Iyaz Takes Us To His Home Island For "Solo"

R&B upstart Iyaz has already scored a chart-topping smash with the sunny, Caribbean-flecked flashback ditty "Replay;" now he seems poised to do the same with new single "Solo." The song's melody is sampled from Janet Jackson's 1993 single "Again" without directly sampling either the main hook or re-upping the lyrics directly. The official music video for "Solo" was shot in Tortola, British Virgin Islands and it features the singer strolling down the street during a sunny day with beautiful scenery from the beach captured along the way.
The new single "Solo" is the second single and produced by J. R. Rotem, off his upcoming album titled "My Life" which is due to arrive in the US stores on April 27. The new single "Solo" already has millions of hits on YouTube since it was posted on January 26, and is expected to be released in the UK on May 2. The track is aimed to follow up the album's lead single "Replay" which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard Hot 100 and ruled the UK Singles chart for two weeks in a row.
Countless hooks in R&B and hip-hop are built, of course, on borrowing; you could say Iyaz is just aiming to compete a land of Jason Derulos and Jay-Zs. And maybe it feels unfair to call him out for not taking enough of the song to make it more than just naggingly familiar. When asked what he wants to achieve, Iyaz said, "I don't want the fame. Just put me in the studio and let me do me. Let me do what everybody fell in love with, which is make good quality music for people to listen to - feel good music."
Iyaz's publicity openly acknowledges the connection, but it still feels a little squirrelly, especially considering many of the 22-year-old singer's young fans probably aren't familiar with Jackson's nearly two-decade-old hit. Undoubtedly, the song will put some residuals cash in Janet's jumpsuit pocket, and also very likely save Iyaz from one-hit-wonderdom forever. So in the end, it mostly comes down to the listener.