DEM CAN GI BEENIE DI PERMIT NOW MAN

Hiccup for Beenie Man
Cecelia Campbell-Livingston
Tuesday, April 03, 2012

DANCEHALL artiste Beenie Man’s performance on this evening BET’s 106 & Park will not happen. The Grammy-winning deejay was expected to perform Gunshot with hip-hop artiste Nicki Minaj.
The track is the first single on Nicki Minaj’s new album Pink Friday and was recorded at Anchor Recording Studio in St Andrew a few weeks ago.
Beenie Man, whose real name is Moses Davis, is the holder of a valid United States visa. However, he has no work permit, which is needed for this evening’s performance.
The artiste’s publicist Claude Mills told the Jamaica Observer that the deejay has no intention of violating his visa, so he will miss the performance.
“If he had gone ahead and performed on 106 and Park, it would have been a clear violation of his visa,” Mills said.
He said Beenie Man had been invited some time ago by Minaj’s team to perform on the show with her. His management team agreed, not knowing it would have posed a problem.
According to Mills, on Sunday, a visa consultant advised them on the issue.
“Whenever you do a live performance on BET or MTV, you are paid a performance royalty and that would be deemed work,” the publicist explained.
106 & Park has been a strong promotional avenue for Jamaican artistes looking to break into the mainstream media. Had Beenie Man performed on the show today, it would have been his third appearance.
In April 2010, the visas of several highprofile dancehall artistes including Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and Mavado were cancelled by the United States. No reason was given for the cancellations. Beenie Man was reissued a visitor’s visa the summer of the same year.
Beenie Man is currently working on his new album.
“He will be dropping some hot tracks and he also has some international collabs lined up for the album,” Mills said.
He is enjoying fair amount of airplay with the single Wine Wine which features Boom.
In 2001, Beenie Man won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album with his effort Art and Life.
On Friday, the deejay will be in performance in Portland; two days later he will be in action at the Cran Wata Boston Jerk Festival. Easter Monday will see Beenie Man at the International Kite Festival in St Ann, then later on in the evening he is scheduled to perform in St Catherine at the Portmore Seafood Festival.