Yo folks,
Not too long since my last post but daz no scene. I didn't do much either. I was in Highway Studios, yuh know, de place where dey sell strictly local music (Big up to Chromatics ...we will be reviewing his album "Against the grain" soon) looking to pick up some albums from some Underground artistes and breeze out a little bit. I ended up copping the self-titled new album from Word Sound and Power and luckily for me, the second installment of the local dvd magazine Real Talk was available sitting right there on the counter winking at me. Pressure!
Now for those who aren't familiar, Real Talk is a local dvd magazine series in which local artistes are given a platform to speak out their 'real' views about the industry and other things to uniformly hilarious results. In part 1, you had KMC with a belly-busting rant about the industry, Ace from 3 Suns giving his 2 cents on why radio and de industry is mess, Khari Kill on some other issues plus more. However,in part two, things get real 'out ah body'. The highlight of this edition was a passionate rant from KMC focused against our very own local Bill Gates, Tony Chow Lin On aka Chinese Laundry aka the gatekeeper of Trinidad popular music. Hoss, trust me, yuh go real laugh. I honestly thought that KMC was quite heated in part one but he gets in quite a few body shots on Tony in this one. De only thing I laughed harder at was Prophet Benjamin explaining his controversial "Stop Jocking" song. The entertaining part was that even when Prophet got heavy in his bobo shanti jargon that wicked wit still shone through and the classic line was when poor Benjee expressed amazement at some incident in school where dey was teaching the 'benefits' of masturbation. Doh worry Benjee, I feel yuh there son. All I can say now is, when de hell is part three coming out? And dat folks, is real talk.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Music Video: Road to Success
Ah music videos, what would we do without them. In the human body it's difficult to judge senses yuh know. What would you really do if you had to choose between seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing or touching a beautiful woman? Choose touch of course (yuh stinker). That fact doesn't take away from the power of the visual though. With music, especially in the landscape of Trinidad and Tobago, you can really stand out with a music video. Yes you can. And it doh even have to be 'bess' production.
Music farm is still de favourite...yeah yeah
Now anyone who has eyes to see knows trini videos aren't always of world-class standards but the reason why such videos can still win is because in Trinidad we aren't exactly flooded with videos on de music scene. With Synergy at the helm, things have certainly improved and the more popular artistes like your Sherwins, Machels, Destras etc now bring out one every season or so but still if you watch Synergy everyday yuh sure to end up memorizing the playlist at some point. For the purists and the snobs weaned on cable by virtue of never having lived down south, ah done know allyuh does be scoffing and laughing at the videos but in all the mayhem I see oppurtunity. I see an opening for the Underground Trini Artiste (leh mih see some lighters).
The hardest thing about being a new artiste trying to make it is recognition or lack thereof. Me performing anywhere would raise question like: "Who is da man jed?" "Why he on de ****** stage?" Wah song is dat?" I could bet you dat Machel hasn't had that problem ever since "Big Truck" video dropped and probably has the reverse seeing how men getting dey skull opened outside of popular night clubs. Either way, I have realised, people really want to see you. Even if dey catch kicks on de cheap video ah bet yuh dey remember you. And some of the weirdest videos are the most memorable ones.
Case in point
So I say to you de Underground Trini Artiste. Save yuh money. You can get a video for as cheap as $10000 (yes I've checked). If you can't afford that invest in a camera. Tape yourself singing on your cellphone. Do what we know how to do well. Hustle. Do whatever you need to do for de public to see dat hard pan your mother gave you. Anyways, ah gone. I'll leave allyuh wit some videos from some underground artistes. Look out for some reviews of some undergound local music on the next post. And doh fraid to point any underground artistes that I may be overlooking.
Wicked freestyle by local rapper Chromatics...fire bun quality
This seems like another freestyle-type video
Music farm is still de favourite...yeah yeah
Now anyone who has eyes to see knows trini videos aren't always of world-class standards but the reason why such videos can still win is because in Trinidad we aren't exactly flooded with videos on de music scene. With Synergy at the helm, things have certainly improved and the more popular artistes like your Sherwins, Machels, Destras etc now bring out one every season or so but still if you watch Synergy everyday yuh sure to end up memorizing the playlist at some point. For the purists and the snobs weaned on cable by virtue of never having lived down south, ah done know allyuh does be scoffing and laughing at the videos but in all the mayhem I see oppurtunity. I see an opening for the Underground Trini Artiste (leh mih see some lighters).
The hardest thing about being a new artiste trying to make it is recognition or lack thereof. Me performing anywhere would raise question like: "Who is da man jed?" "Why he on de ****** stage?" Wah song is dat?" I could bet you dat Machel hasn't had that problem ever since "Big Truck" video dropped and probably has the reverse seeing how men getting dey skull opened outside of popular night clubs. Either way, I have realised, people really want to see you. Even if dey catch kicks on de cheap video ah bet yuh dey remember you. And some of the weirdest videos are the most memorable ones.
Case in point
So I say to you de Underground Trini Artiste. Save yuh money. You can get a video for as cheap as $10000 (yes I've checked). If you can't afford that invest in a camera. Tape yourself singing on your cellphone. Do what we know how to do well. Hustle. Do whatever you need to do for de public to see dat hard pan your mother gave you. Anyways, ah gone. I'll leave allyuh wit some videos from some underground artistes. Look out for some reviews of some undergound local music on the next post. And doh fraid to point any underground artistes that I may be overlooking.
Wicked freestyle by local rapper Chromatics...fire bun quality
This seems like another freestyle-type video
Thursday, February 14, 2008
NEXT-TO-BLOW: The real scene for aspiring artistes
Is like months now my padner telling me bout this site called NEXT-TO-BLOW. He showed me some early previews and it looked pretty impressive wit its own personal style and sh*t. At the time, my beef was wit the fact that you couldn't upload the stuff yourself and since I'm a kinda a do-it-yourself guy (like most Underground Trini artistes) I really didn't know how things would work out without it. Needless to say, you still can't upload stuff yourself but the site has really turned out fantastic. As of this time of speaking, there aren't a whole lot of artistes on the site but you get the feeling that they've planned their site in expectation of a lot of people; there's lots of room for music, categories for videos, categories for news and even spaces to advertise. For me, this works out beautifully cause suddenly I have a few more local artistes to interview/feature and what not and soon/maybe, I'll even put some of my own music and ting pon de site. We'll see. Anyways, I'll leave you with one quote: "my music like Iwer George passa passa...it goes over your head". Adios. This is me running out dodging allyuh big stones for dat one.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Rihanna wins a grammy?
Yo-0-o-o-o-ooooh. Big up to RickyT.
Nah boy. Ah really didn't think that my next post on my "underground blog" would have been about uber-mainstream/caribbean pop artiste Rihanna but guess what; de girl do good. Rah rah rah! Barbados stand up. Caribbean stand up. Say what yuh want about the shape of her cranium but you can't deny; she represent . This is huge. Give ah round of applause nuh. De girl really do good.
Nah boy. Ah really didn't think that my next post on my "underground blog" would have been about uber-mainstream/caribbean pop artiste Rihanna but guess what; de girl do good. Rah rah rah! Barbados stand up. Caribbean stand up. Say what yuh want about the shape of her cranium but you can't deny; she represent . This is huge. Give ah round of applause nuh. De girl really do good.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Underground Trini Artiste
Hi folks. Waz up people. Waz de scene.
My name is Da Face and I'm a proud and bonafied Underground Trini Artiste (at least for now). I had a little song on de radio ( Da Face on myspace ), it got a miniscule amount of airplay on one small radio station and one largish one but I not studying dat now cause right now, I'm back on the grind. The funny and amusing paradox about being 'underground' though is that eventually if you're good/lucky enough, you begin to levitate above the ground and then just like that you're mainstream. Sigh! With that said, I think is really about time that I explain just what an Underground Trini Artiste is so allyuh could understand what this blog is really going to be about.
For de nerds out there that live on Wikipedia you would realise that the word 'underground' as it relates to any artform suggests counter-culture or in other words; sticking it to de man, bunning down babylon and any other such euphemisms. Understand that? Nice. In a nutshell, underground artistes don't try to follow any set patterns or standards set by society, radio or any other group with de hugely sought after blue notes. Underground Trini Artistes don't make songs to win road march or to win soca monarch or rank their skill based on radio play. Underground Trini Artistes are highly motivated since the majority of them have yet to see significant or any monetary return from their pursuit and exist mainly on their love for their particular musical genre. Underground Trini Artistes buss on dey own steam and wait patiently for people to notice their skill and move up to their time. And lastly a lot of Underground Trini Artistes as you will soon find out are better than your favourite artiste. :P This is not to say that an Underground Trini Artiste cannot sound mainstream; it's just that they don't try to.
Safe. Since we've covered what an Underground Trini Artiste is I want allyuh to know that I'll be featuring news, album/mixtape reviews, previews, interviews and other kinda views on all Underground Trini Artistes. I'm going to be like de rell and realest scene for Underground Trini info so make sure and spread de word. Ever so often, I'll also do features on what's mainstream because I believe that life is bout balance but that will probably be in the minority. Right now, I'll leave you with some links to what I consider a few pretty good Underground Trini Artistes. Laters. Till de next post fellas...and ladies.
Chromatics
Word Sound and Power
Vokalz
Koustiq
My name is Da Face and I'm a proud and bonafied Underground Trini Artiste (at least for now). I had a little song on de radio ( Da Face on myspace ), it got a miniscule amount of airplay on one small radio station and one largish one but I not studying dat now cause right now, I'm back on the grind. The funny and amusing paradox about being 'underground' though is that eventually if you're good/lucky enough, you begin to levitate above the ground and then just like that you're mainstream. Sigh! With that said, I think is really about time that I explain just what an Underground Trini Artiste is so allyuh could understand what this blog is really going to be about.
For de nerds out there that live on Wikipedia you would realise that the word 'underground' as it relates to any artform suggests counter-culture or in other words; sticking it to de man, bunning down babylon and any other such euphemisms. Understand that? Nice. In a nutshell, underground artistes don't try to follow any set patterns or standards set by society, radio or any other group with de hugely sought after blue notes. Underground Trini Artistes don't make songs to win road march or to win soca monarch or rank their skill based on radio play. Underground Trini Artistes are highly motivated since the majority of them have yet to see significant or any monetary return from their pursuit and exist mainly on their love for their particular musical genre. Underground Trini Artistes buss on dey own steam and wait patiently for people to notice their skill and move up to their time. And lastly a lot of Underground Trini Artistes as you will soon find out are better than your favourite artiste. :P This is not to say that an Underground Trini Artiste cannot sound mainstream; it's just that they don't try to.
Safe. Since we've covered what an Underground Trini Artiste is I want allyuh to know that I'll be featuring news, album/mixtape reviews, previews, interviews and other kinda views on all Underground Trini Artistes. I'm going to be like de rell and realest scene for Underground Trini info so make sure and spread de word. Ever so often, I'll also do features on what's mainstream because I believe that life is bout balance but that will probably be in the minority. Right now, I'll leave you with some links to what I consider a few pretty good Underground Trini Artistes. Laters. Till de next post fellas...and ladies.
Chromatics
Word Sound and Power
Vokalz
Koustiq
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