From remixing her Grammy-winning 2023 popiano global hit “Water” alongside Diamond-selling American rapper Travis Scott to sprinkling the Brazilian way of converting nocturnal hours into a fun time under the moon with Mzansi flair on the exotic visuals for “Shake Ah”, Johannesburg-born singer-songwriter Tyla’s run over the past several years has been a world-trotting campaign of leaving a piece of South Africa and herself behind in every territory while keeping maintaining her originality.
Back again with yet another remix, this time of “Push 2 Start”, the “ART.” superstar has extended her love all the way to the Caribbean islands, enlisting the assistance of Jamaican dancehall juggernaut Sean Paul for her latest discography update.
Tyla | SUPPLIED
Conjuring the performance aesthetics of the nascent Y2K era in the American pop and reggae industries, “Push 2 Start (Remix)” is a three-minute amapiano-cum-pop track layered with dancehall influences, owing to Sean Da Paul’s contribution; however, the overall production of the song, just as with her remix of “Water”, remains unchanged. Paul dominates the beginning of the song with a Jamaican accent-thick party-starting intro overlapping with Tyla’s own phonetic entry gliding atop slinky guitar strums and the strong metronome of consistent rim shots.
Tyla’s first verse plays out untouched, and so does the songwriting which scaffolds her hooks and subsequent verse performances. Taking it back to the early days of Beyonce’s “Baby Boy”, Sean Paul punctuates the “Truth or Dare” singer’s chorus with tidbits of hypeman-esque asides. Although Sean Paul has established himself as a sublime cheat code when it comes to churning out remixes, his camouflage isn’t as smooth in this song. Struggling to hit the sweet spot of balancing his own presence and Tyla’s dulcet crooning, he compensates by not dragging his performances, opting to sandwich himself between the asymptotes of the brief silences spacing each line instead.
Sean Paul | SUPPLIED
The “We Be Burnin'” hitmaker shines best when he’s given his own time in the song without having to thread his way past Tyla vocally. Emblazoning the remix with his signature full-mouthed accent, Paul’s lightly autotune-tinctured verse bounces with energy, vibrates with facile cadence switches, and dynamises the tropical production with an energy injection that takes the song out the studio and nestles it on a beach populated by partygoers dancing and singing along to the song under the sun.
True to his status as one of dancehall’s all-time greatest ambassadors and the spearhead of the genre in the commercial lane during the heights of his career in the early and mid-2000s, Sean Paul’s inclusion, specifically his verse, is a firelighting spectacle that rolls back the hands of time to simpler days. One the other hand, Tyla’s bid to be one of the all-time pop giants in the world is taking shape more and more with every drop, and the most remarkable feature of her unstoppable ascension is her ability to make music and shoot visuals that constantly looks over the shoulder for inspiration while her feet continue to charter more and more realms of original artistry, helping her establish her voice while paying homage to past torchbearers.
Listen to “Push 2 Start (Remix)”:
