Stonebwoy – I did not copy Rihanna’s “Work”

Stonebwoy has responded to claims that he copied Rihanna’s version of the “Work” song to do his version “People Dey” – which has gone viral already within 24 hours after release.


“No, I did not copy Rihanna’s song. It is a Riddim Cukture in Reggae and Dancehall where different versions of songs or popular jams are done by various artistes. It was a good vibe going on so I had to drop my version too. That doesn’t mean I copied her. If you listen carefully to my song, almost everything was redone from my verses even through the chorus. Only thing that relates to her version was the repetitive ‘work, work, work, work’ in there. Even my version, the entire beat was replayed by my engineer, Beatz Dakay, so it is an original work done, properly. The people who understand Reggae and Dancehall truly know how it works. When Samini did his #Trigger song with Ghetto KB, I had to do my version #HillsAndValleys too and more artistes did their versions too.”

Rihanna’s “Work” song which broke a record on the Billboard music charts was a reproduced cut from Jamaican Reggae Singer/Producer, Richie Stephens 1998 studio production “Sail Away Riddim” (Pot of Gold). Richie Stephens however confirmed on popular Jamaican TV Show #OnStage months ago that he was contacted by Rihanna’s Team to use his work and he agreed to the ‘welcome news’. He is one of the veteran Jamaican Reggae/Dancehall musicians who rose to fame in the 90s.

Some critics were somewhat baffled about Stonebwoy’s “People Dey” song whether it was a Reggae song or a Dancehall song. He responded to that saying, “it is more of a hardcore old skuul Dancehall beat that has a good blend of Reggae in there so it falls in both Reggae and Dancehall, either way.”

He released an official video to the song ok Sunday, May 1, 2016 on his social media pages – both the AUDIO and VIDEO. The official video cut has crept over 20,000 YouTube views as at the time of doing this story — barely 24 hours after release officially via our network BeenieWords.com

Stonebwoy returned from the USA after his “Go Higher Tour”. He was welcome at the Kotoka International Airport by fans and the media who had a quick interview with him. Here’s a link to the song and video (below), check them out!