accent for ‘Handsfree’ too, sounding surprisingly natural when singing in ‘Caribbean’, bringing the culture to the rest of the world with a smooth sing-along hook: “Touch down handsfree / Look so sexy / Wine up your body on me.”
‘Handsfree’ therefore brings some nice after summer feeling for this year’s fall season. Though for Mýa it seems as she’s been bitten by the dancehall bug, recently appearing more often in other Caribbean influenced tracks that coincide with ‘Handsfree’: With Sekon Sta and Beenie Man she released a short but sweet soca single named ‘X-Rated’ and appears in Jah Cure’s album ‘Royal Soldier’ in track ‘Only You’, and a music video for the song was also shot. Furthermore, Mýa appears in ‘Chixtape 5’ by Tory Lanez, released November 15th, in track ‘Best Of You // Busted’.
Ding Dong, on the other hand, put out a music video for his world-party track ‘Gyalis Story’ that was released on October 23rd, showing his moves in Kingston, Jamaica, and most recently released single ‘Watch Dem’ taken from the compilation release ‘Aircraft Riddim’, released November 16, 2019.
You can watch the music video for ‘Handsfree’ here:
