Barrington Levy’s hit song “Here I Come” is being sampled yet again and this time by none other than the Black Eye Peas. The extremely popular, multi- platinum selling pop group the Black Eyed Peas has sampled the track in their recording ‘The Coming’. The track is featured on the deluxe edition of their latest album “The Beginning”, which was released late last month
According to Levy, Here I Come has been sampled at least forty times. “The Black Eyed Peas went to my publishing company to get permission to sample the song. They are happy and I am happy,” said Levy.
Asked what it meant for him, for an act such as the Black Eyed Peas to have embraced his work, Levy said, “It’s a good look and I do hope that my fellow Jamaican artistes will do music that 20 years later, other artistes can endorse it.” Recorded in 1983, Here I Come was produced by Levy in collaboration with producer Paul ‘Jah Screw’ Love. It was released on the Time One Records label. Said Levy, “I went into the recording studio and did the song and based on the reaction I got from the people, I used that to introduce the song to the dancehall market in England.”
The song was not only a number one hit in Jamaica, but it topped the British Echo Reggae charts, and crossed over to the UK pop Singles chart where it stalled at number 41 in 1985. The song would become a hit all over again in 1991 when it was sampled by British hip hop star Rebel MC in the song Tribal Base. That recording peaked at number 20 on the UK Pop singles chart in 1991.
Bad Boy recording artiste, rapper Shyne sampled the track in his 2000 hit Bad Boyz which hit the US Billboard charts. A year later, Here I Come got another lease on life when Talisman P jumped onto the track and took his version (which also featured Levy), to number 21 on the UK pop singles chart. In 2006, international dancehall deejay Shaggy sampled the track in his chart hit Broadway.
