Grammy-nominated singjay Protoje has leapt to the defence of his charge, Lila Iké, after she was battered on social media for comments she made during a recent television interview.

He took to Twitter to rail against the ‘handout’ mentality in Jamaica’s music business.

“This [expletive deleted] handout mentality ah one ah the biggest problem in a music business, actually we whole country. Everybody want a buss and wouldn’t even know wah fi do with it when dem get it. No work pon craft, just a work pon who can buss dem. Some real tomatis bout artist,” he tweeted.

While discussing her debut EP, the EXperience, Lila Iké reportedly said: “Tons and tons a people a reach out fi collab. Some a dem, a really feel like yuh just nuh deh deh suh yet fi deh pan a song with Lila Iké, to be honest. I feel like most of the people reaching out to me right now would be like upcoming artistes that are seeking a way to get their self known, or get into the business, and I am not really in support of that. If you want something yuh really and truly haffi work for it.”

The backlash was immediate and fierce, and her comments ignited a firestorm of criticism on social media with some saying that her comments were “nasty”, even labelling her as “hype”. One individual even pointedly asked: “How she know dem nah work? Nuh Protoje buss har?”

Some jumped to her defence, arguing : “Don’t see nothing wrong with what Lila said. Levels to the thing, always.”

Lila Iké is signed to Protoje’s label In.Digg.Nation, along with Sevana. The label is part of the RCA Records family as part of a partnership signed between Protoje’s In.Digg.Nation Collective and Six Course/RCA Records, which will see the release of projects by all three artistes through a multi-album venture.

In 2018 Protoje’s A Matter of Time was nominated in the Best Reggae Album category. It was, however, won by Sting and Shaggy’s 44/876.