Jay Sean to take on the U.S…

Although Jay Sean didn’t win any awards at last night’s prestigious MOBO award ceremony, he did make a rather surprising revelation backstage. He announced that he had signed a record deal with Cash Money Records - the label that made a massive score not too long ago with Lil’ Wayne’s latest album: ‘Tha Carter III’ (more than a million copies were sold in its first week). It seems that this is to be Jay Sean’s attempt to duplicate his UK success stateside.

The track record of British artists attempting to make a mark in the US has not been too great. Only a selective number have managed it, including Mark Morrison, Joss Stone, Radiohead and recently, Leona Lewis. The failure list includes - but is far from limited to - Robbie Williams, Mis-Teeq… and most importantly Craig David. With comparisons between Mr.Bo-Selecta and Jay Sean made quite rampantly, it’s apparent that Jay needs to bring more to the table, and work harder than ever before to make his attempt a success (none of Craig David’s six singles released from his ‘Slicker Than Your Average’ album charted in the U.S, consequently causing him to retreat back to familiar geographic territory).

Having already experienced what can only be described as a dream year (mainstream recognition, two top 20 singles and a top 10 album); Jay Sean does have momentum on his side. The 2 mil plus South Asians in the U.S (he’ll be the first to express his gratitude to the UK equivalent for his current accomplishment) also puts him in good stead to make waves and achieve the crème of music artistry success.

There are a few big/huge/massive concerns attached to the signing however. Cash Money Records churn out ‘Dirty South’ Southern Rap (anyone remember previous label artist Juvenile?), it’ll be interesting to see how this will affect Jay Sean’s style of singing; are we going to see ‘Jay Sean‘ replaced by ‘Jay Sheezy’? Also, one of the labels previous major signings included Terrance Quaites aka TQ, West coast American RnB singer, most notable for his albums ‘They Never Saw Me Coming’ and ‘The Second Coming’. 2 Years in, there was no album and no single - only a string of terrible collaborations - eventually resulting in a killer blow to his promising career. There was evidently a black and white clash between TQ’s style, mannerism, and image from that of The Cash Money Records clan.

The signing will see Jay Sean disappear for some time while he spends the next few months with the whining Lil’ Wayne, and the coo’ing Birdman (the guy actually makes pigeon noises in his songs) in an attempt to build up his U.S career. Whatever the outcome, we can all be sure that it will be quite different.

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