He’s a dope artist. Sometimes, I’m thinking about what I like from this genre or that genre, and it’s inspiring to pick out people who make me feel like I still like parts of this.

In Jamaica, there’s a whole sub genre of dancehall called daggering. It’s a real energetic dance, and you throw yourself all over the place. I appreciated it, but I wasn’t with it, you know what I mean? And it’s good to be able to pick up parts of what it is and say OK, I identify with it. I know what that is to kids and I get it. So with hip-hop, over the years, I get discouraged of the players in the game, and it’s great to be inspired by people like Tory. I think he’s dope. Freestyle, off the dome, changing up his voice, kind of schizophrenic in songs. Sound like a mumble rapper one time, sound like a crazy lyricist the next. He’s dope.

Tony Kelly is the producer of “Deport Dem.” That rhythm is called bookshelf. People who follow my career know I’ve been working a lot with Don Corleone, who is the producer of the track I did with Keyshia Cole called “Give It Up To Me”. We still work together, me and him. It was his idea to pay homage to that rhythm, and to Tony Kelly, another great producer from Jamaica, and bring it back.

To this day, when you drop “Deport Dem,” when you drop bookshelf, it’s nuts in clubs. It’s just that much of a club record. This one is a different feel, but it’s giving homage to it. It feels almost more modern. It feels like what’s happening today. I don’t know if you can call it trapped out or whatever, but certain heavy drums in there. That’s a little different from what the original “Deport Dem” bookshelf was.

It feels like a whole new beginning now, too, in terms of dancehall being back on the charts and in people’s ears and in the club and in the streets and cars. It just felt natural to bring the old to the new.