Dancehall deejay Mr Lexx is hoping to open up new doors in the business after being nominated for an MTV Video Music Award (VMA) this year for his collaboration with Santogold called Hold The Line.
Hold The Line is part of the ‘Major Lazer’ project from the Grammy-nominated duo of Wesley Pentz, aka Diplo, – a Philadelphia-based DJ, producer and songwriter – alongside Dave Taylor, aka Switch, – a United Kingdom-based DJ, songwriter, sound engineer and record producer who came together for their first dancehall album titled Guns Don’t Kill People … Lazers Do. The album is centred around the concept of a fictional superhero called Major Lazer with accompanying artwork and was released on June 16 with the first single and video being the collaboration between Mr Lexx and Santogold.
The video is nominated at the VMA’s in the ‘Breakthrough Video’ category and goes up against the likes of Cold War Kids with I’ve Seen Enough; Anjulie’s Boom; Bat for Lashes with Daniel; Chairlift for Evident Utensil andDeath Cab for Cutie with Grapevine Fires. Also nominated are Gnarls Barkley with Who’s Gonna Save My Soul; Matt and Kim with Lessons Learned, Passion Pit with The Reeling and Yeah Yeah Yeahs for Heads Will Roll.
favourite deejay of MIA
Mr Lexx explained to The STAR how the project came about. “I just happen to be the favourite deejay of MIA and her people reached out about doing a song together but she was pregnant at the time. So she put me on to her protégé Santogold who flew down to Jamaica and we recorded the song for Diplo and Switch at Mo’ Money studios. The video features the Major Lazer character. Neither Santogold nor myself is in it, but MTV liked it and picked it up and it’s been getting crazy reviews.”
pretty excited
The video has been getting rotation on MTV and has a very ’80s cartoon feel with the Jamaican Major Lazer character going around killing vampires and zombies. The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards will take place in Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, September 13. According to Mr Lexx, he plans to be in attendance. “I’m feeling pretty excited and it makes me feel good to be nominated. I plan to go to the awards. I’ve been to others like the BET Awards before,” he said.
While Jamaica hasn’t heard a lot from the deejay who has been in the business for about a decade now, in recent times, according to Mr Lexx, he has been busy in the studio working. He will soon be releasing a new single called Want Some Love on his label Jiggyhouse Records and has plans to release a new album alongside Turtledove Music on iTunes later this year. He said: “hopefully this will be the stepping stone I need to reach back to that level. I’m pretty sure I’ll have more nominations coming in the future.”
Source: JamaicaStar
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