Leave Rushawn alone! - Jermaine Edwards defends protégé amid Akon comments

Gospel singer Jermaine Edwards has defended his protege Rushawn Ewears - who covered his song ' Beautiful Day' - following claims from international star Akon that the youngster had received US$1 million for the song.

Edwards said the claims are putting Ewears' life in danger, and implored the public to desist from spreading rumours.

"Leave him alone and let him live his life. He just wants all of this to stop because even though he says he didn't get any money from Akon, people will still think he did. Some Jamaicans have a mentality to think that they are entitled to everything that you have. I went public just for him and just to clear the air," Edwards said.

In a resurfaced interview, Akon, who also sampled the song's chorus, seemingly asserted that the song behind the viral clip of Ewears singing, was inspired by a lost demo track which was among files leaked nearly 20 years ago. Edwards has dismissed those claims stating that he can prove he wrote the track.

"There are about four derivative versions of Beautiful Day and with the distribution with Sony, we have about four or five legitimate versions that we allow. So Akon could not use the chorus of Beautiful Day without asking us permission. So if you should go on his video, you will see that I am credited there, because everyone who uses the song has to credit the writer, and I am the writer and I have receipts to prove," he said.

Edwards said that about two years ago, someone came out and said that Akon gave Ewears US$1 million and that the star was going to "bring him up and do music video and send him to school".

"I have talked to Akon's team saying that they need to check the information, as I don't understand what was going on," he said. Edwards said the post was removed at that time.

Earlier this week, Ewears made a post on social media dismissing the claims made by Akon and demanded that he desist from making the statements as they are endangering his life. Edwards opined that Akon speaking about it in person now is giving credibility to those earlier posts.

"Guys in Rushawn's community are now coming to him to say that he took them for an idiot because him get money and acting like him not getting any. So imagine living in a community where people think you get a million US?" he said.

"The double-edge sword in this situation is Akon starting off his post with him saying that it is a leaked demo and years later he heard it back, and this little boy was singing it and he is going to give him writer's credit, which is confusing to a lot of persons as they wanted to know if it was Akon's song that I stole. So that is why I came out to tell people to do the research and look at the writer's credit that has my name," Edwards added.

Released in 2013, Edwards said the song was written shortly after he was signed as a brand ambassador for Digicel.

"When I wrote the song it came from the scripture that says ' in everything give thanks' and it was done on an EDM upbeat style because that was the music that time and it became corporate Jamaica's favourite song and it was one of those songs that [was] played everywhere. I didn't know the impact would be so strong as the intent was a light, grateful song, but people now want to turn it into confusion," Edwards said.

"I am like Rushawn's big brother and I give him a percentage of everything that I make from it and I try to ensure that he spends wisely. We teach him the art of investing his skills. The only person in his life that can actually help him now is me and I never left him from that time. We speak every single week and I know what he is doing and what he is going to do next."