Citing a decline in dancehall music quality, Alfa Wraif conjured Island Romance, a new sound he believes will return the genre to global acceptance.

Island Romance is also the title of his pending EP which will introduce the sensuous beat which mainly targets women “who want to bask in the sensual and romantic vibe”.

Twilight, that project’s lead single, was recently released.

“I made the decision to create a new sound/genre in dancehall for two reasons. The first being, that we, the Jamaican artistes, were losing the creative variety that built our world-class audience,” said Alfa Wraif. “The trap sound became much too contagious as if we had nothing else to sing about as well as the vulgarity of the songs being produced about women. There wasn’t a middle ground,” he added.

The Westmoreland-born artiste also blames a perceived drop in standards for radio stations turning their backs on dancehall music. That is in contrast to the 1990s and early 2000s when several acts like Shabba Ranks, Mad Cobra, Sean Paul, and Shaggy made pop charts in the United States with a flurry of Top 10 songs.

Known for songs such as Money, Passion, and Summer Vybz, Alfa Wraif has been recording music for three years. He collaborated with Antropolita Beats, WLDN, Storm from Greenzlion Production, and Stillyet Productions to create Island Romance.

“The new direction is to balance the scale, avoiding the very oversight that caused the decline in dancehall music to never happen again. Adding the slower bedroom music for women who have been neglected in this area, I’d say is a more tentative and direct focus on what’s lacking in the genre.”

— Howard Campbell