Trinidadian Soca Icon Denise Belfon Reveals How Drake Helped Her Receive Royalties From ‘Work’ for the First Time in 30 Years

When Drake shocked the world with his Iceman–Habibti–Maid of Honour triple-album release earlier this year (May 15), he didn’t just successfully recalibrate his position in the hip-hop ecosystem — he also delivered an unexpected legal breakthrough for Trinidadian soca giant Denise Belfon. After nearly three decades of her hit song traversing genres, nations and culture, Drake’s “BBW” ensured that Belfon would finally receive her royalties from songs sampling “Work,” a soca staple built around her booming “put your back in it/ just a little more!” refrain.

“Because of Drake’s team, the producer of ‘Work’ [Pupa Nas-T] was forced to say ‘yes,’” Belfon exclusively tells Billboard. “For 28 years, he had [refused to sign off on my receiving my royalties]. With Drake adding my vocals on ‘BBW,’ [Pupa] agreed that, moving forward, I would receive my appropriate payment.”

“Work,” which Belfon, 57, recorded in one take back in 1998 while riding on post-performance adrenaline, earned a Masters at Work remix in 2000, transforming the soca anthem into a timeless house track that remains a favorite in EDM sets around the world. The wonky world of dance remix credits and the innate kinks of facilitating a transnational hit make it slightly difficult to assess just how many official on-demand U.S. streams the original Pupa Nas-T-helmed mix of “Work” has earned — but the impressive numbers and genre intersections of its derivatives help paint a fuller picture of the soca-house hit’s legacy.

Years after David Guetta cemented “Work” as an EDM festival mainstay with his 2010 Tomorrowland mainstage set, Los Angeles-born DJ RL Grime looked to Belfon’s hit for his 2014 rework of Nadus’ “Nxwxrk,” which infused the soca track with notes of Jersey club and heavy bass. By 2019, Newark-bred DJ Flex and Jamaican production team Equiknoxx teamed up to reimagine “Work” as “Put Your Back In It,” which emphasizes the musical connection between soca and Afrobeats. That remix landed just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, which primed the foundation for the remix’s viral TikTok dance challenge in early-mid 2020. Additional buzzy DJ remixes landed by way of Scottish DJ Kevin McKay (2022) and English DJ James Hype (2026).

“I have felt like I was not appreciated,” she reflects. “Not that I did things for validation, but for the type of work that I’ve put in… I felt like I was always being bypassed. I laid the bricks for the building to go up, yet they don’t remember who put it down.”

Before Drake’s “BBW,” several songs have sampled Belfon’s “Work” vocals since the turn of the decade. In 2022, Shenseea’s Megan Thee Stallion-assisted “Lick” repurposed the soca classic, earning nearly 31 million official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate. Earlier this year, Little Mix alum Leigh-Anne, Billboard’s Caribbean Up-And-Comer for March 2026, sampled “Work” on “Been A Minute,” from her My Ego Told Me To debut album. Last week, Ghanaian Afropop hitmaker MOLIY flipped “Work” for “Bukshot,” while Major Lazer reimagined Belfon’s signature hit as the Skillibeng-assisted “Rotate.” Nonetheless, the specific negotiation tactics employed by Drake’s legal team proved the watershed moment for future recordings sampling “Work.”

“At first, I wasn’t really grasping it, but when I listened to it again, I said, ‘But wait now, yuh singing about me?’” Belfon says with a laugh, recounting the first time she heard “BBW” alongside the rest of the world, just two days after she found out Drake would be sampling her hit. “[He’s] talking about the ladies that are fluffy and big and bodacious, and that’s moi! I have adopted this song as my own because of the lyrics.”

A source close to the dispute tells Billboard that the OVO team fought to clear the sample with the consent of all interested parties, which included Belfon. Despite being the sole vocalist and most widely recognized element of the song, Belfon alleges that her name was removed from the song’s original credit and hopes to uncover exactly how that happened via forthcoming legal proceedings.

The same source also claims that Pupa Nas-T, the original producer of “Work,” allegedly collected the bulk of monies arising from both the composition and master recording for over 28 years, and Drake’s legal team pushed him to finally meet Belfon and Harkness Taitt, the primary songwriter of “Work,” at the negotiating table, with the assistance of Trinidadian copyright specialist Fabien Alfonso. At press time, Pupa Nas-T (born Anastas Hackett) has not returned Billboard’s request for comment.

While Belfon will receive her appropriate remuneration for all future samples and remixes of “Work,” she is still negotiating her backpay for the over 8,000 previously released recordings containing her “Work” vocals, as compiled by her publisher, Jack Russell Music Publishing. Belfon tells Billboard that Pupa Nas-T refuses to agree to any amount of backpay, so she has chosen to let the legal process run its course. For what it’s worth, Taitt’s royalties are being paid out — but not to him. At some point, his publishing was signed over to another party, presenting yet another complication for the legal process to untangle.

“[Pupa Nas-T] has refused to give me and Harkness our backpay; he said we should just forget about it and concentrate on new projects,” Belfon says. “Harkness is a beautiful soul, and it’s unfortunate that he was wrongfully dealt with for all these years. If it’s with my last breath, I will make sure that Harkness gets what he missed out on all these years.”

“Work” remains the key inflection point in Belfon’s storied career, which formally kicked off in the early ‘90s with the tongue-in-cheek, horn-inflected soca hit “Wine Like a Dog,” through which she secured her title as “The Wining Queen.” As her audacious, physical stage show helped lay the foundation for future female Caribbean acts — and as her early ragga-soca tracks served as a precursor to the contemporary zess and TriniBad movements — Belfon eventually scored her proper breakout hit with 1995’s “Kaka Laylay,” which secured her a second-place finish in Trinidad’s Road March competition that year. “Work” followed three years later, and once its Masters at Work remix spawned a music video that lit up the NYC club scene, Belfon had cemented herself as a global soca icon.

Now living between NYC and Trinidad — she took a hiatus and spent the last seven years in the Big Apple helping take care of her granddaughters, who were born prematurely — Belfon is ready to get back in the field. And if Charlotte de Witte’s 2026 Tomorrowland set is anything to go by, the world has been waiting for the soca queen’s grand return: The Belgian techno giant had the crowd in the palm of her hands when she dropped FOVOS’ 2026 “Work” edit during her surprise Sunday evening mainstage set.

Amazingly, the Point Cumana-hailing artist has never released an album. Though she’s still nailing down a release date, Belfon has settled on the title Come Back for her long-overdue forthcoming debut LP, which will include new tracks recorded over the past three years, as well as her biggest, career-defining hits. She plans to release the album, which she primarily recorded in New York, independently.

“By the time I finished the album, I didn’t even ask nobody for no money,” she gushes. “I paid for my own mixing and mastering and artwork; I pumped every dollar I got from doing shows into my project!”