Trini Soca Star Blaxx Can Stop Vampires
[Originally appeared in MTV Iggy on November 1st, 2011 -- note their posting does not bear my name.]
Race, Sex, Crime, Magic
For the last decade, veterans like Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin,
Shurwyane Winchester and Iwer George have dominated the Soca Monarch and
Road March titles in Trinidad and Labor Day. However rising star Blaxx
(government name Dexter Stewart), who placed in the top four at the 2011 Soca Monarch competition last year, is poised to join that elite group. Blaxx’s energetic hits, like this year’s “Tanti Woi,” are marked by his distinctive vocal style—part wail, part command.
The mirthful and girthful artist, known in his childhood as “Fat Black” or “Mighty Hot Chocolate,” flew into New York for Labor Day weekend this year to play several big shows, performing his electro-soca hits and teasing fans with what he might have for Carnival 2012. He absolutely smashed the CRAVE fete, and then woke up to talk to us about double entendres, street slang, the beauty of Trinidadian women, and the magic of carnival—literally, the magic—before heading out to his next gig in Brooklyn.
Lets talk about one of your big hits for 2011, “Carnival Jumbie.” It has an old school feel to the bass line, and the opening shout of “boodop! wadap!” is electric. How did you compose that one?
It was produced by the very talented Madman Yohan, who was influenced by an old record by the calypsonian Shadow—that is where the old-school vibe comes from. The song is about getting hit by the spirit of carnival, that “kill we dead.” And “boodop! wadap! is a common Trinidadian expression for giving someone, like a child, a smack. So its like pow!—pure licks; when you get possessed with the spirit, you start dancing; you say “I want some rum! I want to wine!”
You first bust onto to international soca scene with “Dutty” in 2006, right?
Yes, I’ve been lucky to have a big song for carnival five years running. In 2007 it was “Dutty.” In 2008, “Breathless” and 2009, “Tusty,” Last year it was “Hunting,” and this year people liked “Tanti Woi” and “Carnival Jumbie.”
As soca has tended towards soca/pop—smoother and accessible to a non-Trinidadian—with Machel Montano leading the way—your songs are moving in the other direction, edgy, with heavy drums, and Trinidadian creole. Is your niche the streets of Trinidad?
Ahh hah. Yes, that’s very perceptive. In fact it is true. I do choose songs and use Trini slang that would resonate with poor people, the people in the streets. Saying “dutty” for “dirty” or “tusty” instead of “thirsty” definitely lets people know who I am singing for. I sing to make people in the streets jump in carnival, and choose my words carefully.
Since Trinidad has strict censorship laws, unlike Jamaica, you must walk a fine line between keeping the streets hype and keeping your lyrics clean enough for authorities.
It is quite a high-wire act. You have be very clever. I also have a Catholic upbringing, so I wouldn’t come and sing “Sharon! I’m coming to wine on she,” which some might find offensive. But in Trinidad, we specialize in the double entendre. So when I say “whole day I’m hunting, every night I’m hunting…run, run, run it down” Some may take it different, but I’m actually singing about finding the best fete, the best party!
Are you from Port au Spain, the capitol?
No I’m from the south of Trinidad, Pointe Fontin, which is also the home of Iwer George. But I’ve lived in Port au Spain for many years now.
In your new song “Good Times” you sing “the vampire coming, the sukuyan* coming…” could you explain the story behind that song?
Ah ha! You like that one, yes? Kerwin Dubois and I actually recorded that one together a couple of years ago. You know Kerwin is a big producer who relocated to Canada, who has access to all the latest equipment—everyone is trying to catch up with his crispness and style.
When we wrote it, we had both been having some of the same issues in our personal lives—problems with the baby mother and with others because your career gone too strong. So this song addressed those by saying we are blessed. They can send vampires, or sukuyan [ed. -- a mythological Trinidadian female vampire], but they can’t stop we.
You also sing “a buck come from Guyana to try and lick me down.” Can you explain that line?
Well they say in Guyana there is a race of shorter, mystical people in the forest. They are said to have special powers. So if someone in Trinidad gets rich, another might say “oh gorsh, the man must sent for a buck.” So we are talking about Obeah, mystical powers that some people are used to get riches, or to kill.
Trinidad seems to have a more comfortable relationship with Obeah than Jamaica, where Rastafarians sing against it.
Well all over the Caribbean, the Obeah man is a doctor man. In Trinidad, older folks would know about it, and if something is ailing you, they might say “go to the bush and see the Obeah man.” The younger folks don’t partake in it that much, but in Trinidad, we know about it, that tradition would endure in some way
You wrote an important song that slipped by this year. In “No Racial” you sing “My grandfather was Spanish, my grandmother Indian, and I am a black man…How the hell Trini could be racial?” What is the genesis of that powerful song?
Wow, I’m surprised you know that one. Yes, with “Wotless” by Kes and the Band, and other big groovy songs, that one was really overlooked. But it was very contemplative. You see in Trinidad, it’s nothing to see a black man with a Chinese girl, or any other mix. As I sing, “my neighbor is Russian, with a Syrian grandson.” We as artists have a part to play in the education and information of the society. People who promote racialism in Trinidad are just fooling they self. It’s a cop out.
My beautiful wife is Black, she travels with me often. I had recently only seen Shurwayne Winchester and others do songs dedicated to Indian girls. So I wanted to dedicate one to beautiful Black women. But I when I got in the studio, I just started singing: “I love: Black woman, white woman, Chinee and Indian, Syrian.” And the song went from there.
There is a curfew in Trinidad and Tobago right now, which is
being justified by a recent spate of violence. How do you feel about
this State of Emergency?
Well I support it. Crime has gotten absolutely out of hand. I don’t think the government wanted to do this, but they had to. It’s just become too unsafe.
It has been suggested that the escalating violence in Trinidad is linked to the use of the island as a drug hub.
Well I don’t know who is doing what. But certainly the drugs are coming. Trinidad is a stone’s throw from Venezuela. We are a pawn in a much larger game.
Trinidad is often talking and written about as idyllic. Do you remember when it started changing?
Well, I think you can go back to 1990, when there was an attempted coup d’etat. Since then, things have been changing. I hope that we can get things back on track soon though.
Will Trinidad Carnival 2012 go off without a hitch?
Carnival will go on, and I will be back with another hit!
The mirthful and girthful artist, known in his childhood as “Fat Black” or “Mighty Hot Chocolate,” flew into New York for Labor Day weekend this year to play several big shows, performing his electro-soca hits and teasing fans with what he might have for Carnival 2012. He absolutely smashed the CRAVE fete, and then woke up to talk to us about double entendres, street slang, the beauty of Trinidadian women, and the magic of carnival—literally, the magic—before heading out to his next gig in Brooklyn.
Lets talk about one of your big hits for 2011, “Carnival Jumbie.” It has an old school feel to the bass line, and the opening shout of “boodop! wadap!” is electric. How did you compose that one?
It was produced by the very talented Madman Yohan, who was influenced by an old record by the calypsonian Shadow—that is where the old-school vibe comes from. The song is about getting hit by the spirit of carnival, that “kill we dead.” And “boodop! wadap! is a common Trinidadian expression for giving someone, like a child, a smack. So its like pow!—pure licks; when you get possessed with the spirit, you start dancing; you say “I want some rum! I want to wine!”
Photo courtesy Dexter Stewart
Yes, I’ve been lucky to have a big song for carnival five years running. In 2007 it was “Dutty.” In 2008, “Breathless” and 2009, “Tusty,” Last year it was “Hunting,” and this year people liked “Tanti Woi” and “Carnival Jumbie.”
As soca has tended towards soca/pop—smoother and accessible to a non-Trinidadian—with Machel Montano leading the way—your songs are moving in the other direction, edgy, with heavy drums, and Trinidadian creole. Is your niche the streets of Trinidad?
Ahh hah. Yes, that’s very perceptive. In fact it is true. I do choose songs and use Trini slang that would resonate with poor people, the people in the streets. Saying “dutty” for “dirty” or “tusty” instead of “thirsty” definitely lets people know who I am singing for. I sing to make people in the streets jump in carnival, and choose my words carefully.
Since Trinidad has strict censorship laws, unlike Jamaica, you must walk a fine line between keeping the streets hype and keeping your lyrics clean enough for authorities.
It is quite a high-wire act. You have be very clever. I also have a Catholic upbringing, so I wouldn’t come and sing “Sharon! I’m coming to wine on she,” which some might find offensive. But in Trinidad, we specialize in the double entendre. So when I say “whole day I’m hunting, every night I’m hunting…run, run, run it down” Some may take it different, but I’m actually singing about finding the best fete, the best party!
Photo courtesy Dexter Stewart
No I’m from the south of Trinidad, Pointe Fontin, which is also the home of Iwer George. But I’ve lived in Port au Spain for many years now.
In your new song “Good Times” you sing “the vampire coming, the sukuyan* coming…” could you explain the story behind that song?
Ah ha! You like that one, yes? Kerwin Dubois and I actually recorded that one together a couple of years ago. You know Kerwin is a big producer who relocated to Canada, who has access to all the latest equipment—everyone is trying to catch up with his crispness and style.
When we wrote it, we had both been having some of the same issues in our personal lives—problems with the baby mother and with others because your career gone too strong. So this song addressed those by saying we are blessed. They can send vampires, or sukuyan [ed. -- a mythological Trinidadian female vampire], but they can’t stop we.
You also sing “a buck come from Guyana to try and lick me down.” Can you explain that line?
Well they say in Guyana there is a race of shorter, mystical people in the forest. They are said to have special powers. So if someone in Trinidad gets rich, another might say “oh gorsh, the man must sent for a buck.” So we are talking about Obeah, mystical powers that some people are used to get riches, or to kill.
Trinidad seems to have a more comfortable relationship with Obeah than Jamaica, where Rastafarians sing against it.
Well all over the Caribbean, the Obeah man is a doctor man. In Trinidad, older folks would know about it, and if something is ailing you, they might say “go to the bush and see the Obeah man.” The younger folks don’t partake in it that much, but in Trinidad, we know about it, that tradition would endure in some way
You wrote an important song that slipped by this year. In “No Racial” you sing “My grandfather was Spanish, my grandmother Indian, and I am a black man…How the hell Trini could be racial?” What is the genesis of that powerful song?
Wow, I’m surprised you know that one. Yes, with “Wotless” by Kes and the Band, and other big groovy songs, that one was really overlooked. But it was very contemplative. You see in Trinidad, it’s nothing to see a black man with a Chinese girl, or any other mix. As I sing, “my neighbor is Russian, with a Syrian grandson.” We as artists have a part to play in the education and information of the society. People who promote racialism in Trinidad are just fooling they self. It’s a cop out.
My beautiful wife is Black, she travels with me often. I had recently only seen Shurwayne Winchester and others do songs dedicated to Indian girls. So I wanted to dedicate one to beautiful Black women. But I when I got in the studio, I just started singing: “I love: Black woman, white woman, Chinee and Indian, Syrian.” And the song went from there.
Photo courtesy Dexter Stewart
Well I support it. Crime has gotten absolutely out of hand. I don’t think the government wanted to do this, but they had to. It’s just become too unsafe.
It has been suggested that the escalating violence in Trinidad is linked to the use of the island as a drug hub.
Well I don’t know who is doing what. But certainly the drugs are coming. Trinidad is a stone’s throw from Venezuela. We are a pawn in a much larger game.
Trinidad is often talking and written about as idyllic. Do you remember when it started changing?
Well, I think you can go back to 1990, when there was an attempted coup d’etat. Since then, things have been changing. I hope that we can get things back on track soon though.
Will Trinidad Carnival 2012 go off without a hitch?
Carnival will go on, and I will be back with another hit!
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