The Jamaican-born, New York-raised dancehall star broke out in 2015 after his single “Nobody Has To Know” became an international hit two years after it originally dropped in 2013. The video for the single, which was later joined by Ty Dolla $ign, has garnered over 67 million YouTube plays. Since then, Kranium has released two albums — Rumors (2015) and The Bilingue’s Time(2017) — and became one of the most recognizable dancehall stars in the world. He credits being persistent as the reason why he’s successful.

“It took a lot of time to be honest with you and I learned nothing beats time,” he says. “Nothing beats persistence and I was very persistent and I listened, that was very important.”

Kranium discusses breaking out with his single “Nobody Has To Know,” the power of persistence, cultural appropriation, the explosion in popularity of reggae and afrobeat, being a dancehall artist coming out of New York rather than the Caribbean, and so much more.

You can check out Kranium’s latest singles and features guest spots such as “Sidung,” Lil Kim’s “Nasty One Remix” and Major Lazer’s “Loyal” right now on all streaming platforms.