So that's the trini rap video chart for this week, scene. Check out my song "Stress" off the album "Hitchhiker's Guide to Uwi" below, video shooting Saturday.
Now I'm aware that I'm a bit late with this report seeing as the concert was quite Thursday and everyone from Rachel Price to the newspapers has given their two cents on the 'quality' of the show. If this was a novel, I would probably let you wait till the end to discover what I thought of Bmobile's money-making scam but seeing as I'm a blogger and I mostly really care that you've arrived at this page, I'll do us both a favour and give my verdict now: Beyonce gave a great, 'packaged' performance, Machel gave an ok performance having been shot in the foot by his sponsors Bmobile and the 'number one mobile network' threw one of the worst concerts I've had the displeasure of witnessing recently in terms of organization and basic amenities. Now on to the details.
So we bounced in the concert around 6:20pm , my sis and I, since we're both big Machel fans and even though I real bun him down last season for some weird diva-style behaviour and his self-inflicted, tartarus-style punishment of pushing "Wild Ants" like a boulder up chancellor hill, I must admit he was missed this carnival and I wanted to see what he was coming with.
As we got in general I noticed that I was hearing but not seeing Mr. HD (which is a paradox if you really think about it) which started to bubble in me the feeling of being robbed my concert money. One carib later, I noticed that there actually were screens for our viewing but Face, one of the taller people in most situations could only see the top of Machel's head. Not cool.
Needless to say, when Machel asked the unwittingly ironic question that he's been asking for a greater part of this decade "Allyuh enjoying allyuh selves?" he was met with a resounding "boooooo" to which I asked a lady on my right "What we booing him for again?". She replied "Boooooooo, we booing cause we cyah see him" and then tiptoeing I saw Machel for a second giving an expression like somebody 'Destraed' him and re-stole Kernal Roberts. And I felt like damn, it must suck to get booed in front your own crowd for something that has nothing to do with you.
After that booing, we as general, the riff-raff of the ish decided that Bmobile's organizers really didn't give a damn about Machel and booing him was not going to enable us to see the screen so we changed tactic. We started chanting "Raise de screen" in protest, not unlike the now indispensable procedure of getting portable water in communities and in a timing we were given a portion of our money's worth and allowed to see the screen which also disallowed me from scaling the fence to vip in 'protest'. Shucks.
Once the screen was raised people were still vexed but Machel wisely got into "Jumbie" and "One More Time" and people waist started to loosen up and hands started to ascend. This climaxed with a cloaked figure joining Machel for "It's Carnival" which happened to be none other than Destra fresh from pregnancy and giving me my only pores-raising moment for the night. Ah cyah wait to see you next Carnival Destra.
After that Jason and Blaze took the stage and introduced the deejay Titan who started, like any normal deejay two days after carnival would, by getting the party in a gear with some good soca music. Then, for a reason so strange that they probably have a team of ninjas and a cyclops guarding it, Titan was admonished and commanded to play "Ole School" which in his mind resulted in the slowest and most glacial songs I have ever heard in my life. Apparently this was part of the 'vibes up' process for Beyonce.
Then abruptly, somewhere between my fifth yawn and my mind turning to slush Beyonce appears on stage with a superhuman-like stage presence making it impossible not to feel hyped as she walks out wearing her trademark something but nothing on. Beyonce thighs real strong fuh real; I think that's what I was thinking mostly at that point. Most of the crowd disgruntlement is forgottend as this juncture.
Another thing I noticed is that Beyonce is like, if it existed, an alpha female. The girls in the concert had expressions on their faces of being under total mind control, even the ones who would make snarky comments year round about the authenticity of Beyonce's body parts. Beyonce's voice never wavers or ever sounds out of breath even as she prances, dips and cavorts all over the stage. It's like amazing. Beyonce's performance ended with "Halo" and fireworks that would have made people think it was Independence if they weren't of better quality.
So things to work on Bmobile:
1) Do not place viewing screen where it cannot be viewed.
2) Have more respect for local artistes especially the ones that you're paying to endorse you.
3) Place lights in toilet area so people can see what they're doing and preferably not get robbed/raped.
4) Place toilet paper in toilet facility especially when KFC is on sale.
5) You are allowed to decorate your flagship Beyonce event so it looks like one.
6) I know dis out your control but the myriad of gay men in the front was a scene.
7) Provide water for hand washing after toilet use. This is basic in fetes these days.
8) Do not ever play what was played during Titan's set ever again in any public event.
9) There are ways to control savannah dust.
10) KFC in fete good, KFC service in a fete...not so much.
It was hard to find vids this week due to the Carnival interruption as men was too busy palancing to drop new ish. For this week coming please place all vids on my Underground Trini Artiste wall so they will be easier for me to find. Face out.
Sometime last year I had a post titled "Five Underground Artiste Tips (unfinished)". Well I wasn't lying, it really wasn't finished. And neither is this post. Being an underground artiste (currently) myself I'm still learning and as I learn stuff, I attempt to share with my colleagues so that everyone can improve. Yes, I'm either benevolent or naive like that, which ever way you want to swing it. So here goes:
1) Reverbnation - This is a bold statement but I will say it anyway. Reverbnation is the best music tool in the history of the Internet. This is by far the deepest tool I have ever encountered in terms of music promotion so if you aren't using it you are beyond sticking. Some of its features include the ability to embed playlists of music on other sites, the ability to set up a music store, weekly emails showing your progress complete with your rank in your genre worlwide and in your region. And that's just tip of the iceberg. Reverbnation also can be tied to your Facebook fan page which is where it is most effective.
2) 'Combine' your social tools - Are you on twitter, myspace, facebook, youtube and own a blog? Now you can 'combine' them. Well not really combine them but more like letting them cooperate. You can set up your twitter so that when you upload a video on youtube it automatically tweets the link. You can import myspace friends into you reverbnation via your facebook page. You can set your facebook so status updates are tweeted etc. By doing this you can promote more with fewer clicks.
3) Confidence is the key - Now this is a non-tech thing but it's a fundamental thing. I've realised over the last few months that one guaranteed thing is that everyone will not like you. But you can get people who don't like you to respect you. And people respect confidence. At some point you will find yourself in a position where the sound system is trash, the crowd is irritable and wants blood and your cd eh playing for some reason leaving you only with confidence to draw from. Make sure it's there, always.
4) Performing - Try and perform as much as possible. You will make deeper connections with fans that way plus the way things are going, it will most likely be your main source of revenue.
5) Understand the business - This is a throwback and I'll repeat it again but deeper this time. Treat yourself as a business as I said before but also become more detail-oriented and understand everything, especially copyright. Trinidad copyright law is jacked up and easy to exploit so make sure you know what's going on. You can take a read here.
6) Don't forget the love - Good music is the most important part of your music business and everything starts with a good song. Sometimes along the road to success you get tied up so much in the hustle that you forget to enjoy what you're doing. Don't forget to love what you're doing, not for an arbitrary reason like feeling warm inside but because you tend to produce superior output that way.
And that's all for now. Look out for 'Stress' video soon as it's shooting next week. And check out some music below. Face out.
So I'm keeping my promise cause if you know me I rarely ever make statements that I can't keep. Without further ado, here goes:
1) KG - [Good Morning - Kanye West) Freeverse
2) JUDAH MACCABEE - A New Beginning (32 likes)
3) JUDAH MACCABEE - Come Get It (29 likes)
4)Trevor Zlatan Legendre - Day Or Nite (14 likes)
5) Trevor Zlatan Legendre - freestyle (13 likes)
And there you have it folks. Remember, only videos put up within the last week were eligible for this list and they can only make the list again if the extra 'likes' they get are more than new videos. To make the process easier I'm going to set up a 'note' during the week where ppl who have videos that they want to be counted will need to post the link to their stuff cause hoss, this searching for men stuff is real time-consuming. Face out.
Every time you ask people if dey heard so and so song on radio you get the response: "Me? I doh listen to radio, dey does only play one set ah sh*t". Yet, 'Yuh want sorrel ah wah' has been seen by almost everyone and has managed to convinced over 10000 idle people to join a group based on one video. Every time you ask people if they listen to radio you often get a steups but even radio deejays are well acquainted with facebook. My point? There are currently more people tuned in to facebook than radio which begs the question; why spend money getting your song played on radio when the masses are liming elsewhere?
Everyone has their own opinions but I know what I know and remember I tell you, Facebook IS the new radio. It is even superior to the past radio in a number of ways: 1) You are sure to get played and have your music heard by at least one person. 2) You are sure to get feedback. Even no feedback is feedback (means ppl not really feeling your ish). 3) It's free marketing and if ppl like your stuff they can connect within a few clicks. 4) No middlemen, no gimmicks. Just you and the fans.
In light of this discovery, I am starting a feature next week on Underground Trini Artiste that will notify people of the top 5 rap songs/videos on facebook. These 'top' songs will be tallied primarily based on the number 'likes' they get because 'likes' are autonomous and comments will be only used in tie-breaker situations (you 'liking' yourself won't be counted though). I know only checking for rap/hip hop is a little myopic but I'm going to start small. So yeah, tune in to the new Trinidad rap/hip hop countdown of facebook from next week and remember, keep checking for Face on the 'radio'. Face out.
