When David Scott, popularly known as The Kiffness, began remixing a song sung by a Jamaican boy, he never imagined it would become one of the most viral songs in the world.
The remix of Beautiful Day sung by 17-year-old Rushawn Ewears when he was 10 was at No 6 on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart, making it the sixth most viral song in the world last week. It has been viewed more than 100-million times on all platforms.
Ewears has since been signed to Sony Music in the UK, alongside the original singer and writer, Jermaine Edwards.
Scott told TimesLIVE the video of Ewears singing the song at his Jamaican primary school in 2014 was sent to him more than 1,000 times.
“Like most videos, my fans send them to me on direct message and tag me across different platforms. I was sent this particular video at least 1,000 times. My initial thought was that I liked Rushawn’s delivery and I really enjoyed the message.”
Scott began remixing it.
“The process began by playing ukulele with the video and seeing if I could come up with something cool. It sounded great, so I then imported the video into my digital audio workstation and tweaked minor timing and pitch issues.
“It is then a process of playing around with instrumentation, vocals and percussion until I end up with something that works,” he said.
“I’ve made a few viral videos so you start to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t. I had the sense it would do well, but definitely not to this extent.”
‘It’s a beautiful day’ for The Kiffness and Jamaican teen
Remix helps Rushawn Ewears land Sony Music deal
Image: via Facebook
When David Scott, popularly known as The Kiffness, began remixing a song sung by a Jamaican boy, he never imagined it would become one of the most viral songs in the world.
The remix of Beautiful Day sung by 17-year-old Rushawn Ewears when he was 10 was at No 6 on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart, making it the sixth most viral song in the world last week. It has been viewed more than 100-million times on all platforms.
Ewears has since been signed to Sony Music in the UK, alongside the original singer and writer, Jermaine Edwards.
Scott told TimesLIVE the video of Ewears singing the song at his Jamaican primary school in 2014 was sent to him more than 1,000 times.
“Like most videos, my fans send them to me on direct message and tag me across different platforms. I was sent this particular video at least 1,000 times. My initial thought was that I liked Rushawn’s delivery and I really enjoyed the message.”
Scott began remixing it.
“The process began by playing ukulele with the video and seeing if I could come up with something cool. It sounded great, so I then imported the video into my digital audio workstation and tweaked minor timing and pitch issues.
“It is then a process of playing around with instrumentation, vocals and percussion until I end up with something that works,” he said.
“I’ve made a few viral videos so you start to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t. I had the sense it would do well, but definitely not to this extent.”
Scott didn’t know anything about Ewears, other than he was the boy in a school uniform singing a gospel song.
“I always try my best to do my due diligence with these kinds of collab by reaching out to the respective artists and getting an agreement in place before releasing the video. In this instance I had no idea who or where he was, I only knew his name was Rushawn. Soon after putting the video out, a fan was able to connect me with his sister on Instagram. She showed it to Rushawn and they both loved it,” he said.
Scott said it felt “really great” to be able to use his platform to give the teen a chance to shine.
“I wish him all the best on his path, and I pray God continues to have his hand over his life, through rain and sunshine.”
TimesLIVE
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