Corie Sheppard Podcast
Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 238 | XplicitMevon
Just in time for Christmas in July, in this inspiring episode, we sit with super producer XplicitMevon Sooden.
Mevon Soodeen—aka Explicit Boy—is the Trinidadian music producer behind some of the biggest soca, soca parang & hiphop hits in recent years.
In this episode of The Corie Sheppard Podcast, we dive into Mevon’s journey from a self-taught beatmaker in St. James to producing Carnival and Christmas anthems like Pone Annie (with Rome), Come Home (with Nyla & Skinny Fabulous), and Take Me Home (with Freetown Collective).
We discuss:
🎶 The story behind hits like Come Home and why major artists turned it down
🥁 How hip hop and Fruity Loops shaped his unique soca-parang production style
🎤 Collaborating with Rome, Kyle Phillips, Jeffers, Kit Israel, Freetown Collective, and more
💻 Leaving a government IT job to build a full-time career in music
🍽️ Parang, Christmas culture, and controversial doubles combos (smoke herring, anyone?)
📈 How Mevon is shaping the next generation of Caribbean sound
If you're a fan of Caribbean music, Trinidad Carnival, music production, or just love a good origin story—this one’s for you.
🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives with the voices behind the culture.
so everything good, brother, very good. I like to keep these things positive by starting on a heavy note. Heavy tongue. That's the problem. I realise you're a football fan.
Speaker 1:I am avid, avid, avid sports fan. I love my country. I support anything that you're not involved in. What do you find me looking defensively atrocious? But I love my country, I love my team, I love football, I love the Soka Warriors and I'm hopeful.
Speaker 1:I've seen Well, I've seen A few patterns I play and I can see Little improvements. Yeah, I just think, defensively, we have plenty of room For you to say that that means you're really Following the team, because for a while now I didn't see the team play with a system that you could pick out and at least you could see we're trying a system. Yeah, you could clearly see our partner play. You could see our identity forming. It's in there yet, but we get in there and I could see the little improvements. Hopefully by the time September comes we can iron out them little kinks. But we have work to do. Yeah, a little improvement is last time we went to the States. Last two times we get six. Now we get five. So that's a little improvement. I mean we're heading in the right direction, but the Gold Cup, that's one of them.
Speaker 1:That was always a little difficult for me as a country, no matter who was the team. I think it's only very like a handful of that could have been Angus Eve times, and then a long time ago, yeah, angus was one of the More successful teams. Yeah, but for a long time, even since the earliest days the USA is hosted. I don't like them. Artificial turf they play on. Yeah, because I realize the ball bouncing around. Something was going wrong With the play Against the USA. Man was really slipping To half of them. Yeah, that artificial turf. World Cup yeah, but apparently they have it for the World Cup. You know, what's really disappointing is a USA match in the USA and they say they're almost like idiot, yeah, idiot people. Well, I can tell you why, though. I can tell you why Because the people who support soccer can get deported. Man trying to make sure. Ice announced that they were gold cup. They said so before the tournament. I was surprised.
Speaker 1:The mexicans show up to see mexico. That's illegal ones. Anybody who bought a line ain't showing up there at all. So keeping it positive still.
Speaker 1:But our next heavy note how to start on your doubles choices, brother. Yeah well, they're heavy, they're looking good. To be quite honest, I am a very basic doubles guy. I am doing these wild adventures with room to promote a song we did called bara right right. So, in keeping with the theme of the song, we're doing some promo to not just highlight small businesses but, uh, make it interesting and see what adventurous doubles it have out there. My personal choice I am a simple doubles man. I prepare everything and that's it. That's it.
Speaker 1:I see you with the smoke carrying on your teeth. No, no, I didn't smoke anything. Oh, you didn't. I ate a regular Rome and Rendellina Try smoke carrying. So is he editing? Then? Correct, you guys see Benny smoke carrying.
Speaker 1:And then I hear you say I take our base doubles, our basic, regular china, pepper, sweet sauce, cucumber, simple, basic. Alright, you're back in my good books. I don't even eat smoke herring on a general, serious, I don't like smoke herring. On this whole fish, I'll eat acra, but I don't really like the taste of something you're adding up here, but it's buljol. The texture, yeah, we need that. So, worse yet, in our pizza when our doubles, yeah, yeah, that's the thing with me. That's the thing. If Italians say no pineapple on pizza. We care for smoke, iron and double. We can't do it. We can't do it. That is weird to me. Beef, you know that.
Speaker 1:But I had the ham and it was alright. I see you promoting the ham. I had the ham doubles. This is on moon kukuro days, right, right next to St Anthony's church. Oh, that's where they are, right on the belly opposite the pan, you know there. But right there, fat boys doubles. So it was trying.
Speaker 1:No, as I said, I am a Dego person, born and bred right, so I grew up, they go in my life. Um, that ham doubles has been in existence for a while, no serious, but I was never adventurous enough to try because to me that is craziness, sacrilegious, almost to to put ham in doubles, right, but we doing this promo and rumors like goodbye, let me go now. And it's like you know what I'll go. And I mean, as I said in my Instagram video, people, let's eat ham and cheese. Right, in Trinidad we actually eat chana and cheese and hops by Nix, right, so we eat chana and cheese, we eat ham and cheese.
Speaker 1:So the flavours of ham, chana and cheese together is not that weird if you think about it. I guess you're right, yeah, it's not that weird. Ham and cheese is a thing. Then a lady on Bones Road used to sell the same way you sell aloo pie with chana, she used to sell cheese pie with chana. It's called peas and cheese and it's good on good. So chana and cheese is a thing. You never want nicks in car, yeah, yeah, yeah, nicks, hops. Chana and cheese, that's a thing. We used to lie central side boy, not a club, it's a restaurant in the day in the center club, la Penca. And when you're leaving La Penca that's still around. I don't know. Yeah, I think it's still like free ports, yeah, free ports.
Speaker 1:So you gotta go back under the bridge and come back up through the back and tell some men after La Penca to go in with some powder, have some hops and chan. That weird. But I mean, when you look at it is look weird, and I think hearing it is somewhere in doubles somewhere. But I'm not promoting nobody here. But the flavor of the ham had a like a, a little saltiness, a little elevated flavor to it and the texture of it wasn't meaty, it was thin slice. So like when it is, you grab, you grab a scoop of chana and you really taste it. I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm with you. So I would say, try it. It's not something I would go and be like I feel like I'm for ham doubles. Nah, bro, try it, it actually tastes good. Yeah, I like the idea of, and culture and culture, yeah, the food and the music and all them things, exactly. Yeah, that was one of the things I decided to.
Speaker 1:Well, roman and I work very, very closely. We are not just artists who I work with, but he's my personal friend too, and we always discuss ideas of how we would promote and just improve ourselves as producer and artist, that kind of thing. So we wanted to improve the content game, just improve ourselves as producer and artist, that kind of thing. So we wanted to improve the content game because people want to fall in love or they want to connect to the person it's not an artist who is untouchable or unreachable Get them. This done right. Exactly, you have to show your person your personality and knows. Rome and I, we have very strong personalities. We're very I don't know two on one, but we're very charismatic, very friendly. We could go anywhere, as I say, we could fall in and make friends like that is no, it's not hard for us to to express ourselves on camera. So we just decided to come up with creative ways to show that and still promote the music where it's not like, oh, they're going streaming music right through. Yeah, it's kind of boring and I don't want to book anybody exactly. So we make it a kind of um popular culture or social thing where people engross with what we doing right and also hear the song as well too. Now. So it's that kind of balance we're trying to find where it's not like, every day, go and promote my song, go and stream my song. It's like, oh god, that's good. So all you're working together on not just the concept for this song but also marketing everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I see music, video, social media, artwork, lyric video, everything. And that's how I am as a creative. When it is I make beats or I make songs. I actually see visuals. You know I do my own artwork Most of the times. I do my own artwork, you know. So I was like when I hear things, I actually see colors. So I kind of know the mood of this beat. It gives me like dark energy or, if happy, I'll think bright, red, yellow, orange, purple. Now, and that's how my brain operates now, boy. So I try to envision that. So when it is sometimes I tell somebody to do something and they can't execute it, I'll just do it myself. You're right, you know, and that's how I am, because in my mind I already have a vision, of course. Yeah, you see, in the end point. I seen it.
Speaker 1:So, and room is like that with music videos. If it is he do a song with me, he don't see in storyline location who we want to be like. I need this girl, I need this fella, I need this prop, and that's how we are now. So it's a real, that interesting dynamic. When it comes to working with with room, because it's not just about the music. Is that's typical for you? Working with artists? Yeah, I, I am very hands-on in my projects and, as I was telling you before, like I, I'm very involved in music video shoots, artwork.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mix, master, beat, recording your kicks. A careful day again. You see that I cannot go back by. Mevon Kiggs could check me anytime. So, for people who might know Mevon, you only hear explicit. You used to hear it a lot with Soka Parang. Fast forward to today. When people hear Mevon Sudeen, you get immediately attached to Padi, which is not just a road match but one of the biggest road matches we see in a long, long time.
Speaker 1:I want to come back to that. I want to understand how you get into music in the first place, right, and that's a real interesting question because the answer is not as cool as probably people think it is. Now, right, I didn't grow up in a family of musicians. I didn't grow up with any musicians in my family. My parents were very regular. My parents were very regular. They worked regular jobs and I came from very humble beginnings. I didn't have no instruments, no musicians, no singers, nothing in my family, nothing, none, none, none whatsoever, right.
Speaker 1:But I went to Mokorapo Boys Primary School and I think going to school in St James exposed me to the culture in a kind of way. St James does make everything better, yeah, so I went to Mokorapo Boys. Expose me to the culture in a kind of way. Listen, james does make everything better, just want to add that to it. So I went to Mukarapa Boys and the students who were in my class Huse, tassa, trummin, culture, even the teachers like learning the folk songs and all them Anansi stories and all that kind of thing. Like the teachers who were there really exposed us from a very young age the culture and the folk side of Trinidad, learning about all them. Man go over, man go tell me, man don't send me though. All them kind of songs I would have learned in primary school, big up, miss Brong.
Speaker 1:Miss Brong was from Bond Road. No, she was just my first year and second year teacher, but she was so involved in the culture and the arts itself that she really um, exposed us to that now and, as I said, like a lot of these students who were in the my classes, they would have been living, born through, right, of course, in saint james, and then anybody grew up saint james, no, but who? Anything, and it's drumming. So that's when, when they come in class, everybody, yeah, and everybody drumming. So I know I don't want to lose out it's that boy school I go in, you had to learn to drum too. You can be on the outside, exactly. So I started learning to drum, beat, desk and thing, and they say, wait, I fall in love with this now. You know so, you know. So. I think, when I think back at it, that is where I really got exposed to music and really start to listen to music in a different way and then fast forward to that.
Speaker 1:As a teenager I went to St James Sec, right. So more Crabbo Boys, more St James Right. And when I was growing up, the cool thing as a teenage boy was to be a DJ, right, right. So I had my friends home and stuff and then going to school and we had our little song system, you know, and it was explicit songs. That was our name, and the reason why we had the name explicit is because long time when you're by a city you used to see parental advisor explicit content and nobody well used to see parental advisor explicit content and nobody well. I didn't like to collect no cents at version. I wanted the raw thing. I wanted to hear what the men had to say yeah, that's what it's all, yeah, so when I listen to DMX and Jay-Z and things as a child, I don't want to hear no edited version, 50 cents. I wanted to hear the raw version.
Speaker 1:So explicit was a word that resonated with me and then when I got older, I really understood the deeper meaning of the word explicit Right, right, I don't want to get into me yet, but that's what we're here for. Yeah, I guess, I guess, I guess. But explicit means to be very direct and unambiguous, right, very straightforward, and anybody who knows me personally knows I'm very outspoken and very straightforward. I what you see is what you get. I am not afraid to speak my mind and see it as it is. So I feel like that word has as something special when it comes to me. Lots of people look at explicit and be like cussing and whatever. Yeah, that's what you think. But explicit means to be direct, of course you know. So just take some cussing sometimes, sometimes, if need be, if need you know. So that is, um, that is what the, the word and the name came from.
Speaker 1:But from djing I started to learn to do remixes. So I would download like instrumentals, right, like like famous instrumentals and famous acapellas, and let's do little remixes myself. He was doing the plating and that kind of thing. Because no, no, no, no, no, I wasn't, he wasn't retro, he wasn't making a movie, he was just dub plating and that kind of thing. Because no, no, no, no, no, I wasn't, he wasn't retro, we was just doing house party and thing. And we was on girls, right, yeah, I wasn't on no clash thing, we was just on. Hey, it's cool to be a dj with you and my three, four partners. We just have a little computer and thing and cds and cd case and the cassette and go in the market and flea market and buying all them sizzler tape and what kind of. When I'm watching you online I'm sure you don't know why is that cassette? Bro, I'm 38 boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the thing. Um, I grew up under that.
Speaker 1:So when it says we started doing dj thing, I learned eventually how to start making beats. A childhood friend of mine gave me Fruity Loops 3. I remember it good and I started to make beats and I would take like a Jay-Z or a 50 Cent acapella and put it and make a beat around it, sounding like a real trash, yeah, but I was so proud of it I burned it on a CD and I played it to my diss. Man. And what people tell us to do in school, oh, they hear this, I make this. It's like wait that real man. And then take the gas up, take the gas up, take the gas up. For years I take the gas up and I just started to enhance that skill of making beats. So you learn that. How are you learning to do it trial and error, yeah, and nobody didn't teach me it had no youtube. Youtube was probably in fun stages at the point in time. Yeah, you know it wasn't about tutorials and things at the point in time, so I was literally trial and error, um, but I loved it.
Speaker 1:Now I love creating and I think that is when I really started to explore the music side, because even before that, in school, as a creative child, I always used to draw and I could still draw up to this day. So your family draw anything? No, none of that. I live normal people. Boy, it's not no artist. It's not no artist. It's not no singer, no musician. The only musical instrument you could find in my house was a recorder, because my father and them had to buy it. A recorder, a thing of poster paints and a sketch pad and a geometry pen. That is me, but I used to like that. So I used to paint and draw.
Speaker 1:My mom had shown me recently a Bible from when we was younger. In the back of the Bible is all kind of Ninja Turtles. I draw in the back of it and it's still there. You must keep them things. I have it Good, good, so I just show in the ice in church. We are six, seven, and I draw in Leonardo and Donatello and things.
Speaker 1:Ninja Turtles was my favorite cartoon growing up as a child so I used to be drawing Ninja Turtles and Street Fighter and all kinds of things, because that was the time. It's Nintendo, of course, cartridge, yeah, cartridge, blowing them tapes, people might know it, yeah. So that is the era I grew up in, so I started to draw the characters. So I always had a passion for drawing. Guys, we're doing the artwork and thing, must we come out to film? Yeah, when I left St James, well, I did art for CXC too. You know, I see I loved the. I did art, technical drawing, I did them kind of subjects.
Speaker 1:But music you never continue in education. Music in school was boring. Music in school was boring and I mean, thankfully enough, I used to go one or two of the classes so I retained some knowledge. So I know where's an octave and a quave and a semitone and I learned the basics and I mean to this day I use that basic knowledge, you know. But I wouldn't even say if I could do it again, I would because my experience in school music, music was real teary and real boring, you know, for me, and it was your recorder and piano and it wasn't cool for me. No, you know, when I go in the art room and we could paint people and go out in the yard and paint a tree and paint people and draw people and it was just more cool, it was a more creative, expressive environment.
Speaker 1:And you're not being judged now. You know. So, in music, if I don't know something that people who was real good in music they're making me feel dumb because I don't, you know to them. You know, I don't really know, I can't really read the music. And, yeah, your manuscript and your drawing, treble, clef and eyes.
Speaker 1:I want to put it on record, right, that, uh, while we're recording this today, I was telling you before we started I put out an episode kenny phillips episode out this week and I put an episode about the kenny phillips episode. Right, I want to record that. I recorded that before we talking now, right? So when we're done here, we'll listen to that, right? Yeah, because the more I talk to musicians or people like yourself, you're all shaping what the culture is, right? Yeah, the same way, you're watching Kenny Phillips and you tell me, boy, this episode will be good. You don't understand that very young children will be saying that about you. Possibly, possibly, no guaranteed they're going to talk about you in the same way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I talk to y'all who doing it now and the people who've done it, who I idolize them. All of them say music theory was boring. Yeah, but it's in pan, it's in production, it's artists, almost all. I ain't saying they don't have the formally trained ones, but it must be something we could do differently with education, with children, exactly. And I think, moving forward like now, in this modern, modern age, with all the tools and technology available, I think there's a real cool ways to teach music. Now, of course, you know like even learning how to use logic or build a beaten, fruity loops or whatever is, is a more cool, modern way. That is not go in a classroom, pull out your manuscript, play mary had a little lamb on the recorder and then what is this? No turn to remeave, come on, that is boring. And I look in all the window and I seen people in in in the art room and and metal work room and the woodwork room and the girls cooking and I mean, I was never really a a trade kind of person, but music was just boring to me in school. Something you say, unlock, something for me too, because you're right, I could understand now where art it's just more practical, the music we're doing now. Not practical, yeah, it's hard to apply because we remove the music and reduce it because, okay, so mango ver, mango tea, I read, that is vibes.
Speaker 1:I went new town boys and the first time I hear that and they put you with new-tongue girls. I have a solo to sing boy in Queens Hall, right, yeah, and we rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. And coincidentally, my music teacher in new-tongue boys was Artie Di Cotto's sister, muldi Cotto, and she of course is real focused on one thing. So we have mango there solo to sing boy. But all the rehearsals we do they never bring the newton gills and them who's supposed to do? Right, walk around like they're selling the mango. You know I can't sing. Yeah, when I see the thing walking I said all singing gone. Yeah, there's a little boy. You're intimidated. Of course you see gills for the first time. You know boy school.
Speaker 1:So, apart, apart the way you're saying about art, is that actually drawing the landscape? That is ours? Yeah, it's helpful, but in music we don't draw the landscape, we don't. The closest thing to that was when they introduced pan. Yeah, you know, and, and I, I mean I said it right, I went to. I went to school late 90s, early 2000s, right. So pan wasn't cool, pan was old people thing too, so it was it's balancing the recorder and the steel pan, yeah, and a manuscript, yeah, and they go lose.
Speaker 1:You Come on, yeah, yeah, yeah, as a child, we the internet and thing, now it's not coming. So the IT lab and thing Was new and it was fresh, right, so I wanted to go and do IT. I wanted to go in the computer lab, more current, yeah. So I did art. I didn't do IT for CXC because it was not available at the point in time, right, right, or at least I couldn't get in. I chose art. So I did art and stuff and I wanted to do the cool subjects I went to. If you talk to little trend or what, you don't want to do something that's cool, yeah, and it was appealing to me now, boy, so that was why I decided. So.
Speaker 1:As I said, art, those things, drawing, painting, that was my form of expression at the point in time, until I started picking up the computer and learn how to make beats. So when you're making beats, when was the first time you reach one? Now, because you say man was gassing you up, when you know you had something, you see you realizing that. Well, I used to rap too. Ah, so when I started making beats I started to express my creative writing and I started writing songs.
Speaker 1:And, as I said, growing up in the 2000s the music of choice for the youths was hip-hop music. 50 Cent, ja Rule, eminem Jay-Z. So you started off as a hip-hop man, a hip-hop man Serious Eminem Jay Z. So you start off as a hip hop man, a hip hop man serious. I still love R&B and hip hop to this day, you know. So I grew up on that. And then it was the other side was like real conscious, conscious music. It was Capleton, sizzler, and then it suddenly turned down. So it was Elephant man, beanie man, that kind of thing. But I wasn't really into singing that. I used to go party and sing and dance and that kind of thing. But for me personally it was easier to get a hip-hop CD or a hip-hop tape Right. The only dance I used to get was when Ducktide and them do the Dub 7 and Dub 6 and Music 3000.
Speaker 1:You remember that boy At all? Yeah, bro, I was a music man, bro. I had real cassettes and real CDs. I still have a CD case home, right right, with real burn CD too. So I used to download my music.
Speaker 1:That time downloading music was a new thing. Yeah, limewire, limewire, napster, lime Beer, share, all them kind of thing. I was on all of them things. So I get real virus and things. Yeah, this is a computer virus. Spend a whole day to download a song and it's your own thing. What do you mean if it's the wrong thing, man, you still label. You know what? Yeah, it's a real chain up here. You remember when soldier boy used to label everything wrong? Yeah, you support us popular music. When he downloaded Soulja Boy. Yeah, that was same. I download real fake thing, of course. Of course that was the era. That was the era that.
Speaker 1:So I grew up when there was ocean, that downloading music, pair to pair all that kind of stuff. But when the internet was new, right, right, right, you know, so I was. I was one of them early people who was real involved in that and that was cool to me, of course. So I just find all the cool things that was cool to me and apply it in one, which is the computer, the technology, the music, expression, the art, drawing, painting, and I found a way to bring all those things together. So so I started to write my own music, sing my own music, make my own beats, and I mean, I didn't really.
Speaker 1:I did a short Photoshop course when I left school, so I had some kind of skills in doing like graphic design. So I kind of did that and was doing little promo artwork for myself and things. But the nice thing is that was fun, that was fun, that was just fun. I wasn't doing that to sell, I wasn't doing that to become an artist or anything, I was just expressing myself. Now, you know, and I think that really shaped the way for where I am now, because, as I was saying earlier, like when I do a song, I'm not just doing the song, like I'm involved in the writing of the song, the building, the beat, the mix, the master, the artwork, the music video. Yeah, I operate it like a label, a one-man label, but I guess you start off there in a way, because if you start by building your beats, then you put a flow to it and all that and recording myself.
Speaker 1:I learned to record myself. I download CoolEdit Pro. So how are you recording? Then, boy, I had a computer mic, a white computer mic thing. I had it on a shelf and I had like a, a candle or something balancing it when it fall, and I was there with my headphone on. I have a picture. Yeah, you must send it. I'll try to look fit on a digital camera. They don't even know, they don't even understand digital camera. Yeah, I like that. I like that, join me.
Speaker 1:But when you're doing that and you're flowing for yourself and stuff, you're exposed to the rap world, because you're talking about a time where, yeah, plenty of people rapping there. Yeah, as I said, that was the, the zest of the dancehall of my time. It is it. And then it was accessibility. When you go to a cd store, just cds and them kind of place you understand it was, it was either doing rock, pop or hip-hop. Yeah, for sure it didn't really have dancehall albums. It was more djs who, like Dr Hyde and them who were doing the little mixtapes on cassettes. Dr Hyde, papa Rocky, chinese Laundry downtown outlaws, it used to be them Correct. And again, them thing in Maxi. Yeah, of course, when they go in the Maxi, that's with a plane, of course it was different.
Speaker 1:And jugglers you bringing back more memories. Yeah, yeah, jugglers. I used to travel to go to school. When I, they go to St James, everybody cool, hard pong maxi, come on, come on, that was the era I grew up on. So I'm walking up to St James and waiting for certain maxi and thing, because that is where the vibes is, and sometimes the maxi and them pulling up outside the school and waiting. Yeah, of course, so they've got to go fast. Yeah, but that was the vibes. Now, boy, so I, as a teenager, I, I was just always in the vibes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always wanted to be with what was cool, what happened, you know, and I never really strained to no badness or anything. You know, I was always a straight and narrow guy, but always fun, always wherever the fun is, and if I realized it kind of getting shaky, I had a sim with somebody or something. Yeah, it's always getting scary. My parents grew me up real good, so grow me up real good. So my moral compass was always magnetic, not, not, you know, when you see troubles and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, when I realized I don't smoke and thing, you know. But I don't condemn people who do, of course, it's just at the point in time. That never appealed to me. That's not your thing, you know. So I was very what I wanted to do. And when you say what you wanted to do, I wanted to be creative. So you're not seeing yourself then as producer or this or that, you just know you want to be creative.
Speaker 1:When I left school, I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be a graphic designer. Okay, got you. Because I felt like that was my form of expression that brought me the most happiness at the point in time. You know, when I I I left school, I got a two in art. Um, I didn't do it for cxc, right.
Speaker 1:But when I left school, I needed to do something and sam's just offering uh, it degree, right, and it had multimedia in it, right, and that was the the x factor for me, because you was offering it too, but didn't have multimedia. And I I felt like if we, if I could get IT and some kind of graphic multimedia kind of thing, I'll go there now. So I went there and it didn't have enough people to do the course. Oh, they had to drop the course, sam's was famous for that. So I get the chin up.
Speaker 1:But, in all fairness, I still was doing something that I wanted. Fairness, I, I still was doing something that I wanted, right, because, as I said, I would have joined samson 2004 around there, right, and um, that was early internet days. Yeah, that was early technology. Social media yeah, so it was a world that was new, you know, and I was really intrigued by it and stuff. So I did my degree in computing, information systems, okay, um, graduated first class, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I I started working in the ministry education, well, tertiary education at the point in time, doing it, doing it, I see, yeah, so I worked there for 11 years, yeah, yeah. So all then you're still trying with music, yeah, so I was doing him, as I said, I was still djing and stuff and then still building my beats, and then I was one who was the hip hop scene then with you because, right, so at the point in time it was just partners, you know, like neighbours and things. Everybody wanted to rap, everybody wanted to be hot. That was the cool thing to do. So we used to make beats and record, and sometimes I'd record it late in the night and I I wake up early to go to work. So I go in and sleep 2 o'clock and I wake up 6 to go to work.
Speaker 1:You know, every day and I'm happy, and I'm glad, I'm real happy, and I burn a little CD player to my car. Then I know my little putt putt and I drive into work and I play my CD player and I play my own songs to my song, come on, you're getting good feedback. Then people realize you have something. Yes, like that Israel gas and I'm taking it. Why not? My tank on E full mop. You know I'm taking all the gas because I got the point in time, but I think that the gas eventually turned to premium because here we are now. Yeah, boy, you know I taken all the gas because I got the point in time, but I think that the gas eventually turned to premium because here we are now. Yeah boy, imagine that, boy, you ever thought that then, never, never, never, no, until 2010,.
Speaker 1:2010 is when I said you know what I want to take this a little more serious, right, and I decided to convert my bedroom into the studio where it is now. You know, where my studio is now is where I grew up as a child, I see, yeah, and I moved into a back room, a guest room. Yeah, I know guests come in. Yeah, the guest now is the biggest artist in music, straight from the island to make him become the guest. Yeah, I live in any guest room and it's today's my old childhood bedroom, understand, yeah, understand. And I made the renovations from 2010 to now.
Speaker 1:So I would slowly but surely start like I'd buy a computer, I'd buy a Mac, I bought the speakers, the mic, the mic stand, a couch, the padding for the wall, the flooring, the ceiling. So all this time, even those things, you self taught because you had to figure out how to deal with sound and all that. Well, the internet started to become a little more helpful, right, so YouTube really helped. And then I would have asked a lot of questions, sure. And then, in between that, I did the course in star broadcasting, okay, but that was this could not be like seven, ten years after, okay, but in between that, I was just buying what I could afford. I just looked for Google and see what's the best mic for 500 US or 300 US, because I was working. So I just saved my money. And if I had a 3000 TT, I was going to buy a mic.
Speaker 1:This song is surreal to me because most people who tell stories like these have the benefit of a father who was a musician or a mother who had a studio or somebody who used to play. So you're just figuring out all this on one one. So what are your parents saying at this time? They're supportive, they understand. I still live with my mum. My mum lives with me and she was always supportive. But once I was getting in trouble or trouble not coming to us, you know, she was very much. And once I'm making what's that one noise, even though we making music, yeah, there's noise. You know, it's not real, lord, we're disturbing her life now, you know. And then she knows her son doing something positive. You know, the biggest concern she had is when I decided to leave my job.
Speaker 1:With my job, yeah, because my parents sent me to school. I had my degree and I just I work 11 years in ministry. I I left 10 years. I moved my way up from a trainee to a network specialist. I left ministry education as a network specialist, you know. So worried, yeah, so I was living two lives. I was had my it career and I was doing music part-time Because that was my passion. It was an expensive hobby, of course, but I was getting my salary and buying equipment. So, from 2007 to 2018, that's 11 years, right, 20, yeah, that's the duration of time I would have spent to buy all my equipment and convert the bedroom into a studio.
Speaker 1:But at what point did you leave the ministry? 2018?, 2018?, 2018, yeah, oh, wow, republic Day, 2018. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Very, very, very, very poetic day. Imagine that yeah, republic Day was my last day in my contract. Wow, and they actually offered me a next contract and I refused it Because I was on short-term contract for a long and with and with short term contract, I had no benefits, you know, I had no vacation, I had no sick days, I had nothing. But they make it easy for you to leave. Yeah, I realized, I realized this wasn't for me. I fighting up for the bare minimum. I mean, the salary was good, but I wasn't happy.
Speaker 1:But between 2010 and 2018, because you say you're a hip hop man, but the first time I hearit is to do with Soka Parang. The Soka Parang came in as early as 2010 and thing, when did that start? Nah, the first Soka Parang. I was having fun, bro, and that was the first. That was 2012. I see, 2012 would have been when I met well, I shouldn't even say met when I started to work with Brave Boy Mark Hardy, I see, right, and Eddie Heights, when I was working in ministry, young Rod Isaac, the brother's son, was a trainee there. So I start, that's when I met Isaac and we started to line. So I used to go home by him and Rod wanted to be a rapper. Yeah, I was rapping. Then, right, he was rapping, he still does, he still does, and I'm making hip hop beats and you doing rapping. You're a rapper or want to be a rapper? You gotta line.
Speaker 1:It was a friendship that was easy, sure, and then, on top of that, marcus was now starting to really explore his artistry, right, and he was doing all kind of genres. He still does, right, you know, and he from Pity Valley, I from Degon, martin Rod live in Pity Valley. Of course. We had a lot of mutual friends and he came at me to do something for individual Keegan, simon, right, that promo thing, yeah, and he's like I need a studio boy, I need to record this. And he came, and your boy and he to record us and he came and from then we started to develop a proper working relationship.
Speaker 1:Now, you know, and then, as I said, rod was around me at the point in time and I just made the connection for two of them and I was like, yeah, I was like, hey, well, how are you doing this, rod? You doing this, I'm making beats. Hey, let me do something together now. And that's when we started to work, and it's would be 2012 around there, right. And then Christmas time, your boy making beats. I was like I want to make a parang. So I, where did that come from? Right, I expect him to meet a man who come from a parang family.
Speaker 1:No, as I say, my parents was regular people, regular, regular people. Yeah, you saw me painting fence and door and gate and washing down yard and wiping the window. I grew up doing all of that, very humble beginnings. Right to this day, my mother would still ask me to go and clean something. Sure, sure, sure, you know, because she needs help and I will do it, of course, because that's the relationship we have. That's, mommy, you know so.
Speaker 1:But when you're doing them things, it's parang plain, you read. But when you're doing them things, it's Parang playing the radio on it's sweet 100, 105 them kind of thing playing, and to me that added to the vibe of Christmas now. So I grew up in a household where playing the radio was very normal, you know. So on a Sunday it's gospel music playing on the radio, carnival time it's soccer playing on the radio, christmas time it's Parang playing on the radio, and a typical Trinidad household, yeah. So if bread baking and ham baking and thing and paint painting music playing, of course, and it's parang music was playing at the point in time. So, um, it was just a December or September to December.
Speaker 1:I was home and music was playing and I was like I just want to be creative and challenge myself. I want to make a Parang song or a Christmas song, you know, and the people that were wrong at the time was Mark Hardy, young, rod Steph Kalu, like these kind of people was all wrong because they were now getting into the music as well. I chained them up. I was like, hey, let's have a session and let's have vibes, and the beat was horrible. It even sounded like a parang, but you do it.
Speaker 1:One thing I actually figured out now is that from small to now I was doing what I like. I was doing what made me happy. Now, and at the point in time that made me happy to do it, I was just so excited hey, we're doing this, we're doing that so much. So we all pitch up and shoot our music video for the same time a medley bro, a seven minute medley off our kicks, I like it. I shoot our music video, I like it. So that's just showing them like I'm the kind of person when I go in and I go in all in there, I'm not going, I'm not half-stepping at all, and I enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:And that experience really made me gain confidence in myself and I was like, if I really try to do this properly and get a quattro man and get a guitar man and get a bass man and things, I could probably do this. You know, because I can't play no instrument. I mean, I didn't grow up in a musical. Also, I grew up on a hip hop. So hip hop was very programmed and samples and things. Me no, remember Quattro and things. I didn't even have a Quattro.
Speaker 1:So I went and bought a Quattro. Seriously, yeah, I went and bought a Quattro. I said, but if it is, I don't know anybody with will have one, a silica plate. I can play one or two chords now, but to say I could stand up and run through. I know about three chords and I'm bad. Yeah, I know about three chords, my strumming a little off. But I, I have a quattro for the studio, an electric one too, so spend more money. Yeah, so it was an investment for me to At the time to learn it, which went out the door, but it became when Keegs and them come, they could play Quattro on their own song.
Speaker 1:I was about to say, learning it mightn't just be playing it. Yeah, so it was an investment for me. So I did that and I have a few guitar players, friends, and I called them over and I was like, yeah, I want to do an actual song In Parang rhythm. And at the point in time Rome had now started to do music. But he didn't really want to do Parang either. But this time you know Rome and things like that you don't know. Marcus Hardy introduced me because the Messiah, he see men. So he was like, hey, my partner want to do Parang, parang and I just want to do something Music. And he introduced me to Rome. I didn't know Rome At all and Rome is.
Speaker 1:Rome grew up in Malaba. People think Rome but it's a gold spoon In his mouth. But Rome grew up in Humble beginnings too. Trinidad and Sons Was your light skin. You had it Correct, exactly. So you know what people? Let's tell me that People are like you'd be like boy you. You grew up in Westmoreland, you grew up in Antony. Oh yeah, the west. Yeah, you grew up in Fatimant. I'm like bro. I went to St James, I went to Mokra, you know. So that's let everybody know that. Israel humble beginnings with me and I met Rome.
Speaker 1:So when I met Rome, through Marcus, I had this new rhythm and that's when we did Licka. That was the naughty or nice rhythm, right, and same Marcus and Rod and everybody jump on it, because that was the people accessible to me at the point in time. Right, I didn't really try to do no bar run or nobody. I was just like I, helping my friends and whoever wrong and willing to go on the train. We going Mm-hmm, and the bus went full steam ahead. Oh, boy and L, and the bus went full steam ahead and liquor became a thing and rum became a thing.
Speaker 1:So that's your first time really hearing a song on the radio and all them things. Nah, the first one played on the radio too. It was playing, yeah, explicit Christmas radio. I see, yeah, that played on the radio and things. To this day Rod's song is still played, and hard. He won't stick the clove in his hand Because, honestly and truly, it was a real cool double meaning song and it was original. Yeah, no one ever sing must sing. No Clover in the Ham, of course. Yeah, unique home mommy feeling at that time when she hear my mother loved Christmas.
Speaker 1:So I, and I think, honestly, I think Christmas is my favorite time of the year over Carnival, yeah, and I born in Carnival. My birthday is February 17th. You know when is my birthday? February something, dude, 17th. You lie, all right, check it. Corey Shepard, your birthday is February 17th, same day as Michael Jordan and my birthday. Don't go there. You see February 17th, imagine that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I born a carnival Sunday morning. I born a carnival Tuesday. Look at that, look at that, look at that. So I born in it. Yeah, boy, but Christmas is. I love Christmas, boy.
Speaker 1:Christmas is just giving me a different feeling. Now, boy, I feel like Christmas is family, is a very. I'm a Catholic too, you know. So Christmas has a deeper significance. I'm not saying I'm the most religious person, right, but growing up as a as a Catholic, in a Catholic household, christmas time was important, yeah, you know. So I love, I love the spirit of Christmas. I love the spirit of Carnival too, sure, but I feel like Christmas is more when, like the country is actually like families come together. Yeah, it's a difference, it's feeling. Yeah, the country is feeling a little different for Christmas, and it's not just Christians, it's the country. No, it's that very, very Trinbegonian thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because when you, the more you talk to people, you must ask them about the religion. You see, the religions we come from, they really shape the culture a lot like it's somewhat doubles and thing in the beginning, but the religion, the food, the music, all that's part of it's. Because look how, look how you saying you're catholic but you're saying that your music start from who say, yeah, you know, when you think about them, things we live in, peaceful, but things that cause other countries to be at war. Some of my best friends in school was Muslim boys in school. They were Muslim and because of that, as I said, it's Tassa and Hussein, and they kind of exposed me to that. I didn't know nothing, one of Hussein.
Speaker 1:But what I like, what you're saying, is that you keep going back to this. It's inspiring, to be honest, when you say but I was just doing what I like, yeah, and at the point in time it wasn't a conscious decision, it was not conscious, it's just normal. I'm just saying I was always the kind of person to just do what I like, of course, and follow that. So from then, you and Rome inseparable because they created a legacy over the next maybe 10 years, even that nobody had that on the cards. Serious, rome wanted to do Soca, really. This room wanted to do soca, really, yeah. So you just tried it, he just tried it and once again, the vibe was right. And then, same energies, when the woman I met, we realized we were real similar, very selfish, very easy, friendly, easy going, and it was just a real easy friendship. You know that that I mean working relationship and friendship in one. I understand, and he's the kind of person too, just like me, if we realize something working, we just gonna be there when it's hot and do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. And then we perfected the craft and then we eventually bumps up bongs upon Annie, yeah, you know. So Annie is really the breakout.
Speaker 1:My mother was responsible for that song. You know Is it, is it so? So my mom loves Poon. That's her favorite Trini delicacy. She loves cassava Poon, right, right. And when I was working in the ministry there was a lady used to walk around selling sugar cake, red mango bread and thing. And there was a point in time I was like and he said get a piece of porn for my mom. I was crying too and I was like what's the lady name boy, and I couldn't remember the name. And jokingly I was like it'd be real funny if her name was Annie and my partners was like Annie, I was like porn Annie. And he was like, eh, not real bad, gas up again. I take it, yeah, except for all gas, all gas, all gas Tank, always on E. So I take the gas up again.
Speaker 1:And we was working on this project and I sent Rome a voice note earlier morning. I was like Rome, if I'm not mistaken. I think I have it on my phone still, I'll check. You must keep that. Yeah, I don't show you nothing. Good, I like that, I like that.
Speaker 1:And um room was like, boy, my phone, my mother will kill me says no, I'm gonna sing that song. But anyway, I came in the studio, uh, I said, boy, let me try it now. Boy, let me like revive it. So we started vibing. So at that time, you just had the, you just had the phone and the beat, okay. So you built the beat. Yeah, my ma tell ya, at that point in time, I did Quatro. I'm a guitar partner, so I was building little parang beats. So, christmas time coming around, I would build a parang beat and put it on. And, um, as I, as I said, and he was 2016 or 17 around there, was he? So I started working in Rome in 2013. So four years, I would have learned how to build the parang beats. But the soccer parang had this. So I had the beat and I was like we vibe this one now, boy. So we vibing it and we writing more. We started doing it.
Speaker 1:Rome was like, boy, I can't do this song. He's like my mother will kill me if I sing this song. My mother will be really upset, because he grew up as a staunch Catholic too. I see, you know, in a real Catholic house. He's like I can't sing this way and my mother my mother kind of like me, I kind of have a personality very vibes-y and that kind of thing so the studio's home, so she passed and like Oli not doing the porn song again, oh, she like it. And then she was like, yeah, that was sounding good and Rome was like auntie, you serious, he's like yeah, that was sounding nice and he was like I don't know if auntie like it, boy, there we go through and we went through and that is Rome's biggest song, classic in Soka, parang and things. There are plenty of classics over the years, but that definitely is one like I keep talking to people about.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when you listen to Ponani, the Dublin Tundra, for me as somebody who has 40 something, it's not doubling it, it's direct. But I always wonder and I was asking Kiggs I say Kiggs, my ears getting old because when I hear Pona and he says Jesus Christ from House Parang, it's the only thing I wouldn't go in and put snows on, especially because you're from the west. So part of Parang is Paramin, cameron Hill and things. My dad's from Maraval, alright, well, you understand, initially my dad grew up in Maraval, so I have Coco Pile, blood and Aboy, you know, yeah, well, he, not that, but he, he blend in from the area, from the area. If you look deep down, you probably, yeah, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 1:But you know the whole sparring thing, it's a certain things including like so, uh, kiggs was using the example of Kenny I want my brush and that thing, which I always knew was double entendre. But Keegs had mentioned a song when he was here If I ain't come, if I ain't come, that's Baron. Yeah, yeah, if I come. And until Keegs say that it's only then I see I'm so sure they ain't come. It's true, but so that answers my question too. Yeah, because I always wanted to talk to you or room about that song, because I saying, boy, are we overstepping the line? Yeah, yeah, but the truth is that I don't know if we are. You know, it's a funny thing.
Speaker 1:Somebody came up to me, could be about two, three years ago, and it was like you know, I only realized what punani was saying a big person. Yeah, it was like I did not know because, remember, we grew up and dance hall, so a lot of old people don't know Punani, they don't know that. I didn't think of that. You're right, that word is not a word in their orbit. Yeah, it's not resonating with them. So, the 30s and under, I would say, at the point in time, that's a word we will know. But old people rarely say punani and things like that. Yeah, it's not. To me, it's not part of what's more of a vernacular. Yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1:So there was, like you know, when you just realized what is all this, I like that, and I was like that's good, because in all mine it was wrong. When you say explicit, I like that you give the definition of explicit. Yeah, because, like that same thing, I was talking about kenny. One of these things I was saying is that kenny phillips did.
Speaker 1:I saw a friend of mine post something saying music going from um singing sandra, die with my dignity to lady lava up, and I don't. You saw it. No, everybody entitled to their own opinion, right, but I I don't like that statement too much because I don't like it either. Music is not a static thing, it's not. So one of the things I was playing in that episode today is that Kenny Phillips produced United Sisters' Woe Donkey. Yeah, and he also produced Watch Out my Children, children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to let creators create. Yeah, even if I don't like it, even if you do something and I say, boy, I ain't so sure about it. Well, now I know I could just gas you up right through. I don't want to tell you I don't like nothing. But if you don't like it, that's fine. Yeah, but don't stop a creator. Yeah, I don't believe in it. Well, that's the thing. Like for me when it comes to creating.
Speaker 1:It has was come home. Yeah, I didn't like come home, really, no, I didn't like come home. I didn't think, come on, would I be waiters to this day? So what's your approach with things like that? Then, when somebody approaches, I realize that when I hate a song, it's because, yeah, because most of my songs I don't like, it's my big songs, serious, most. But so how do you get yourself any mental space to work on it even though you ain't like it? No, no, no. So, like what would happen? Well, I'm gonna jump to come home, but, um, most of the times we create the beat and we like the beat, and then we send it to a writer or the artist comes up with an idea and brings a different energy to the song, and for me, that's not necessarily me. I am yeah, you see, in the end. So there's not the road. I so where, I didn't mind. I didn't mind the demo. You know the demo wasn't bad, right, the problem was I don't want to say the problem was, yeah, the song was written for marshall and destra, right, and they turn it down. Then we try kiss and patrice they turn it down. Yeah, we try lyrical and patrice lyrical turn it down. Then we tried Kes and Patrice they turned it down. We tried Lyrical and Patrice Lyrical turned it down. We tried everybody. And we ended up working with Nyla on another song and we just happened to play it for Nyla. It was something in the water. Me, kit and Kyle went by Ants in the studio to play that for them and when we finished we were like, hey, you want to hear this demo that we have, they play it and they like it from jump. But it was Nyla alone at the point in time. Nyla sang the whole song by herself, the whole song. So just for this day, kit, israel, and which, kyle, phillips, phillips. Yeah, so we did that during COVID, so Kit and I would have been talking, and then that song was written to pitch to Fian. Serious, he was like I want to do a kind of pop, r&b style song for Fian. So Kit had sent me the dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, the chords and he's like, well, you's a power sucker man, you do, la Dana, that's a man who you more cultured. Kit is a groovy man, kit like slow, groovy thing, but I, yeah, I anything, anything with Mina, anything, you're having fun? Yeah, I'm having fun, I vibes in. So I was like, send it to me, I'm going to challenge myself. And I started working on the drums and wherever and started sending back. And Kit sent back the idea, it and just mumbles, it was really making sense, super dumb. And I was like I don't know where to go with this again. And he's like, let me send kyle now, all the time we playing game and we play in warzone online. I was never a gamer, by the way, yeah, so I hope everybody else was playing game and they just so to know that the game Warzone was where Warzone was the golf course for us. That's where the deals was cutting. And in that little chat is where men would be like, nah, you're looking for something, I was looking for something, nah, they're looking for something. Then they send me this, send me that, send me that, and when we come off the game is work. So that's how Come Home started. Kit sent it to me, I sent it to Kyle, kyle sent it to Jeffers. Jeffers finished writing the song with Kit Melodies. Was it Jeffers too? Yeah, jeffers took Kit's gibberish and put words on a story to it. Yeah, I see him this morning and one of the things I always say when I talk to him or see him is that nobody will ever understand who writes in these songs Never. Yeah, I hope he comes. He said he'll come. But some Jeff was a real interesting story too, I would imagine. I would imagine, because he's heavy corporate. Yeah, yeah, of course, very, very corporate, but I felt that I see him in a shirt, pants and a jersey and I make. So that's how that song came about. So when it says we did the beat, I didn't really remember what fear I had in my mind. And then we said when Jeff first had his song, he was like it's something like a Marshall and Desha, that kind of vibes After COVID come out with a Marshall and Desha Problems. So that was the vision I done, gassing up again, I taking it. Yeah, marshall and Desha. And it just slowly started to fail, fail, fail, until we bumped some Nyla and I said Nyla did it the whole song by herself and it was missing that balance. It was kind of written to always be a duet, you know. So when we had nobody, I started to lose hope and interest. And then Skinny came on it and by the time it came out, answer, and they reached out to them and he did it one time by and by the time it came out, hanson and the Rich Otter said that I see, I see, and he did it one time, by the point in time I was so over it. You know, it's not like I didn't like the song, I just didn't think it was going to be come home. You see how that game of momentum that just started building and building, building, that song still plays just like, just like, just like it's carnival is now. I think that is like the modern it's carnival for this generation forever. It's one of those songs, for sure, and it was just because we had this goal in mind and then shift the goal poster here. And yeah, that's the thing with creators. I don't understand. You might be seeing the end point, but people, you know where it is. Yeah, and the thing about it, like, I remember that. Yeah, in particular, the road match race was tight. I can't remember who else or who would have ended up in any road match. Adfet, oh yeah, that would be hard to stop. But the thing about it is, were you to the Adfet too? Nah, that was DJ Amal, alright, just making sure. Yeah, went to a demo performing together for Carnival, which was everywhere and building. Like every time, you see the response to the song yeah to this day. Yeah to this day. Um, trinidad was playing the unity cup in London, outside the stadium. Somebody sent me a video. They were singing no, they were singing party. But um, anytime, curry, when people come together, come home, it's the song they sing. I saw it in something in new york in new york, yeah, outside, it was the cash show. It was the cash show and it was crazy in your road, like a national anthem. Yes, and this is not trinnies, this is caribbean people, just like um, just like marshall and deshroy. It's almost. It's a different route, but it take a different route, but it end up right where you wanted it to end up, correct, and I think that's one of the songs that will continue to build and build and build. But when Keegs come here, keegs say, boy, you put it on Facebook and people tell him everyone is a man to go by. Then it big up, then it, yeah, then it. So the thing about it is after Ponani before you get into that, because I had no idea that come home with your first power soaker. Yeah, I think any experimenting with that long time by the time it gets to that, well, it was the first power soaker that I release, I see, but I was making power soaker beats. Oh, yeah, you're doing it. Yeah, yeah. So where, where it went, was it just you and rome working on it? How you get to be known as as parents of? Is it radio when you just keep hearing explicit, yeah, yeah. So when it is just hearing explicit, yeah, when I know, what does it think? When I? No, well, that's the thing with me. As I said, when I realize something working, I am inspired. I stick the gas up. Yeah, I stick the gas up, you know. So I, I realize it working and I, I enjoy it, you know. So if I find joy in what I'm doing and making my money, why not? Yeah, best of all, you know. And on top of that, the working relationship with Rome is cool, you know, it's an easy environmental work with easy person. We're on the same page most times and even if we fall out and things, it's a mature falling out, gotcha. It's like we agree to disagree, right, and we moved forward. So we just started to work, work, work, work, work and, um, but Rome didn't really want to do Parang. Yeah, he still wants to be our soca artist. Good, that's good, you know. So we try the soca here and there. We still have a session with Rome tonight. Oh, nice, you know. So we still try, you know, because that's his passion, that's what you really want to be. Um, so I, I just was working with room and then keegs, um, that time I, my studio was no, I was not trying to open up the space to people I don't know, because I don't know keegan from nowhere, you know somebody, I know dennett, right, and dennett would have recommended me to keegan and I was like, okay, well, if dennett say thing, yeah, he had to be a cool fella and Dennett had vouched for him because I don't know Kegan and who he is, of course, of course Total stranger coming in my house, and I was like cool. But when I met Kegan, it was an easy thing too, because Kegan is really cool people. Yeah, that's all in football. Yeah, yeah, you know. So it was an easy connection as well too. So I started to diverse or divert away from just working with Rome to working with, yeah, everybody. I saw when my own be acting with Rome, acting with Keegs. I have a fish at Brung, like all the young, like I will key, like I tried. I started to make a conscious decision I wanted to work with the upcoming. Okay, so kenny have, like the old school and he was responsible for a generation. Yeah, I said to myself I want to be responsible for a lot of the younger people first sets, yeah, so the gigs and the rooms and your fisher bronx and the younger generation of parang people. I said I want to work with them because I want to be responsible for their careers now and I'm saying I have to work with them right through. But nobody understand. I had a responsibility because I was a leader in new school in parang. There's no young soccer, parang producers, not just that. It's a real big gap. Exactly, it's either you're hearing Baron and and Scrunter and then it's Rome. Well, think about it. You're hearing from radio, but when you think about it from either man, church House, parang, yeah, and all the songs we play, and I can tell you now it's a real old song 70s, 80s, same thing. So I was refreshed. You know it's when you hear somebody I always wondered if it was deliberate, because you start hearing a bunch of people now and all of a sudden, eddie, you just have a whole crew man. I had Richard Eddie too, to jump on when I married him, but at the point that time he was at 18 strong, and the timing doesn't work out. No, but that would um knowledge of it when it comes to the players in the game. So, if I do in parang, I want to work with scrunter, I want to work with marcia miranda, I want to work with, with baron and everybody. Um, actually, that was one of the things that we had planned, rome and I. We wanted to do something called a legends album oh sweet, where rome was working with a roman, a roman marcia, a Roman Baron, a Roman scrunter, before they die. Because Kenny G G G G, kenny G G G, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and by myself, you know. So when he passed. That was a big, that was a blow. So we felt like we were at another time, you know, and we wanted to give these people I don't know if you've ever been to any of our room concerts, no, no, no, you've been around the room every year he gives like a lifetime award to the legends. So he gives scrunch. He actually gives Kenny G, he gave Marcia, you know. So he gave, he gave them the flowers before they pass on because we know that they don't have a lot of time with us anymore. So it's even though we're doing this modern version of Parang, we never take it for granted, the contribution or the road that they would have paved for us. Well, I want to say that because, almost as somebody who will play both, I find I feel it to be honest, like again going back to the reference party. When I heard party the first time I have a story to it, I would imagine my first thought to it was the familiarity yeah, I say somebody here not guessing, yeah, I say this is not guesswork, yeah. So that's when I came back and recorded there and I said no, I had to put these things together Because these chords Is not Nobody not guessing, yeah. So when and I hear a lot of that With the parang Like there's one particular song you had done with Kiggs, with Things you could bring out the ham, I said in yeah, when I hear that, I say Kiggs, there's this, you know, yeah, because it's so reminiscent of things that men do. It's very modern, yeah, but it grounded, yeah. So I appreciate the fact that you're working with the youth and stuff, because if you don't have nobody who will do that, you're going to have a problem boy. Yeah, I think, as I said, for me, being a creative, I'm a kind of hybrid, because I'm not just a creative brain, I'm very structured and organized because of my corporate involvement. I suppose you spend a long time, so I'm very, very on time. As you can see today, I don't play with timing and things. I don't communication. If I can't make it, I'll let you know. If it's a time I will be there one time, not come on any music industry. I would message you and say on my way, right, to let you know. That's all, I am Right, and it's a kind of balance between being organized and being creative. Well, like when you send message to say on your way, I tell myself. All right, you're running late. That's what Trinidadians mean when they say on the way, but you were dead on for me. I try to be very strategic with a lot of the things I do, so it's not by chance. Yeah, a lot of it is thought out, gotcha. So by the time you're I mean you're dominating again. Who's the explicit boy? Who's with it? A random man on Fiverr, serious A Fiverr person? During COVID I was looking for a producer tag and I was like I went on 5up, I'm on 5US, and he sent me back 20 versions. He asked me for details. He was like where's my name, where's my subreque, where's do, where from? And he sent me a host of different things and he just said explicit boy. And I was like, damn, this sound kind of cool. I kept that one. Yeah, 5 years, 5 years, boy. It cannot go wrong. 5 years making millions? I don't know millions. So, even as you get known for that, your mind on what else you want to do other than soca parang, because to go into power, soca you. But that's the thing. Like, as I said, I never wanted to be a Parang person. Sure, that started off For vibes and meeting room. You know, we was good at it and there was a space To be filled, there was a niche and we decided To dominate that. So what was that space that you saw in power soaker that make you? It's not a suburb or soca, I was just doing soca, I was just. If you know me, I will make beats every day, whole day. Serious, I would just express myself through making beats and once something inspired me, I always make hundreds of beats a year. You might hear 10 songs, yeah, but I have 90, something that nobody heard. With experiments, you know different tones, different styles, different hybrids and all these different things. So you hear in 10, but I make hundreds of beats, yeah. So that's important, that outlet critical for you. It seems like that's part of your being. You need to do that, yeah, of course. So when somebody asks me for beats, you can ask anybody in the industry. I'm never an accident. When you ask me for beats, you are getting 30 or 20 in your whatsapp and I know the kind of beats to send to different people. Yeah, I always want to ask that like you, you, you studying the artist, basically, then you understand, even when I approach writers to write songs, I'll be be like yeah, guys, we need to channel this, this vibe, even the key or the swing or the groove. You just kind of know an artist's style and a sound, you know. So, if it's a Marshall, if it's a Bungee, if it's a voice, you know it's minor chords and you know voice, like that kind of vibe. Yeah, you know Marshall, my happier purchase, and now they're like a kind of Bajan swing, a kind of B-I-L-L-A-N bounce. Yeah, I don't know them. So I send in beats that to me, suit them, match them. Yeah, I understand. So it's very calculated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I say. No, party was once again, just a beat. Right, I just had the beat. For how long? I started that beat in June 2024. Oh, so that's new. Okay, yeah, and I had the beat totally done and I sent Jeffers came at me to do something else with Rome, at the point in time when I was just playing beats, after Two corporate men. Yeah, so I'm playing the beats and he's like, yeah, this one bad. So he's like, senator, me, I have a flight to catch and I'll vibe it on the flight wherever. So a few days pass, nothing happened. I send it to Marshall. Marshall say wait, boy, this bad boy, he's got a kind of footsteps kind of energy. That's what he tell me. He says I have a kind of footsteps kind of energy. That's what he tells me. He says what kind of footsteps energy. I like this Senator Corey, and them full blown. See what they come up with. I send it to them. I say Marshall, see you like this. He says send it to all of you To see if all of you come up with something. They're now vibing something with Marshall because they were with Marshall in New York at the point in time. But he said it wasn't anything significant, right. And a little while after Jeffers came with his idea for party Wait, fast forward. In between that my computer crashed, really Right. So Jeffers wanted to finish the demo that he had in his head and he was like bro, send me the files for party, wait, the computer didn't crash yet. He was like send me the files for party, wait, the committee didn't crash yet. He was like send me the files. I go down my Kyle, right. I was like nobody's asked for files to write a song? Yeah, why you need my stems to finish write a demo? Yeah. He was like well, I just wanna um cut out some parts. A bit of vibe in the intro kind of thing thing, some parts, a bit of vibe in the intro kind of thing. And I said, you know what, me and Jeff was good because Jeff was his room manager, so me and Jeff was real good. Yeah, jeff was the manager of the room, so me and Jeff was real good, so thing. And then me and Kyle real good. So I was like you know what, I trust them. I'll send them my files the next day. My computer that was the last set of files I bunks before I lost everything Because as backup files that's done or projects are ongoing. I'm making hundreds of beats. So if I'm making all these beats, I'm not going to back it up because it's nothing yet. It's just a beat I built in a different time. Yeah, it's working files, so I didn't back that up. But Jeff has asked me for these stems. Imagine that. And I just happened to say no. Most of the times the answer to that question would be no. Yeah, because nobody ever feel like his stems. Why you want my stems to write a song, you know. So I trust them. There's my friends. I send everything. Anyway, jeff was sending back this demo. That time I have nothing. I had a little depression too, because I said to myself what am I season done? Am I season done? All my potential projects lost, totally lost. I had nothing. I said boy, what am I going to do? Boy? So Jeff was sending this song and I said, boy, my season is banking on this. I had to get this right. So he sent it back. I said, nah, boy, it's not boy. I said Jeff was, this is not your usual work, boy. I said the first draft, you do the first round. I said it's not your usual work. The chorus was there. Yeah, okay, we work so hard, but it wasn't arranged in the order. Nah, so I said it's not usual with boy Jeffers. But yeah, I was like I was expecting something different because you know me, I didn't see it. But you're also telling him yeah, let him know. That's the thing with me. I will tell somebody if I don't like something, if something could change, and on the flip side, I try to be open, to let people do the same with me, of course, and criticize me. You know, once you're respectful, I don't ever try to be disrespectful, but I would say it as it is. I was like jeff was boy, I don't think there's it, boy, I said let me try again. So that's when he asked me for these stems, sent it to him so he come back. And he sent back a revised version. I was like, okay, cool, this sound a little better. But let me put the hook on the top with no just chords and build the emotion into the thing. And I say that by the truck sounding like Marshall boy. I say, only way we can get rid of the song is if Marshall sing it. I say, and Marshall like the beat. But he tell me it's a kind of Footsteps vibes. So I say, well, we try to do the demo like a Marshall song and picture Tim Right, why, senator Marshall? So when you say, do the demo, who lane the vocals to the demo? A guy named. Oh, yes, get somebody to come in and do that. Well, jeffers and Kyle have this person who did the demo Got you. It's multiple different from people because Jeffers can't sing. Yeah, you know. So he got this guy named Keegan I think is his name Keegan Haynes or something like that. Right, yeah, he did the demo and he kind of channeled that Marshall energy and we sent it to Marshall Again, no word, because that time he had his 40-something back years I remember, yeah. And about a week or two after he messaged me he called me. He said my friend put this on ice. He said when I come back you know that we're going to deal with this. He gave me a full thing. He said I played for everybody. I played for Steven, I played for everybody in the band. He said everybody like it, boy. He said I think there's it. He said I think there's it Because I didn't really believe again too. No, I just find this song was good. But it was so different with that kind of choir intro and I was like what's this way? Kind of weird. I told you, if I was in your best work, imagine that. I said once I tell you you're so lame, I tell I'm a poor judge, poor, poor, poor judge. So anyway, as marcia say, he believe in it. And then he came back and we started. We had a meeting and our videos of Marshall playing his song over and over and over and over, jumping up on his table, riffing up the chair. He was real in it and I was like wait, I started to believe. At that point in time. I was like this man is 50 years, he have real ears on me. If he know and he get on like this, we probably really do have something. And I said, kyle, I have no computer. I need it to be involved in this project for me. You need to save my career or save my season, right? And that's how I grouped Kyle into, because we would have just done the demo by Kyle. But Kyle is my friend too and I was like boy, if I had to do this session, kyle, do it by me, let Masha go down by you and let me come down by you now. But I said I don't have a computer, I need help, but I want you to be a part of this project. And he said, cool, so it was me, jeffers and Kyle, but me, jeffers and Kyle work on before, so it was an easy, I guess, working relationship. It was that easy. Uh, I guess, yeah, working, yeah, working relationship is easy. So that's a guy I had no problem with, with sharing that, yeah, and kyle pulled, kyle pulled through. I have a question for you about that sharing thing, because I saw something online with somebody talking about when a producer produce a song back in the day you used to hear one man do everything. It was just that person responsible. Now, in music you find that several people touch. What's your thoughts on that? Well, I think that forms from the international scene. When it is, you look at the grammys and stuff. You look at there's engineers, there's producers, there's writers, there's executive producers. And when you look at the writing credits for those big songs, what kind of teams, people, it's not one person, and this wasn't done by. It wasn't like we tried to copy it. I just feel like that's the way music collaboration has became easier. Through the internet and that kind of stuff, it's easy to just send a man files and he will connect, send it back. Or we write something and he work on it, send it back. Or we write something together, man tweak something, send it back. I think the advent of the internet and how the internet became so integral in the working space for us it just made life easier to collaborate. So I love it. Yeah, I love it, because I feel like I would have never have a party without Jeffers and Kyle involvement, I suppose. Or come home, yeah, yeah, take me home, take me home. What's his story? As I collab with Kit too. So Kit had a session with Free Tongue and he's like my friend. I kind of need and I need your help, because I had a session with them last year and nothing really come out of it. So I think like if you come and give me a little help, a little hand, we can kind of come up with something. And I was like Kit and I, kit living in the Vale, I live in San Lucia now, so it's easy, I live in two minutes away from Kit's house, right come through and add to the vibes, yeah. So we end up just vibing in the studio and Lou came up with these chords and it's like it's sounding like high mass boy, you know that wasn't done on purpose as well, but it's like, okay, even if the chord progression is similar, let us not let the song or the lyrics or the melody sound like high mass. So Muhammad and I went outside and we vibing, vibing, vibing. So luan kits was inside kind of laying down the guitars and stuff and me and muhammad outside it as vibing, trying to come up with melodies that do song like high mass. And then I came up with the, the hook, the main hook, he take me home. And then he was like, yeah, the song is good, boy. We went inside and the fellas had liked it and we put it down and then we didn't have a post chorus and I, once again, I was like we need a bacchanal part boy, we need some jamming in this boy. It's too, it's too nice, the whole song too nice. I was like we need a little jamming and I came up with it and it was just mumbles. And then and lou was like fellas, this is the hot fries. Yeah, he's like this is the hot fries that trinidadians like this is what I like, hot fries with ketchup. And look, that's what people hold on to. That is it? That's what people hold on to. So that was a easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy session too. It was a few sessions because Mohammed and Lou wanted to tweak the lyrics and stuff, but in terms of the coming up with the first draft, that was our first session With beats and melodies. One time I think people underestimate listeners. I hear people talk about our high mass and take me home comparison, but people underestimate how much song are the same chords? Of course, you say you learn three chords on the quadro. That is, that's all you need in song. Yeah, yeah. So I don't understand this. Chord progressions is nothing new under the sun, of course it it. It becomes unique when they change all the tones, the bpm, the tempo, the groove, all those things. Well, everything will make it unique. But the actual chord progression, if it's a look at the a, minor, a thing, c thing, it's the same thing, it's what it is. You can't well invent anything new. Yeah, one of these days you should make one that new. So you hear everybody how bad it's sung and they understand why you had to go back to something. Yeah, so that was a nice experience. I had to tell people how terrible my timing was this week, because my phone is very organized and clearly I'm not, because I have this thing booked for the next half hour and Conrad and them now putting me all back here. It's a song I had to ask you Home and I see your name. I said, nah, I had to find out who is this man. He knows something. But one of them songs that was so familiar you did was Nadia Batten. Every Time, is this the work that you did? Yeah, that was a nice collaboration. How was it? That was me and Stems. So COVID again. Right, stems reached out to me. He's like bro I'm a real fan of your work and that kind of stuff and let's collaborate on our track. So he would have sent me the chords and stems came from a chutney background. He's in Canada, yes, yeah. Montreal, montreal, yeah. So he sent me the chords. So he's a keyboardist, so he's very good at music. And he sent me the chords and I was was like this is what kind of farmer energy, you know. So we, he sent me it and then I said send me. There's the cause. I don't like your drums right, so you don't have it. You don't have that drum size right, so I take it explicit yeah, yeah, I say I need demand drums and I do over the drums and I add some sauce. And I was like I was like you know, anybody could put guitars on this boy. He's like, yeah, do it. And he sent it back and things. So I was kind of guiding what he had. So he came up with the chords first and then I would have added to it. And then that was our next story where I didn't believe. So I sent it to Ico and Nadia first and they sent me back anytime and I was like I don't think that is it, boy, really. I have a screenshot to show. I said I don't think that is it, boy, what? And then I end up sending it to Cohen and Cohen came up with it and I was like you know what, Let me just make this a two-man rhythm. Then I messaged back I call like November. I was like we go and go through the time with the files, right, just by the way. I was like you could win this boy. Yeah. I said, yeah, we go and go with you could win. Imagine that. Imagine that horrible judge of some songs. I said, yeah, boy, you could win this. You go and go with us two song with him. I said stems, you go and go through With this boy and every time, just take off. That's how you market it. Yeah, so when you drop it it doesn't really resonate yet it just keep building it, just build, build and then catch it Along the line yeah, now it's going to go around as one of our classics. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because every time I take a drink I feel like wine. Yeah, so that was a I'm never on poor judgment good, so at least we learned something today. We learned for sure. But when you go by my phone, do something you ain't like at all. And you, you, you go. Trailer jam rhythm was the next thing like that. Yeah, that was with Trinad Killer and Tempa T E M P A and he so called push back right there. I didn't like that rhythm at all. That rhythm was in the and Lady LaVoice, who came and wrote all the songs on our rhythm oh, she write them. Ride on till we lie down. For Trinidad Killer, temper by the truck, patrice Roberts remix, the father fox and the young brother on it. My friend, we need our part 2. We're missing. Alright, so this is the first episode officially where we stop in and we're gonna come back and do part 2. We had to start over. This is our whole next story again. And two, because of every genre of music you touch. I want to tell you, like I told you in the beginning, where Kenny Phillips and them concerned, like I saw your comments when I popped the Kenny Phillips episode, I said there's one here to see and I guarantee you the going to talk was only the same exact way. I mean, we didn't even talk about the trap soting that we did with Makadi. We didn't talk about nothing Because we talked about how Kenny and I was branding things Right, like when it says we were doing hip hop, we had branded trap. So Because it was trap music with soca elements, you know, and that was done by design, gotcha, you know we was purposely saying looking for soca melodies and Soca or Carnival references to put in our songs, but the beats was chop. So part two, conrad, you're going to make sure we book the right time the next time, right? Yeah, just make sure we book the right time. We'll do a part two where I appreciate you coming through this. This fellow Aquarian, you ever imagine that that was on? People would. That was unpleasant. People would never believe you didn't clap now, you know, but I appreciate you coming through. We only take one drink. We had to do it. That's why Take more. It's problems. That's what I'm saying, man. Thank you.