Beenie Man
AFTER SEVERAL months of postponements, Virgin Records has finally released Beenie Man's debut album Art And Life.
The album was expected to be on the shelves of record stores in the United States today, following a release in greater Europe last week and in England yesterday.
Virgin Records managed to strike a deal with American electronics giant, Circuit City, to have the record sold in all their stores.
Beenie Man's manager, Patrick Roberts, told The Gleaner that this could be the move to bring the album great success.
"Circuit City is located all across America. This is an instant marketplace that has opened up. They will be having Beenie Man promotional pictures in their stores and when this is added to the other promotional activities Virgin is undertaking, we see great things happening," he said.
The album, which is the first in a five-album deal between the DJ and the recording giants, contains 17 tracks. It features several high-profiled guest artistes. Among them Wyclef and Redman on Love Me Now; Mya on Girls Dem Sugar; Arturo Sandoval on Tumble; Tanto Metro and Devonte on Some Tonight; Steve Perry of the Cherry Poppin Daddies on Hola and Kelis on Jamaica Way.
Beenie Man is presently in Europe where he played a concert in Amsterdam last night. He moves on to Germany today for a number of shows before heading to New York on Friday for one show. He will then return to Jamaica for a short break before heading to Japan.
-- Andrew Clunis
