Citing the lack of professionalism within the dancehall fraternity, popular street promoter Andrew ‘Worl Blast’ Powell has made the move into artiste management.

As a youth growing up between the West Kingston communities of Denham Town and Tivoli Gardens, Powell says he was inspired by music and developed a passion for helping young acts. He began promoting their music in the streets, then eight years ago, he established the Worl Blast label, which has offices in Boston and Jamaica. It produces songs by mainly up-and-coming acts.

“I decided to move into artiste management because of the lack of professionalism that I see in the music industry which is taking its time to kill the business,” said Powell.

He recently signed rising newcomer Shaney Blaxx and shared how he met his newest signee. While highlighting that the artiste’s work ethic and professionalism were among the reasons he decided to work with him, Powell told OBSERVER ONLINE that he admires Blaxx’s ‘passion for music.’

“I met Shaney Blaxx through his producer and longtime friend X-Kaliba Records, and I decided to work with him because of his work ethics, professionalism and passion for music. He is also a good person beyond the music business,” Powell said, highlighting the pros and cons of working with a new act. “The challenging part is to get the music played being so young and inexperienced, the easy part is most of them you can talk and reason with them in the beginning. The moment they get big, is a different story.”

Powell shared that despite the challenges, he has plans to work with even more young acts and says as a producer, he has several projects to be released in short order including work with the likes of Intence, Chronic Law, Frassman Brilliant, Versi, Global X, Deizzle and Shaney Blaxx.