KINGSTON, Jamaica — Soca princess Nailah Blackman has earmarked a summer release for her sophomore album Born a Diamond (BAD).

The project, which is still in production, will feature collaborations with dancehall artiste Shenseea, reggaeton artiste Nicky Jam, Sadboi and OVO Sound’s Roy Woods.

Woods is featured on the first single Feels Like Love, which was recently released.

In an interview with Observer Online on Wednesday, Blackman who is scheduled to perform this Saturday at the Mobay Night Run 5K in St James, spoke about the producers that she collaborated with on Born a Diamond.

“The producers include Anson Pro, who is my long-time producer from my first song Work Out with Kes up until now, is the executive producer alongside myself and Whoa of Big Money Records. In addition, we have Team Salut out of the UK (United Kingdom)— they produced the song Joanna for Afro B—and Jakey Krumm, who is a 19-year-old Grammy nominated producer signed to the same label as me, Big Money Records. A few more producers who did tracks are Romeich Entertainment from Jamaica and Vinny Vendito, Maffio and D Mad, who are major producers in the Latin world,” said Blackman.

Blackman shared that a few more guest collaborations are in the works. She also spoke about collaborating with Roy Woods.

“I was in Toronto last year for Caribana, and that’s where we made the link. The song was originally created at a writing camp in Philadelphia, and we had a couple writers working on it. I wanted somebody to touch this track who has that love in their voice. If it feels like love, it has to sound like love too and his voice is literally like butter for me. I’m in love with his tone, his vocal style and everything, and I just needed someone to complement my vocal like that, so when I heard there was a possibility of us linking up, I was like ‘Nah, make it happen!’ This one was special, because I’ve never really done dancehall like that—I’m a soca girl—and we wanted to take this a little further. It is definitely a fusion sound. It’s like pop dancehall with a hip-hop influence, an R&B influence, and we needed to find somebody to bring that back full circle. So, we were like who would be best on this track,” Blackman explained.

Blackman recently signed with the US based label Big Money Records, as she aims to crossover into the American market.

“We decided to work with the label because we wanted their expertise. We mastered the Caribbean industry, and we wanted somebody who has knowledge of what we like to call the mainstream industry to work alongside.   I’m a very eclectic artist. I’ve been doing a lot of things for many years, a lot of genres, a lot of fusion. I’m one of those people who, when I’m in a space, I’m inspired by that space. And I don’t put limitations on what I create. We live in a world where there’s marketing, and you somehow have to fit in a category, or a section or segment, but I don’t really believe in those things. I just create, and where my music takes me, it takes me. I think it is my destiny to go further than just soca music. And it’s just a matter of time before we get there,” she said.

Aside from her performance this weekend at the Mobay Night Run 5K hosted by the Howard Ward Benefit Foundation at Harmony Beach Park in Montego Bay, Blackman is scheduled to perform at Jamaica Carnival Weekend for BZR Weekend at Sabina Park on April 26 alongside Sexy Redd, Shenseea, Dexta Daps and Lady Lava.

— Kevin Jackson