NEW YORK (Reuters) - "I do understand that in this day and age if you disappear for too long - first of all, people think you actually died, no, they will. People will think, 'I haven't heard his song on radio for a few years, he must be dead'," said singer Jay Sean.

That's right, Jay Sean is alive and talked about his return at PHD Terrance in midtown Manhattan after a three year unintentional hiatus.

After five years with Cash Money Records, Sean parted ways after a lengthy legal dispute, but says there is no bad blood between him and label co-founder Bryan "Birdman" Williams.

"It was a pretty civil departure and there is no bad blood between us, and that's really the most important thing," he said.

For his first release, Make My Love Go, Sean returned to the things he was most familiar with, pop, r&b, dancehall and rapper Sean Paul.

"What I think I wanted to achieve with this song was, to make people feel good, which is I think what I'm really known for with my music. People always tell me, when I want to get in the mood of a party or when I'm at a party and they put a Jay Sean song on I feel happy. And that's always a nice thing to be known for. And so I thought, let's hit them up with something like that," added Sean.

At this point in Sean's career the singer is all about pleasing himself and fans with his music.

"I think really what's important for me at this stage in my career is to be able to do - and I think, without sounding arrogant, I think I've earned that right. To be able to say, 'listen, this is what I do, if you want this go to that artist, I'm ok.' I don't want to be a second rate version of that artist, he already exists, he already is number one of that. I don't want to be a second rate version of him, I'm the best version of me," he said.

At one point the single reached the top 10 on Germany music charts, reached platinum status in the Netherlands and have over 38 million plays worldwide on Spotify.