Dancehall artiste Hitmaker dabbles in soca

Record producer/dancehall artiste Hitmaker has decided to step out of his comfort zone with his most recent track, Bend Down.

The song is a soca-inspired track and he said it has been creating waves, particularly in Belize.

With Jamaica's carnival season kicking into high gear, the artiste is hoping the song will pick up on the local circuit as well.

"I never choose soca, soca choose me. Big up to Fabrice from St Lucia. I was actually promoting my song, Tun Back Way, and I reached out to him to help me with the promotion, and he told me if I wanted his assistance, I would have to record for him. I agreed to his proposition, and after two hours in the studio we came up with Bend Down," he said. "I'm glad I decided to record for him because the song has been doing extremely well. The carnival spirit is very much in the air, and so the song has already garnered a lot of attention. In Belize, it's a solid hit, but it's also doing well in Trinidad, Barbados, St Lucia, St Croix, among other places."

The artiste said he was both surprised and excited by the feedback.

"I received one million views on Facebook, collectively, and also an endorsement from Chris Gayle on his Instagram, and (from) Facebook Hero," he said.

But Hitmaker is assuring fans that he will not give up on dancehall.

"I will never sell out dancehall, I want to sell units though," he said. "This is just another outlet to excel as an artiste. No artiste should limit dem self to one genre. We should all expand because, as Jamaicans, we listen to all different types of music."

Bend Down was recently remixed to feature soca artiste Motto, and has been played by several overseas, based DJs, including DJ Motion, DJ Steel and DJ Stash Static.

Looking to now take his career to greater heights, Hitmaker has forged a new partnership.

"The new management is Mark 'KJ Records' Johnson. We have worked on some projects and we have loads in store to drop soon," he said. "My original team of Kara Millz, Billy and Ryan Hitgang are still intact and we are just working assiduously."

The artiste is set to release projects like Back up Challenge, Styla and Buck up Yuhself.