Crocodile Teeth

The song

Skillibeng released “Crocodile Teeth” in late 2020; the Jamaica Observer dates it to October, while DancehallMag gives 21 September. Both credit the production to Johnny Wonder and Adde Instrumentals, whose real name DancehallMag gives as Andreas Nilsson.

Revolt described how the single set the streets alight late that year and caught the attention of Nicki Minaj, which led to a high-profile remix. In 2023 DancehallMag reported that the original video had passed 52 million views on YouTube and that it was Skillibeng’s most-streamed track on Spotify.

The Nicki Minaj remix

The remix featuring Nicki Minaj came out on 14 May 2021 as one of the new tracks on the streaming reissue of her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty, which The FADER reported was then commercially available for the first time.

It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 100. The Jamaica Observer noted that this made Skillibeng the first Jamaican act on that chart in four years, since Sean Paul’s 2017 collaboration with Enrique Iglesias, and that the remix also entered the Billboard Global 200 at 182. In Britain the song reached number 74 on the Official Singles Chart, and the Observer reported that he was the first Jamaican to enter that chart in seven months.

The song kept selling: DancehallMag reported in September 2023 that it had been certified Silver in the UK for more than 200,000 units.

From single to album

In October 2021 Skillibeng released an album named after the song. Revolt counted 12 tracks, with guests including Stefflon Don, Popcaan, Rich The Kid, Spice and Bobby Shmurda, who appears on another remix of “Crocodile Teeth”. The FADER also refers to Crocodile Teeth as his October 2021 album.

About Skillibeng

Skillibeng, born Emwah Warmington, comes from the parish of St Thomas, Jamaica. The Observer reports that he went to Morant Bay High School and left school to concentrate on music, and that he had been a fixture on the local charts since his late-2019 breakthrough, “Brik Pon Brik”.

After “Crocodile Teeth” he signed with Eastsyde and RCA Records, as both Wikipedia and The FADER record, and in 2022 he won Best Caribbean Music Act at the MOBO Awards, in a field that, the Observer reported, also included Koffee, Spice, Popcaan, Shenseea and Sean Paul. In Emblem World, the song sits in the Jamaica music collection, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.