The 20-year-old R&B newcomer Jason DeRulo's momentum continues to grow exponentially, has knocked electronic artist Owl City off and has become the fourth artist this year to claim the top spot on the 'Billboard Hot 100' this week as well as #1 at Rhythmic Radio with his smash debut single "Whatcha Say". His "Watcha Say" becomes one of the year's strongest debuts for an urban pop star, thanks to increased airplay and a video premiere for the single."Whatcha Say" is a pretty unlikely chart-topper. The tune is built around a sample of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek," which is best known as a featured song on a season finale of "The O.C." a few years back. Derulo displays vocal skills that have pegged him as an exciting new artist to watch. The song is the first from his upcoming self-titled debut studio album, which is slated to be released in the first quarter of 2010, will be entirely produced by hit guru J.R. Rotem and will feature a new genre which fuses Pop, Euro Dance, and remarkable songwriting to create a groundbreaking sound.
Derulo, who penned his first track when he was just eight years old, has said in interviews that his galvanizing moment as a songsmith was seeing Michael Jackson perform for the first time. "I knew that's what I wanted to do. From then on, my goal in life was to express myself through song and to showcase it to the world," said he who has already written songs for the likes of Lil Wayne, Keyshia Cole, and Cassie. "I never wanted to be a songwriter -- it just kind of fell on my lap. I love writing, but I always wanted to be the voice, not just the pen," says Derulo. "I always yearned to sing my own song, and now, here I am doing just that."
The music video for the single was release a few weeks back, and has also been picked up as iTunes' Video of the week. The video shows DeRulo with his love interest and cuddling on the couch. Glenn Gamboa of Newsday wrote: "The new Jason DeRulo single liberally samples from the song and even uses Heap's chorus as his own chorus? Maybe hard to swallow. But DeRulo weaves easily in and out of Heap's parts and matches his AutoTuned vocals to hers pretty well to craft a catchy, if derivative, little number." It doesn't slow down for him as he joins Lady Gaga's "Monster Ball" tour, which will be the hottest ticket this winter. The new pop sensation will be opening up for Lady Gaga along with Kid Cudi starting December 27.
