Ayetian leans on Jamaican folklore for new dancehall single Donkey Call

Dancehall artiste Ayetian is pushing a folklore-centred sound with his latest single, Donkey Call, released on the Hill and Gully rhythm. In a TVJ Daytime Live interview, he said the track was meant to offer a different mood from songs focused on explicit themes, money or gun lyrics.

Ayetian, who described himself as Jamaican with Haitian parentage, said the project was shaped by a desire to revive an older Sunday-evening cultural feeling associated with hill-and-gully-style entertainment. He said he expected mixed reactions but wanted to test whether listeners would respond to something outside the usual dancehall lane.

The song and video draw on a comic folk-style story involving Mr Anansi and a young relative identified in the transcript as Billyard, who was said to have been swept away in a nearby river by a bridge. The setting referenced in the segment was Over Road, near Smithville in St. James, where the story was staged around a nine-night observance.

Ayetian said the video was not built around random visuals, but around a full storyline. The production uses rural characters, patois humour and references to a “big man ball game” to carry the theme, while playing on the familiar Hill and Gully atmosphere.

The artiste said some listeners had questioned why he went fully cultural on the rhythm, while others felt his song stood out. He suggested that if the moment calls for more cultural dancehall, he is open to recording more songs in that direction.