Corie Sheppard Podcast
The Corie Sheppard Podcast
A trusted space for honest, Caribbean-rooted conversations that connect generations, challenge norms, and celebrate culture through real stories and perspectives.
Hosted by Corie Sheppard-Babb, the podcast explores the lives, journeys, and ideas of the Caribbean’s most compelling voices—artists, entrepreneurs, cultural leaders, changemakers, and everyday people with powerful stories. Each episode goes beyond headlines and hype to uncover the values, history, humour, struggle, and brilliance that shape who we are.
Whether it’s music, business, creativity, identity, advocacy, or community, this podcast holds space for the kind of dialogue that inspires reflection, empowers expression, and preserves our legacy. It’s culture in conversation—unfiltered, intergenerational, and deeply Caribbean.
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Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 253 | Chromatics: From Hip-Hop Battles to Cultural Commentary
This week on The Corie Sheppard Podcast, we sit down with Chromatics — rapper, radio host, and founder of OUR Radio — to talk about music, entrepreneurship, and the courage to carve your own path.
From the cultural shockwaves of Carnival Rap Up to the reflective storytelling of Tobago Chokey, Chromatics shares how he built his career on authenticity and adaptability. He opens up about the dream of performing on the Skinner Park and Dimanche Gras stages, the lessons learned in timing and stagecraft, and why slowing down an acoustic version gave his music new life.
We also dive into the origin story of OUR Radio: how he walked away from traditional stations, built his own platform during the pandemic, and created a space dedicated to local artists across genres. At the heart of it all is his philosophy of “making passion profitable” — a lesson for anyone chasing a vision against the odds.
This is a conversation about legacy, culture, and entrepreneurship in Trinidad & Tobago’s music scene.
Click the link in my bio for the full episode.
#coriesheppardpodcast
Hi, my name is Corey Shepard, according to David Weirs. I'll have with me today, Chromatics. What's good, brother?
SPEAKER_02:Everything is cool? Yes, man. Pleasure. Pleasure to be here. Pleasure to be here.
SPEAKER_04:Pleasure having you here. Pleasure having you here. Really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's news, David. We have a fan. This is our first. We start on one. Everything is starting one. Nah, don't try that. Our one goal today, though. Because I tell you, I'm underprepared. I feel like I guess how you'd grow up and dance well and soak and things. So I'm glad to have one of the first people who outside of my comfortable genre of calypso, though, you playing all the games. Right. But I do not end up in a wrap-up. I say I do a good enough job, so I do end up in nobody in nobody bad news, right? That's the plan. Everybody on board?
SPEAKER_02:You on board?
SPEAKER_03:No, well, you okay, both probably in the next one because you do a whole wrap-up episode and they call me. That is true. That is true. Salute to Franca. Salute to Frank.
SPEAKER_04:You know, call Franca, you call me. Because after we recorded Franca, of course, we record very, very close to the end of Carnival to cover everything. And then you release the wrap-up, which makes me run back in studio to talk about the wrap-up and the and the breakdown of it. This year was uh another special one. Congrats on that. Thank you. It's a good place to start, you know. Let me go back to my notes, huh? Because Dredd, this year wrap-up, right? I hear Yankee Boy Cartel, Trinidad, Killer Pronto, Full Blown Marshall, Nicki Minaj, Akimpa 5.0, Benji Hoppy Kiss, Joshua Grillo. That's only one verse. Yeah. That's the first verse of the hit. How you split together, boy, when you deal with the wrap-up. You be taking notes whole carnival or something because Yankee Boy was forgotten.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty much. I wouldn't say that. That was still a big talking point throughout the thing. But then, of course, the whole Trinidad Killer thing kind of overshadowed the entire carnival. You know what I mean? Because and then March Marshall just sort of perpetuated it with the Nicki Manaj thing and whatever. But yeah, I mean, I just started taking notes from December. Serious. Yeah. Once you've season swinging in. Yeah, when I realized that you know, I developed a process for it over the years. And it's just like taking notes. It might be just be all right, this instance happened, just writing on the instance, or a line might come to me about that thing. So it's like finding the pieces to the puzzle and then putting it together. And reason why I like to take notes in that order, it makes it work a little easier. Right. And then I can also do it in somewhat somewhat of a chronological order. Somewhat. Yeah. And I stick to that all the time. The CF felt like that.
SPEAKER_04:Some of them is feel like if you know they jump in. But what's interesting about it, right, is when you talk about truth, people talk about the two-week wonder thing where any news story just gets dead when the next big story comes out. So you have a way of putting it together because again, uh podcasting every week, I would typically talk about current affairs. And if a week passed from that Yankee boy thing, I feel like you care it dead. Yeah. But the way you put it across, the subtle way it's putting again as a man who I'd an outsider hip hop and I listen to men doing uh, for instance, a disc record. Like we see we see last year was one of the biggest years in battle rap, I guess. But when you you had to listen, listen to Kendrick to get everything that you say, you know? Yeah. And it's like that with you. Do your wrap-up is the same age.
SPEAKER_02:I don't try to be so dense with it. You don't find so? I I try not to be. Yeah. But I mean, certain things will just lead to that, depending on on the topic and and what I how I want to bring it across.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I find when, like, for instance, you when you say pronto, you ain't really saying pronto in this year one, you know, you kind of just say put it out pronto. Yeah, so it's like a double entonce.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So it's you know, he had to put out the song Pronto, meaning he had to put out the song right away because he'd now do a remix, but the producer's name was also Pronto. So yeah, it's just using those, you know, double entons, triple entons.
SPEAKER_04:Of course, of course. Yeah. So when we see Pronto and Treasure that killer fall out now, you have any intention of like doing an update version? It's gonna hear you all the time now.
SPEAKER_02:Too much work. Pay for that, bro. They pay for it yes, this, yeah, and then shout out to everybody that contributed towards the the um uh crowdfunding campaign, and shout out to all the sponsors who came on board. Yeah, didn't see any end of the video, you had all the sponsors. Yeah, we did. It's uh a business now. Can we wrap up is our business? Yeah, it's always been, but I I found it right way, I think, now in the last two years of monetizing the product. Right. And that was always my struggle. Um, you know, because it's such a as it's now talking about the two-week window or whatever. From a time, it's not a song that people might necessarily go back and listen to over and over and over. You watch it once, you watch it twice, you get your laughs, you get your kicks, like hey Matrix boy, you're mad. Yeah, right, and then you're you're you're moving on, you know what I mean? So I understand that it has, it doesn't have necessarily have that long replay value. So I need to monetize it in the lead up and at the moment, yeah. Gotcha, gotcha.
SPEAKER_04:So you see it as like social commentary because Calypso was a space where you used to do that. Although I feel like you know, um, they say name calling things. I don't know that Calypso was ever so direct. Nah.
SPEAKER_02:Or brave. Yeah, uh, they were definitely brave, but yeah, it was never that direct, and that's the hip-hop element of it, I guess. You know, but at this end of the day, it is social commentary, yeah. For sure, for sure. The the the kind of a wrap-up is that, and I mean, I don't know where you want to go with the conversation, but but I mean that is something that I took from Calypso, social commentary and hip-hop, and that is a common thread between the two genres. Right. Very much a common thread as opposed to, I mean, a lot of other music, yes, folk music, whatever, whatever, has those, but in such a lyrical art form as calypso and hip-hop, lyrically dense, they do tend to deal with you know social topics, and that's it came out of those kind of struggles talking about things around them.
SPEAKER_04:Gotcha. So, when you first started with your first wrap-up, you have that in mind in terms of okay, this being a social commentary. Because as far as I have I have this theory that anybody who's a trini singing calypso, regardless of genre. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so you you feel that we're going in? Shout out to uh Kenny Phillips. Right. I mean, as I say, he basically told me, he say, Mattix, you is a Calypsoan disguised as a rapper. Right? There's early days he telling you this. No, that's actually like um when I brought out Outside Man. Okay, you know what I mean? And well, he had he had seen me perform a few other places prior to that, you know what I mean? Um, but as I say, the song that really sort of changed my direction was a song called Puppet and a song called Rumors. People names again, yeah, yeah, yeah. People's names again. But why did this is what happened in around me? You know what I mean? And I think maybe because it was so um, what's the word I'm looking for? It was not the norm to call people names in songs that it was so shocking and why it worked, you know what I mean, with with puppet and and rumors. And I at the point in time I had made a decision to really not go down the route of begging traditional media for forward or support, you know what I mean? And I realized that when I wrote these songs, I was writing about the frustration that a lot of artists feel internally, especially around that time. The the internet was and and social media was now really sort of YouTube now come out and these kind of things, right? So we didn't have a lot of outlets. Um so and I was using Facebook, the advent of social media at the time to promote. And I had these songs, I sang them. I always remember the day. We was in the studio Highway Records in Kira. We had now come back up from office streets selling our products, right? And the whole team, one man.
SPEAKER_04:Selling music, right? Your musical products, right? When you say rappers and our products, it might, you know, I mean, nah nah.
SPEAKER_02:You see the stigma? The stigma and the stereotyping, we will not have that here today, so right? Um yeah, and I remember I'd pull out my rhyme book or something I was working on, um, and I just started singing, and everybody just kind of looked up, like, yo, that's real different, boy. You know what I mean? And then me and my manager at the time, shout out to Still fortunately, we said, Here, what going on? We're gonna hit every and any show that we could get. And this was around the July, August vacation, and we did like 30 or 35 shows in two months. So it'll be like what yeah? This is two 2008. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, you know, so I didn't even put out the song yet. The songs weren't released. So you just work any song? It wasn't it wasn't even recorded. I see. We I was just working the records, working the records live. And through that, we got book for Heineken, Green Synergy Thing, Hennessy, Artistry, whatever, whatever. Just offer just out there grinding, and people be like, I remember I sing Puppet in Zen. So Puppet is the first time when you're really put everybody name it. But that was how that would be.
SPEAKER_03:So not, yeah, for the most part.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I would have called names before it's hip-hop, bro. That should we do? You know what I mean? So I I I was I've done it before minimally, right? Yeah, yeah. But then that I don't say Puppet was just the first one I was like actually not attacking. I don't want to use that word, yeah, not attacking, but highlighting the certain people who were had a certain power at the at the point in time, you know what I mean, and a certain sway. You think, and like me and Wendell are all good. Yeah, you know, most respectful. Well, yeah, you know what I mean. Wendell tricky, like, yeah, not wend all. Yeah, but um, yeah, it was just not only containing my frustrations, but the frustrations of the entire industry. That's where people relate. And people know the struggles, but nobody wants to talk about it. They rather go behind a man's back or shushoo in a corner about it. Yeah, behind closed doors conversations. I hear that. You know, you go, you will, you know, these same people, you go be like all giddy giddy in front of the face or whatever, and then boys are himself when you go on the side. But you know what I mean? So it's like let me let me talk about the things. And it was more the funny thing about it is I was really making fun of myself as well.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's the thing, it's a double and sundry now, wave. Can you call yourself the puppet? Yeah, puppet dance on everything, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I mean? And I'm saying, like, you know, a day big, eye small. And yeah, yeah, so it was so it had a and that's the one. So rumors was a song similar to that, but which was a little more harsh, right? But when I saw the reaction performing puppet, and people draws dropping, so people are shocked. Like you say shocked performing. Laughing. Okay, good, good. So, and as I say, I I I'm someone that loves stand-up comedy. And you know, I like to laugh. Who do I like to laugh? You know, let me bring joy. And instead of channeling my anger and bitterness, let me use it a different medium of laughter and with and double and turn in the music. And that's kind of what led to a kind of a wrap-up, if you're gonna put it like that.
SPEAKER_04:Understand, understand. But the thing is with puppets, and I don't know how much people will have known at the time, and I I kind of know when I hear about chromatics at the time, two things just come to mind for me. It's the spot rushers and the early rap days, and people coming up with it, right? And jugglers. Right. So when I hear Shal and Barry immediately, the first two things calling, he's like, I was like, what going on?
SPEAKER_02:No, but here's the funny thing, right? Barry, right, from Jugglers, shout out to Barry Permanent. Yeah, Barry Perryman, right? No, yeah, of course. Um he never do that, he was the one really instrumental in bringing me in to Juggler's for the little brief time that I was there, right? And I had never had no falling out or everything with him. I kind of almost calling his name in Abigail's kind of way. Right. The Charles situation was a different situation. I would I would have adjusted before. I really don't feel the need to bring it back up. We're cool now, you know what I mean? Um, salute to Shal too. Good luck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, we could have conversations to this day. A lot of time. I mean, we were young, of course. We're talking 20 years ago or more. You know what I mean? And you know, a lot of your damn time day ego is da da da whatever, whatever. You know, just water under the bridge. But I channeled it into music.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the soundman thing was heavy then. And when I say soundman thing, it was it was clash. Like we had Hoppy here the other day and talking about that era, and men was trying to outdo one another. Yeah, and jugglers was tricky. At the time you was around, and I was telling you the other day. I was um Lime by Umball, right? Around St. James them time, and everybody them days. Well, salute to Truth Man, Truthman with a with a with a gun, and jugglers was um yeah, sorry, no, no, no, it's cool, yeah. He um it there was a space, I'm gonna put it like that, right? Because jugglers, it was jugglers, radioactive, maxi miller, self-construction, excaliber, excalibur, couple shot, right? And then audio menace and plenty men came along with that. But um the idea clashing on them kind of thing was the heat.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that was it. That was the wave of that, or I guess our gener our teenage showing into young early 20s generation. That was the wave. And it was it was Chutman had passed away about a year, and I I came up Mike in MC in for song systems previously. So before jugglers, yeah. So I had started my own, I had a pair of turntables, I had fallen in love with DJ and um and I had like an old turntable from my auntie and a next old table from my uncle. The matching? No, match, right? And one the belt like it and it's belt drive, it's not direct drive, right? And the one the other one here now, like the belt slack. So you can't really mix properly now. So you had a loan on that. And then a boom, I end up getting a proper pair of technique 1200. You know what I mean? And then moved into micing because I would be juggling home and thing, and then pick up the micron avion and start a rap on and watch and talk about that. You know what I mean? But anyway, so fast forward to that. I was just in a dance in Anchorage, my head nice, shout out to Mary Perry. Perry was like, Matic's thing, grab the mic now, because he was a little familiar with me. And Charlotte and Barry were there, and they were like, Domatic song ain't good, you know. And then they approached me and was like, yo, come on, write goodie song, you know. Yeah, and I was there for a brief period of time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So even if I could start before that, your entry to music is DJing and say, where'd start for you with music?
SPEAKER_02:Um I just my family's very musically or inclined. Um my mom was a singer, so a professionally trained opera singer. Right? So I remember going in, I don't know if it was Queen's Hall and them thing them days, and seeing her performing. And people and I mean singing opera. And then my cousins were all musicians, guitar drums. My brother used to sing in rock bands, ended up moving on to managed rock bands, like Max Bitchou, 12, etc. etc. Um, and then my cousin Gerard, shout out to Gerard Ratchuma. He was, I know if he's the original, but he was the original drummer for a joint pop. Okay, right? So, and then you're seeing when they pour out half the half past nine and thing, and music video on TV, and you what they're like, cousin papers.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know, but they don't make it. You know, papers are big things like teams, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Of course. Of course, you know what I mean. But just seeing it was encouragement, and we would always, he was, I mean, he's still such a cool test to this day. He would come and we would make tapes. So my other cousin, now who's much similar age to me, he migrated to the states for like two years and came back. And it was just like, yo, hip hop, hip hop is this thing, and around them same time, and we get in the emergence of 98.9 radio, of course, remember that and then a few years later, 96.1, which is more urban, playing more yeah, your good friends, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Playing more urban music. So you know, I just got exposed to this genre called hip-hop, and I just it I fell in love with it because you know, it it was touching on it, was singing about different things, and calypso at the time was more like either your parents thing, you know, them just going to tents and it felt old. Yeah, I wouldn't say it felt older, but yeah, it wasn't ours, it wasn't ours, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Um, I wouldn't say it felt old, yeah. It felt old something different.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I guess maybe because in my upbringing it was really more parent, same musical family, but we used to play old Kaiso house to house. So because I see my grandfather and my father and them doing that as a teenager, you know, you must rebel in a sense of that age. So I really just want to hear dance hall are you just the same way you talk about 98.9. I remember like Edison Car used to give you a one dance hall on a Saturday morning. Used to get a little one walking machine or something, and that's where you hold on to. But you would have been hearing the hip-hop on radio and influenced by that, yeah, and yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, but I at the end of the day, Isaac, I dance hall man too. I any songs and stuff eventually installed. I'm just a music man, though. Yeah, I just love music. So it could have been opera, we could have lost it's an opera. I don't know about that, right? Because I was, you know, previously, and then so as I say, my cousin was like, you know, hip-hop was a thing, and he's like, let me write. He writes and he started a little group in school, whatever, whatever, and I start writing, whatever, whatever. But I was writing, I used to write my little poetry and thing in primary school, or whatever, and just just just open up something in terms of writing there, you know what I mean? And that was it. I started like 12 years old and never stopped.
SPEAKER_04:As young as a yeah, so like one of the things I ask people all the time is um like soccer, especially in that era, felt real jump and wavy and very, very, very festival focused. Maybe maybe a lot still. Yeah, yeah. And um, I felt like as youths, part of the reason we gravitate towards let me say reggae and the conscious movement was around the same time, right? Is because they was talking about different things. Everybody went to the arraster, them dying. That's how it was. Sisla Luciano, cook with all of that. Sizzla. Yeah, that that was what we was listening to on the on the blocks. Once he leave who that was it. But um, it felt as though I could relate to that music a little more because it was telling more kind of like realistic stories. The topics, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You can relate it more, and that's why people still relate that that is why Trinity Bad is what it is. Yeah, I mean, and they relate to the subject matter a lot more. So it's come a long way in terms of that. Of course, yeah. And funny enough, it's the artists like A Bungie, M1, etc., who would be, you know, who talk about different things, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And you might find their background is similar to what we're describing. Exactly. Yeah, it doesn't so that's what I was telling you when we when you were talking before. It's something I want to salute you for whenever I meet you. I was to tell you that. I I watched your interview with KG a few times at this point in time, right? And I respected the fact that you took a minute to tell me, almost stop him to say, brother, keep doing what you're doing. Forget the idea, sponsor you, right? People go find you and them guys. It's important. I feel like some of us, somehow, some of them. Well, let me stop you now.
SPEAKER_02:Please salute to you what you're doing. Because no, no, because it's no, it's as serious. Oh, wait, wait till how long you doing your podcast?
SPEAKER_04:Five years now.
SPEAKER_02:Five. I went back and watched all your videos. I scrolled down all the total just at my five years. And you know, your last, to be honest, if you watch the stats, your last few months, let me say the last couple of years. Yeah, it's a big difference. Right, so it's an example to anybody watching or any creative field doing anything, the shit does happen overnight, you know what I mean? And building a brand takes time, yeah, and most importantly, consistency. You know what I mean? Not just you know, for you to learn how to do things better, etc. Right? Yeah, which build a team, of course, these sort of things. These other things, you know what I mean? So, yeah, man. Uh salute to you. And then I think that the two biggest podcasts in China right now, you had KJ, and you're catering to somewhat different demos, which is good.
SPEAKER_04:A good bit of overlap because I mean you're here and you're there, which I appreciate. I'm glad when I see you there because um there's uh and maybe there's why it stood out to me when you said that because when I started doing the interviews, I find there was a little bit of an undercurrent that says, okay, you doing this and he doing this, and it's like I don't want that at all. Everybody had to do what they do, and I think you take a moment to tell him now which is it's important, and I feel like that's really bad movement, very, very similar to what we were going through in the uh song system Euro, or what we were going through in in hip-hop or earliest days of dance wolf.
SPEAKER_02:I would say more similar to like Kiskity Caravan, or even that. I wouldn't say similar to the song system thing. It's a it's a little bit more different than that.
SPEAKER_04:You think Kiskity Caravan is rooted the same way, growing up?
SPEAKER_02:Not necessarily, but it's similar in terms of the impact that it's having. But I mean, I think Trinibad has outlasted. Um, not to say outlasted, because out of Kiskity Caravan came big stars that went on beyond the existence of the Kiskity Caravan. And now we're seeing the same thing all we some might say the Trinidad movement has slowed down, but we have huge mega stars that have come out of this. Yeah, you know what I mean. Thank God for that. So you know what I mean? Who would I like to see youths get through is a strange, it's a strange phenomenon. Right, and that's why it's coarse on my generation now. Because we, I don't know, we don't really support the thing. You know, I was coming here, and you know my fights and my struggles. And I just wanted to make sure, and I skimmed through every radio station before I come here. I ain't really here we, you know. No. Yeah, no, must be about one out of ten, you know, and it's only so car. And we are a real radio station now compared to then? So okay, it's like point one, then point two, then point three, one point four, then point five, then point six, and it's all LMST. I'm like, who is all the people? And when I check in out how to get a radio station now, like, mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03:What are you here?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, when they're gonna put you, they might want to expand the band. Yeah, no, but that's why anyway.
SPEAKER_04:No, no, no, I hear for it because even as you bring up radio, right? One of the things like I hear you say it in interviews before and you talk about it openly in terms of your struggles with radio. One of the things that I hope youths understand who wasn't there, when they hear radio, they think it's point one and point two and point three and point four. What they may not understand is that when you talk in radio, then it's about it's about 12, 15, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Well, in my in the well-burn format was and then it expanded to four, five, six, you know?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so the idea of needing radio play, let me talk about just feeding your family and and trying to get through with music as a youth in Trinidad, and you have two radio stations which making maybe collective decisions, my words, you know, they're making choices similar. Let me put it like that. It's a real rough place to be. You're already in a genre that's maybe not accepted as mainstream in Trinidad and Tobago. So while the soaker and the Calypso fighting for airplay too because they didn't have it either, it's like where you go fitting at all, you know.
SPEAKER_02:No, well, I mean, my thing is outside of carnival is dance all on hip-hop while you're playing reggae, you know? 24-7. Yeah. So that's my thing, is like when it when it's be funny when certain these these timings, certain radio men, remember, and you bring you talk about hoppy. We performing with group spot rushers, we performing in Tobago on Storby, mashing up the dance, sing take take, hoppy day take, pull the square after. Sit down, you're real bad, though.
SPEAKER_01:Why you sing and so called? Oh, you don't like it.
SPEAKER_02:This is like 2002, then 2003 or something, so right? 2001, 2002. You know what I mean? But my thing is this the the hypocrisy in it is all you're playing from Ash Wednesday go back to like we say January 1st, the next year, till New Year's, right? The next year. All you're playing, majority, hip hop, dancehall, reggae. But vex when the youths want to sing hip-hop, dancehall, reggae. That's all they're hearing, of course. For majority of the year, you know what I mean? That's all they're being influenced by, inspired by. You know what I mean? So you can't the hip-hop hypocrisy in it for me. It's like, yo, come on, Lon.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it really didn't work. So as they bring up Sport Rushers, where you went from operanting to sport rushers?
SPEAKER_02:Nah, well, so as I say, I started writing with my cousin. We had a group, yeah, an old group, and that never really did anything. You were just recording him, my aunt's house in Maravaldi. Um, and so he he went back to the States now. So I just this kind of day day by myself. And I just started, I just kept writing. I never stopped writing in school and thing. What I used to do is I used to make like mixtapes for men and things, and then put two or three on my tracks at the end. So what I used to do is get a turntable and get instrumental records and record at Bar Brethren, who was who had some equipment on a cassette, and then just rap over it and real shitty mix and thing. Right, and then create. I remember I sell a man. I think I must be selling like a Rayquan or something in school now, you know.
SPEAKER_03:And he came back, he said, How is you on the end of the tape?
SPEAKER_02:I say, Oh, you ain't line with me, no one's like you know what I mean. And then, you know, my partners and my sisters, and then would always push me and whatnot. And then um, shout out to Dredrin. You know them, you know the group. Yeah, I remember Dredrin. Right. So they used to throw hip-hop parties um where it would just be hip-hop all night, and it was a very niche, shut up, underground, chushu kind of thing. If it was only a hip-hop head, you would know all them things, but the five was amazing. And I went down to my first one in the tunnel in Shagonas, yeah, boy. And I saw real artists that night, but something about Spot Rushers, as that's the first time I saw them. You know what I mean? I had the little flyer and I was like, Who's these guys? Spot Rushers, Foxhole, Dredd, and TKO, SMG. You know what I mean? Um, and I saw Spot Rushers, and I mean, I know there's a podcast there, but Kwame, yeah, Gazzy Gates, kick a line that night. He said, I wouldn't buy an album if some pussy came with it. I say, Oh goo! Yeah, I said, You can bleep it out. That line hit me, I hit me in my stomach. I said, Wait, sir. And I was just like, they their lyrics, the group was just on a whole next level now, you know what I mean? To me. Um and they were young, they were the young cats at the time. And I just kind of you know uh reaching out to them. So then I saw them performing, they opened for naughty by nature in a showing center excellence. And I just went wrong in the backstage. Um, and I braced one of them, Kel. And I was like, yo, XY Y, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, thing. And he's like, well, come and check me by father, yo. You want sit on self-construction. That's where they were recorded. You know what I mean? And that was his day. I just fall in with the group because you know, the lyrics, and I always say this, and people might disagree. I don't think there were ever four or five more lyrical people in the same room. Like, if you know the music back in the day, like the stuff that we had that never released. Oh, good.
SPEAKER_04:Tap plans, tap lands, anything with that. No, it was what I's short. It was what's a short. But I suppose by the time they seen your rhyme book, then they know your heart thing. Because they say you're writing all the time. I would say to be honest, I wasn't on the level.
SPEAKER_02:But being around them, I'd sharpen my pen and my sword now, you know what I mean? Just because every time we would link up, them time we linking up on the weekend, whatever, right? And it's like, where are you day, why? Where are they? Thing. I did where how they way? Yeah. Alright, boom, boom, boy. Men just started going to it. So it was just the competitive nature within the group itself. And I I will always remember this. I learned to count bars from Kwame from Ghazi. Because I watched in his rhyme book now. At the end of every line, he would put a slash. So that means that's it's like it's almost like a measure. Right. And you could really only fit a certain amount of syllables or words, words or syllables in there. Right. So that is your that is your for your banner. Right. And that's why, oh, that is why you're doing that. And then that's when my flow got even better, and then you know, writing and them thing, you know. So I wait to you.
SPEAKER_04:I wait to you. Yeah, see, I'll see any story behind uh uh it's all building to a story behind that kind of wrap-up, you know, it's so precise, you know what I mean? Yeah, so them days, pop rushers, there's there was uh a particular again, the clash will it started to get a little bit um it was always good. I mean it had the be it had its audience, just like hip-hop audience. Uh uh the biggest clash was 1500 people, 2000 people, but all the way all the way going in it three years, right? And um this I started to see a shift where rather than just the local song systems clashing each other, the foreign song systems start coming and stuff, and maybe some of that influence too. But there's one dance I remember in Harvard's boy when when style construction, because Johan, when they say Johan, right? People remember Johan. Has produced or self-construction into ultimate rejects. It's like, you know, sometimes you don't connect them dots. But Swarm was a dance where when the quite go ahead and get the story. It was there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure, for sure. But I wasn't missing a clash. If it had a clash now, I go in and dance a little um but that was my sound in the Matthew Miller. It's my song. Matty Miller. Yeah, for sure. But it started to get to the point where everybody was, most of the songs was patterning what they would hear Jaro, Mighty Crown, or Mataram to play. I could get some stories, but go ahead. Uh-huh. You go for them stories. Go ahead, go ahead. I remember the technical spot rush was just bubbling. It's not like it's not, it's not unknown name necessarily at a point in time. Go ahead. And then I can't remember who it was. I want to say sell themselves, but had dropped a thing and destroyed because it just you know it's the energy for as a patron, somebody in the crowd. It was almost one of the first times that we felt like it's us. It's like we thing, the we homegrown thing rather than you just playing where you hear other songs play. Because you mentioned cassette. All we had cassette, we know what men playing is thing where gyro play.
SPEAKER_02:So that was a moment, but you you would have been there, or they was around, like Spot Rushers was, I wasn't saying was really bubbling, per se. They were it they were they were doing like those shows, like dreadren and it very much in the small situation. Very much. Yeah. But so they were recording by cell. Right. And Johan was like, But he was recording your music by cell, not just dubs. No, Spot Rushers was recording their music by Johan. And Johan was like, Cut her dog, we're playing in the clash. And that was this the the swarm dub plate, which was on, I believe, can't remember which rhythm, it will come back to my mind. Yeah, and it mashed up the place. So essentially it's a dub plate bust Spot Rushers. Also, it's the either man in song and as a hip-hop man. So you know what I'm saying? But I wasn't with the group at that point in time yet. Oh, you wouldn't there? No, I wasn't with them yet. But you know about the dancing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That resonate. That was as you say, that resonated self-construction player, hip-hop dub plate. And I remember the boys and them telling me if people thought it was like Junior Mafia or somebody, but it was yeah, it was, you know. Because them time the man really ankyfied with the accent and he delivered now. You know what I mean? But yeah, and this was a dub play, and then after that, like right after that, is when I kind of linked up with the group, and then next clash coming now is when um is when um jugglers and all of them call. We was like, yo, come down in 96 now. We're gonna cut in dubs, and we stated there's a picture of me, Chinese laundry, and Maximus, MX Prime in 96.1 studios that night we all there cutting dubs. Oh cutting dubs. And I remember the time Peter C pull up with Marshall. So Marshall cutting dubs. Everybody clashes like weekend. All right, this is like a Wednesday or Thursday night, dubs cut in, parties come in, JD, JD still singing soccer, all them thing thing, right? JD days and Houston rap too, right? Yeah, and I remember Peter C coming and we outside and we playing someone and we join some.
SPEAKER_01:But when you sing in that far, boy, all it all ain't gonna me with that and weather, weather, weather, while they sing thing. Marshall come and is like, if the men want to rap, let them rap now by one by thing, you know.
SPEAKER_02:And I always kind of respect him from from from down for that moment. Because a lot of a lot of people would tell us that, you know, like what they're rapping for, whatever. Yeah, but we did, you know.
SPEAKER_04:So well, the thing is like, even more I salute him for saying that, you know. I mean, watch where you tell youth, you know, because sometimes things could make or break youth, you know. But that's why I end up come back wrong and game flat. Yeah, but yeah, boy, yeah. See, I was listening to him where it went, you know, because he catch out really straight. I've never strained our direction. But more than just the rap and the other, I felt as though in them times it didn't matter if it was rap. It was you had a thing so quite not Trinidadian. It's a feel like energy. Somewhat, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I find that was the thing, and I think rap would have feel it more. Yeah, but you see, you know what I leaned on is rap, so what's the difference? All right, maybe an intonation in the accent, and maybe the sound of the rhythm. It's the same thing. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Because we I that's why I say say um Kiss Keddy Caravan was so inspiring, because it was us, and it was Gage, it was Kindred, man from the area, man, uh you do ranking, you said, well, you said from the story, you used to have Barbara, used that trim and three, supposedly, right? You know what I mean? So it's people you could see, feel, touch, interact with, and that's why it resonates so much and dies with the same thing with Trinity Bad. You know what I mean? So though a lot of that was rap, so within the kiss within a hip-hop sort of frame in the Kiskity Caravan, and I was like, you know, but that is we still, yeah, and it took it took a lot of growth too in terms of trying to find a sound or what is represented as you and Tobago hip hop, the accent conversation was uh ongoing was for years. Right, and I mean, but you have to give youths and them time to evolve. So here's my thing going back to um after Ash Wednesday, right? All you're hearing is hip hop, hip-hop dance already. So if a youth now coming up, and that's all he hearing, he got to first start to imitate, right? But then you have to allow them to find yourself, which I did, and so just like in Puppet, Puppet was like the first song that I really just kid him chinning, you know what I mean, to a degree. I see, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04:And after that, it was just yeah, that idea of letting youth evolve, it's important to me personally, like grow. Yeah, we want to kill them at your route, and I find it's a very Trinidadian thing, yeah. Honestly, yeah, it doesn't matter what genre or industry you're talking about, it's the same. But um, Sister Ron was here, Omari was here, both of them talking about their coming up in hip-hop, hip-hop. And you know, Sister Ron talk a lot about it. She's like, This is my flow, this is my style, this is what I feel it. Big of Sister Ron. So at that point in time, you're looking at that rap so movement and that yeah, yeah, that hip hop it is.
SPEAKER_02:You hear and started to hear that on the radio as well. Yeah, had the kisky the caravan tape and the record and all them things, you know what I mean? So, yeah, so yeah, you're inspired by that, and then as I say, I started recording in my aunt's house with my cousin, just like two streets away from song basin. Yeah, so we just driving past that every day. We go into a church in Assumption Church Day, and it's pacing right across the road, and you're just like, yo, I just want to get in there.
SPEAKER_01:I just want to see inside there, J.
SPEAKER_04:You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Some of the hip upgrades was there too, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I hope to have Robert Mario one day. He's an X-man say yes, we're figuring it out. I want him to tell some of them stories and right. But yeah, I think it was first where area you grew up and if you seen it personal, some show is a good thing. Um, St.
SPEAKER_02:Augustine. Augustine Rugby shoot, shout out to Rugby shoot every time, you know what I mean? So majority there, born in St. Joseph, um, like 15 years old, moved to Valsay and then now back in St. Joseph. Oh, yeah, back in the same way. Yeah, so I really like that area there. I like it. I really hope in that area. And I hope. You know, I like the mountain, rugby street, St. Augustine, all up in the back there, and St. Joseph. There's the mountain vibes. I like that vibe.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good inspiration. Yeah, I was the merry talk about it too, you know. Yeah, you talk about that same thing, living in St. Augustine, and the vibe, the feel of the area. Yeah, but that that accent again was one of those things where people, the older generation, or the people who were just before us, was like, okay, why you don't sing in this accent? Why you don't do this thing? So you're connecting that back to to rap so uh I I remember putting out Omari's episode, and somebody in the comments say, Yeah, this Trinity Flow is the first thing 96.1 ever played. You know, they when they started on here, that was that was the first song here. Okay. So I confirmed that with Laundrie as well. He said that he said that there was a deliberate choice, he was looking at what was happening and thing, and Kiss G was so important. This the message that that song sent. Well, Mario tells his own story, but the the it almost gave everybody license. Whether it's like dub plates and thing, you had like hip hop, you had like reggae, it almost gave everybody license to just live and do what you wanted to do. But what you at that point in time, you all starting to you you gain traction. Uh it was on radio. No, not at them. Yeah, well, as as the group, what how long has it been the group in the group in form them time? 96.
SPEAKER_03:So when you started the plates 95, 96, right before that, 94.
SPEAKER_02:But when you went to cut the plates as the group or individuals just doing the. Oh, that was after Swarm. So it was like 2002. Okay, so that by that time, yeah, the Swarm take off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So after when they dropped the dub, when Cell dropped the dub in Swarm, and everybody wanted a dub after that. You know what I mean? So we was ending up in different studios trying to cutting for different songs and things. And radio play happening, yeah. It starts to get radio play happened soon after that. What was the breakthrough, do you think? We had a song called Gunner, right? You know what I mean? It was it was decent, and but it was um it was it was it was a decent tune. But then you know, you're trying to fit five man on our trap and thing, you know, my voice long at the end day, or whoever. But but nah, it was dope, and then you know, um, it was getting a lot of love on radio, and we were doing a lot a lot of shows, etc. etc. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so your time with chromatics, you would uh what what what when when did it come to sorry, chromatics, of course, spot rushers. What's uh uh you eventually decided you're gonna break out on your own or how that went?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I left the groups slightly after, so basically 2003, and then I put out my first radio single, which was a song called Started. And funny enough, as I said, at the same time is when I started with Mike with Jugglers, whatever, whatever, whatever. And so Started got a lot of rotation too. Shout out to Excalibur as well. Slaughter is someone that I will never forget any journey. Um, you know, and he they bust Juggers bust it up. Excalibur bust it up, and you know, that was it. That was my first taste of solo. Right. And then well, Spot Rushers came with True Soldiers, which was an even bigger record, and I was just out the window with that, yeah. You know what I mean? And then whatever that kind of phase passed, and then I joined back with the group, and that's when we kind of went back to the sort of hardcore, and that's when we put out like Trinity Man, Trinian around the route and shot the video video looking like it recorded on VHS, but people, but they loved it, you know what I mean? Just the rawness of it now, yeah. You know, and that was like in heavy rotation and synergy and thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think um the hip-hop always had its people here. So just the fact that somebody was willing to do it. I come to talk to you about visuals and thinking, no, no, you say anything looking like a VHS. You'll you always used to take that additional step. Maybe something in the used to see with uh a lot of the young artists and other genres, you all that you or you in particular, you're just focusing a lot on the visuals as part of how you're promoting music and still limited.
SPEAKER_02:Definitely, definitely. I mean, um, within the group as well, you know, we were always very much into visual element and shout out to Tim Starr. He was he was pushing that ahead in the group as well. Right. You know what I mean? And I was more pushing the business head of uh things, you know, selling. We put out our foods. So after you know that sort of you know, that'll run we now talk about it. Right, right. So it was gunner, then started, then true soldiers and trinyman. We was like, all right, we need to pull out some some product now. And we poured, we came up with this concept. So I remember me and Nigel tell us what shout out, shout out to who he's like, uh gonna power like an EP with five tracks on it. And and he was like, now we're gonna call it the five piece. Them time man smoking five piece and ten pieces of gangra, right? And I was like, yeah. We was like, that's brilliant. So brilliant to me. So we we we had um slim CD jewel cases and we wrap it in foil with a sticker on it. So we wrap it in a foil and just like a one sticker in the middle. Yeah, we're selling five piece to police. We had real police mentioned too, and they buying five piece why they held up. You know what I mean? And I was counting in QREP. I buying press buying up the CDs, we're buying the labels, burning them over, boom, boom, boom, and we're selling her like hotcakes. Every man getting a a case of 25. Yeah, done that any week. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Sell for yourself. Yeah. Well, let me talk about some of that business side now because I brought I saw this article the other day with a youth man, St. Augustine Self, eh? He has a backpack of coffee selling on the highway. See him. I find it's one of the most inspiring things I've seen in a long time. You know, he even when he tell his story, he said, Well, I am a job, he said, but I focused on customer experience and he was in traffic a day and he realized you're sleepy or whatever it is, you decide, you know, people who entrepreneurs see problems as opportunities kind of thing. And he went and he's selling his coffee and them kind of thing. But I I do some entrepreneurship classes and I find that to be one of the you can't teach it. In other words, I could tell you all the finance things and all the marketing, I could teach that. But teaching the idea of walking up to somebody and saying, I have a cup of coffee to sell, will you buy one? Or have a CD to sell or a five piece. Well, five piece might be easier to sell. But if you have things to sell, you had that in your from before you was getting a horrors when it's 25 men, everybody get 25 and I'll sell it. You're feeling that way them times to go and sell yourself. Me, no.
SPEAKER_02:No. Men in the group, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but because I don't know, I don't know what it is, but something about the business is is I I just fell in love with entrepreneurship. And this is why I wanted to say about this too. I'm glad that we have these platforms to tell these stories of entrepreneurship, especially in the creative industry as well, because we never had examples locally of it. At least I don't know, right? But I buying a source on XXL magazine every week, and I read in about Rockefeller Records, and I read in about cash money or no limits and their journey and how they do things, and you know what I mean? So I'm learning the entrepreneurship through hip-hop now, you know. Um, and basically, yeah, that the it sometimes just takes a switch, and it's almost like the performance switch, in my in my opinion now, that you need to turn on. If you're gonna do them hand-to-hand sales, it's like, all right, all right, there you go. And you're just in that zone, you just go in that zone now, because you know, fat fast forward to when Highway Records was out there selling CDs on the streets like daily, not just you have a batch of CDs, you go sell it to your partner or somebody else who might want the this is you out it just like. Yeah, that's a distribution, of course. You know what I mean? That's a different mentality, and we had different salespeople come on, and some of them just wasn't cut out for it. You know what I mean? I mean, it's easy for me because it's my product I sell it, easier. Sure. You know what I mean? But you just had a point on our bullface, our bull faceness, and just go out there and and and know that you had to focus on a goal past it. You know, you're trying to get the music out there, and then you need to well, you wouldn't know this innately. But I remember I go on to do a show in Barbados in 2009, and a man braced me backstage, so I fan came up. Or somebody was attending it, it was like a music festival, right? So I buy your CD on Frederick Street, you know what I mean? Yeah, so is it's a matter of as I say, radio wasn't playing out, so we're going direct to consumer, sure, you know what I mean, or not playing you enough to really have an impact. You know what I mean? So, yes, we just had to know that there's a uh an end goal here, you know, or a goal that you're trying to reach, and that's getting the music out to people.
SPEAKER_04:Sure, sure. Like a lot of sales training. I went to this telly it's an art, there's like it just way you say it's a switch, it's it's something. There's like don't pay a real self in it, you know, script it do we have to do so that you can approach it and sell it. But you're getting sales at that point in time, but then you all initially start off you're selling out the 25.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, bro. And we're doing that, and then so then the next thing was we're gonna do we put out our next album. We do like a proper proper album called the 10 piece, right? So we went five pieces and then 10 piece, right? And right, but you know, we were selling that for typical CD price, 100, 120. I was like, nah, this ain't this ain't working. I went to New York, um, did my first solo video solo song, which is basement party, right? And I was outside of Union, it's Union Square, they had a big virgin mega store across the road. Like going in there, you know, going through and listening to my music, what CDs I want to buy. But outside, there's men hustling. It's like, yo, you want my CD, boom, boom, boom, five dollars, whatever, whatever, whatever. Say, all right, five dollars, right? Thing. Say if I if your man sells two CDs in an hour, like more than minimum wage, you know what I mean? So I went back to Trinidad and I was like, all right, let me drop the price of this, because then now this is the timing of piracy. Sure. Right? Both online and the pirates in talk. Blank CDs, right? Right, we didn't see so how we competing against Wyoming. Toaster free, of course. Right?$20 for the thing. You say, all right, boom, we're gonna put in in in theme and keeping a theme of the five piece and ten-piece, we're gonna put the Mary Warner mixture, right? I like the energy, right? Which had a bunch of Spot Russia songs, including a song called Mary Warner. Right. And we're gonna do Marijuana jerseys, which is a nice green outline lady, and we're gonna sell that. And man, we made like 12 grand and like nothing, you know what I mean? Yeah, and and then offer that is when I out the same time I was starting Highway Records, you know what I mean? And we started Highway Records. I was like, all right, that was. Well, essentially, I want to start my own record company. I was doing it already, but I want to just formalize it. Yeah, formalize it, you know what I mean? And that was it, really, and truly. And then so that's why we had the street team, and the street team was branded. So everybody had on the street team jerseys, highway records logos, you could get a preview, the song. We buy some cheap MP3 players, and so if you want to hear the music, it's not just like you're trying to hustle your CD, you want to preview it, take it, and whatever. And 90% of the time, if somebody listens to it, they're buying it. Yeah, yeah, because you know you're hearing it and you're hearing you're hearing quality for you know, for the most part. And yeah, man, it's just that's where it went. Yeah, it made a lot of money, and and uh the reason why I wanted to do it branded is just a different presentation. All right, yes, people on the street selling hand to hand or whatever, but but there's this you can see there's a business behind it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Which yeah, like my only reference point for that would have been Morgan Joe. Like when when you're looking that, you saw a lot of people doing that kind of thing here because out there on the street with Morgan Joe? Yeah, that's we and Joe G.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Frederick Street corner, QR. Yeah, absolute Morgan Street. And that's why, that's why um um, you know, we know. Shout out to Bebo, you know, we know and zinger as well, his daughter. Um, and we invited him to come in the studio and be a part of my second album because it's almost like we were doing the two same things. It was fun. There was a weird symmetry, sure, you know. I mean, and I know he's a different kind of guy. But uh Morgan Joe, I mean, salute to him and his legacy, you know. Oddly enough, my pops used to make me listen to him back in the serious, well, not make me, but he used to be listening, and I was like, who is this man?
SPEAKER_00:On the radio, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:And it just, you know, talk a lot of sense, right? And yeah, so it was weird. So we were out there doing hustling at the same time, and he was right there with us. Really? Not to say with her, but you know, yeah, we bumped him up, we passed in him every day, he up the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it was like let me bring him in on the project, and he did this whole we received that, but he was cool doing it on everything he was. Yeah, he enjoyed it. He wrote, he actually wrote the piece, that piece for it, you know what I mean? So the song is called Forced Inter Independence, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's his kind of topic, too. You know, revelation. What's the name of the song and then the hippo?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, of course, it works, it works. So, but there's no other reference for you because again, when I see in that back then, it seems as though like what these fellas doing. This is different to anything I see locally in any genre. That was what y'all felt it was it was that it was as innovative as that, or you you saw people doing it. So, street teams. I never see no artist teams.
SPEAKER_02:No, we never had street teams, but uh once again, that is uh um uh something that they do in the bigger industry. Street teams are real things, granted, they're more out there with branded t-shirts, putting up flyers, giving away merch. Right. We just did it as a sales team. The street team is the sales team, you know what I mean? So it's just copying the model of what major records, major record companies, the Def Chammers have a street team, and just a lot of a lot of big industry players now worked on street teams and in record companies when they were younger.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, you say to them, like Rockefeller, they're gonna they were known for some of these things, you know, the branding and make a pain's audience. So when you're going out there and doing this, it's it initially is your own music or you're looking to put artists on? You start off with the intention to put people on?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, kind of, to a degree. That was the long-term goal. Um, but it was it was mainly for for my music or the group's music.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Yeah, so you felt like you were fulfilling that eventually, where you're getting enough artists to come through again, youth for expression, again, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's true, that bro. Could never run out of talent. Never, never, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02:I I just a lot of them get discouraged. Yeah, you know what I mean? Because the game is the game is messed up. Not for the weak. Yeah, not for the weak. Yeah, but I mean, we need we need platforms and people to support, you know.
SPEAKER_04:I feel like that's one of the things that we like no matter who you talk to, you're hearing that element of it, that element of it missing all the time, that idea that uh you said it like let youths be the youths, let them innovate and let them do the thing. So you you run into one of the one of what I consider when I look at your life and career, the public part of it, had to be a huge obstacle because with highway records, you're selling to people and stuff. I feel like sometimes from a business standpoint, that could be seen as a threat. If I own radio and I own distribution of music, let me put it like that, right? To put it bluntly. Uh, and you find another way to distribute, you're affecting my business at this point in time, right?
SPEAKER_03:I never really look at it like that. You know, I didn't think that I don't think they'll get the fellas update. They didn't think so.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think they were watching us like that, like any sort of thing. Well, I didn't think you were watching this podcast, so but who knows? Maybe, maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, I would say we did. I mean, after that, you saw men like Squeezy and Fireball go back and go and do the same similar thing. So real men after that, right? Um, but to say I I don't think we were that much of a threat because uh the power hole that the few stations had at the point in time, it was just too strong, yeah. It was too strong to for us to have, I think, to affect them in any way, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Um, but I feel as though it's a unique personality to to be faced with that. So for instance, you there's the obstacles, and then your response to it, or you say fireball or squeezy, your response to it is okay, figure out another way. Whereas you yourself say many people will will just give up. Exactly. You know, many people will.
SPEAKER_02:My thing is, you know, I just always saw radio as uh not always, but understood eventually that it's just a middleman between your music, your product, if you want to well, and consumers, right? If they if granted, radio can reach a large amount of people in one instance, right? But you can do the same, but it might, but it will take longer, it's a little harder, but you can do the same direct to consumer. And we've seen a lot of it happening now where these um DSPs, the Spotify, the Apple Music, a lot of artists are shying away from it and going direct to consumer. And I did that with my last two projects. You know what I mean? I put out Kobo Sweat, the EP last year, and I didn't put it on the DSPs till a year later. I was selling it direct to consumer via bandcamp via download cards, etc. Sure, sure. You know what I mean? So yeah, it's a new day, same concept, but just new technology to the technology helping us to get direct to consumer.
SPEAKER_04:So talking about podcasts, my journey is the same. I went by Nigel Nicholson. I said, I'm I learned radio broadcasting a little bit and I was good at it, but he put us out by Iowa for a while, do you do the overnight thing? And after a while doing overnight, I said, Well, why do I what? 12 to 3? 12 to 5. Lord, for no for no money, yet no money, I had to go to work the next morning because I had to get money. And it's taking days for them things done. Well, even well, it's not right, and I had to Nigel out there when you would say I had to pay because it was a it was an internship. I would decide if I want to talk to Nigel or decide for keeping this in or not. But the whatever arrangements I had with Iowa, you had to pay a little thing, sorry, you had to pay a little thing to do the overnight. So three of us and whoever had a wisdom. We have to pay the business. So when I realized, because I decide every weekend I go in. I a little older than the YouTube sons. So some of them um have all kinds of other things going on in life. I work in already. So it's like it's like Nigel, anybody who can make, I don't care who I work with, I just want to do it. When I add up how much money I spend, and the the the uh I'd sort of add up five hours of my time and what I would value that at my job. I say something you're right. I say I could buy a microphone, or I could buy a roadcaster, or I could buy a, you know, piece piece.
SPEAKER_02:And that's kind of an example of the powerholder they used to have on on the industry and and the kind of ranking vibes is like you gotta come and work one for free? Yeah, for sure. God damn.
SPEAKER_03:And here's you have minus, right?
SPEAKER_02:And as yeah, is these companies making bucko money dog for their you know, student one student ones are independently owned, but they have investors and parent companies, which are huge parent companies, of course, millions and millions of dollars, you know. And you're telling me that you're gonna make a huge company 12, 12 to 3, 12 to 5 and work for free.
SPEAKER_04:I suppose that's always make millions and millions of dollars. So maybe, maybe that's we I guess. I don't know. I don't know. But you went into this thing now, you're doing your distribution and stuff, and I remember reading this story about awesome now. At first, when I saw it, I thought awesome was yours as well. Oh gosh. No, no, like we drink for this. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. I initially thought you you do distribute, you figure out distribution, at least to some extent, your your um your seven maticks poor drink driver refuse. I hear that on the street. So when um when you're going out there and doing your distribution, I thought you to say, well, uh, a collection agency go B ISU too. Because I was telling you I had Kit Israel here a couple weeks ago, and he was talking about how producers are, which is a whole lesson to me because I think if you write a song and you produce a song, you you good. But he was breaking down somebody's business, but awesome was really like a parallel to cut at the time, why exactly awesome was trying to do so?
SPEAKER_02:It was awesome, and then it had TTCO as well, right, which were alternatives, alternative um PROs, right? So performing rights organizations that's supposed to collect money behalf of writers, authors, or composers, right? Authors being who write lyrics, composers being who write um the music. Yeah. Right. Um and we had issues with cut. I told this story on KG podcast, but I feel it how important it tells you your viewers. I think so. Right? So now bigger shout out to everybody as I say, companies is one thing, people is a different thing. They have people in cut that I real good with, love and respect, but the overarching sometimes, you know, certain CEO and the bigger heads is not always the greatest people, right? But anyway, at the point in time, you know, we gain a little more airplay as uh chromatics, right? The artist chromatics is getting a little more airplay doing a lot more shows. And we trying to be telling caught, like, yo, listen, what going on? Because we're getting more airplay and whatnot, and the money just stay in the same night. I got$300 every year or some shopping and stuff, right? However, we say, well, you have to do your performance sheets and wherever you perform and da da da da da da da da da da. Well, boy, we do show all the wazoo. We come and submit our performance sheets, plus the airplay that we get in. And we get less money. It's gone down. Yeah, gone down. So you do more in less. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that. So I say something had to be wrong here, right? And then they had a court awards, right? And in the midst of all of that, that happened, they had their first ever hip hop on RB category in the Court Awards, right? Hell in Queens Hall, Big Hoopla, and all of that. Right? And the nominees were Russia. Judah B, I believe it is. I don't know who else. And Fireball. Leader in the hip hop wheel.
SPEAKER_03:And the winner is Fireball.
SPEAKER_02:Wins the first ever hip-hop on RB of court award. Me and my manager get up and walk out. Yeah, but we went the after party, you know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? That is true, no daddy. So we heard about this, you know, Rumblers in the Great Vine of other artists saying that there's this new other performance rights organization. Awesome or whatever, whatever. And um they are using technology for a more fairer payout. Sure. Right? Um so we end up having a conversation and then we signed with when I say we, Highway Records. So Chromatics, the artist, right? Was still Simon Cotton from my collection agency. But I signed a publishing deal with Highway Records, right? And Highway Records assigned the rights to awesome. Okay. Right? So under the label, so the artists that we signed, Lil St. John, John, Andrew, Andrew Prescott, um Kane, right? Those are the artists that we signed to the label. Um we put out two songs a song called Hitmaker and a song called Cold Blooded, me and John, John Squid. And those songs, we're talking about four, five hundred spins in a matter of months, was mashing up radio. And then Cold Blooded was like the number one music video on Synergy, whatever, for like four weeks straight. Right. And we tell awesome, it's like, all right, so here we're gonna go and let's let's collect the monies wherever. And they went to the city. They had reciprocal agreements, they had agreements with certain radio stations, but not all. Right. So, in other words, for those out there, a radio station or a TV station supposed to pay a certain amount of money, uh what they call a blanket license fee to a performing rights organization to collect on the behalf of writers, authors, whatever, whatever. Right. So, and there's just like in the States, there's numerous performance rights organizations. Ask our BMI CSAT, I think, right? Um, so having another one in China, although we're small, you know, makes sense if, you know, because it's basically a monopoly, cut hard on anything else, right? And or someone's using digital fingerprinting or what we would call today content ID. Gotcha. Right? Which is why you can go on Instagram and play man song right now. Right. But yeah, what you the same technology that we use to protect music today, they were using at that point in time to ID the songs played. So they basically had a system set up where all radio stations, TV stations were being monitored and the songs were digitally fingerprinted. And you as a member could go and log in on your computer and see when and where your song plays. So it's much better for you than where you're doing it. Cut it blind, really. Blind. You didn't know what you're getting paid for. You understand? I don't know, right? So, you know, just that transparency and seeing it, and and and and it's almost like, all right, well, this DJ played 12-30 in Unite. Who's that boy? So, oh, so keep getting it forward. So it's like market research. It's data at the same time, right? Aside from transparency in terms of the payout, is data that you can be useful to somebody if you want to use it. You know what I mean? And so, well, boy, majority of the radio stations didn't have an agreement with awesome to pay them. So awesome went and was basically like, you know, we play this music, you know, let's come to some agreement. We would like to get paid for these songs that were used under our catalogue. So and majority of them was like, who's you? No, fireball, fire, run out of here, go on. And matter of fact, we ain't getting you no money, and we removing all the music off the station. You know what I mean? And the only station that continued playing it was 94.1. Uh huh. Because they had an agreement with us. They were paying awesome whatever blanket fee. And it wasn't no big exhaust, but it wouldn't have been what they playing cut because their catalogue is not as large. It's a smaller catalogue, smaller usage rate. So the the license fee that you had to pay for the songs would have been chicky pets compared to the rest. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, and then well by really sings music off the station, you know. That's red at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Citadel. You know what I mean? And so all the stations except for Boom. Um, so we made even Synergy as well. Pulled all the music. Um, so we made the Well I didn't know that's Synergy too. Yeah, yeah. So we made we we made the stance and we went on protest outside our radio station and we did the photo shoot, you know what I mean, with all the tape all over all our mouth. And um it's Anu, I can't remember her last name right now, who did an amazing press release for me that just resonated, you know what I mean? And then we we it caused a scene. Um she she brought me on the show, Colin Lucas, Colin and blam basing me live on the air. For what? He was the CEO of Cotton Time. Oh, yes, it's true. Live on the air, lamb basing me this and that, and whatever, whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_04:Like, wow. But you know, it'll come out the order. Yeah, but I remember reading an article that said um the match on the radio station as the angry hip-hop crew, none more angry than dumatics.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, because it was bullshit, bro.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it was bullshit. But I mean, looking back on it, I there were things I would have done differently. Sure, you know, I mean, I wouldn't been as so as so brazen. I would have tried to have conversations first, right? Me personally, not just sending awesome as a representative. I'd have to have conversations, yeah, with you know, and if it if then you can come, well then you know your name go reach in a song, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Lucas name and get no song. I don't go back to the listen. No, but you need to fix her. Yeah, I was sending directly.
SPEAKER_02:From cut. It's wild, anyway. Uh-huh. Anyway, so yeah, I mean, so it's just another obstacle in career. Because I you, you know, we had a conversation yesterday, and it was like, You you telling me you chose a hard road. I never really look at it like that. It's not like I decide I'm gonna choose this hard road, it's just what I love, and I understand that it's up against you know, a lot of different forces, culturally, of course, business-wise, etc. etc. You know what I mean? And um after that, it it it it it spurred something in me, and I went out to New York, um, right, just promoting, just doing open mics or whatever, whatever, and washing up the place, right? Getting real love. Ended up having a meeting with Shady Records, all kind of thing, whatever. And then now this is like in November, October, November, and then came back home like December 15th, and then it's now it's heighter carnival time, and I was like, man, I out there doing my thing in Ilana hip-hop, getting real love, getting these opportunities, and I come back to Hairby, where they're gonna not play my music for the next three months. And you know, out of that, I say, Well, if it's carnival, I went on fed. I went real fed, though. Real fed. You know what I'm saying? Because I had my little Link Sun thing at the time, you know, and I enjoy myself, but at the same time, I was like, So, you know, where you got single? When carnival done? Where you I was like, why are you single carnival? And so that was it. And I just started piecing together this thing, and I come in the studio and big up to my brother DJ Pond. Biggest DJ out that you know facts, right? I had the first voice, and I stand up on the counter in Iowa Records and I open my book and I pawn the beat. Right? And I just kick that first verse. He's like, Matics, that is a hit.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, ponysi one recording, he only bored when you're doing it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, that wasn't it. We didn't even record it yet. I just it's the first voice. It's just the first voice I have. I was just like, oh, just like Puppet I say inner circle, like well, hear this, tell me what I think, boom, you know, and I just kicked that first voice, and it was like, yeah, that's insane. And funny enough, the beat for the original carnival wrap up, um, is a is a teeth beat. Yeah, it's mixtape thing, you know what I mean? Yeah, right. And I but I was in a club at night in the same months previously in New York, and this beat just come on, like as I went and braced DJ, I said, yo, where's that? He's like a so-and-so, whatever, whatever. I was like, all right, cool. I love that beat. I went and find it online. I know what I'm gonna do with it, but then I was like, all right, I'm gonna write it to this. And that's why the start of it says, you know, going through New York, doing all of the shows out there, and then coming back to Trinidad, and it's sort of stagnant creatively for me in terms of expressing myself, okay. I release no song, it's Kaita Kariwa type. You know, I mean that's why the first entry is is um for people like me, Ash Wednesday come like New Year's. Prepare your ears, here's Mr. Don't care. So I set any stage so for everything that is about to come next, but telling you why for people like you know I mean, yeah, I remember Malana Ashima after that. He's like, Matrix, you're right, you know, it's New Year's boy. Yeah, coming up in up in diffusion, yeah, yeah. Yeah, man, and I dropped and that was madness.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was one of them things too. That's that's a moment. Yeah, because it uh uh for people who hearing it now all the time, right? It's different when you're pre-20. That's 2012, right? When you're before that, and then you're here because you know what this happened a lot. We used to, as youths again, you you like the soaker as a man like fit and them kind of thing, but you're really like dance all and what you like, right? So I remember staying up till midnight kind of all Tuesday night every year, just to hear a little dance hall or rap or something, because they used to do the soca switch them time. You couldn't hear nothing else, right? And now it had no set of podcasts and no, no, it's nothing else to listen to. You have to listen to radio then still. Andred at midnight you will hear a little dance all and rap on them kind of thing. And it's almost like four we back to normal, right? I know that.
SPEAKER_03:On the road to think Tuesday night hunting in poison.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you might hear something. I remember 2003.
SPEAKER_02:Uh huh. It's um Poison doing the last slap by the oval. And it was about 10 o'clock in the night. Go shoddy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's the different than it's so fresh in the mix, uh just human nature. I like I never mean again, I won't always like soaker, but uh too much of one thing over. Maybe there's a different discussion, you know, what we should be doing on your road and thing. But I remember hearing the wrap-up for the first time and how it was just different. You saying you introduce it, right? Which is true. You say what it's about, you say it's the new year's and you come in, but I don't think nobody expecting to hear what we hear there, you know, in terms of just blasting everybody. So for that first one, you start taking notes earlier and them thing, too.
SPEAKER_02:Or you just sign up because you know, if I I have a certain right style of writing when it comes to certain songs like that, you know, um, which is a little more technical than uh if I write in a song off, it's just straight vibes, sure, you know what I mean? Which is as I said earlier, like finding the pieces. So it was like that was I'd write the first verse, Carnival Fridays when I kick it for fun. I see. Right? That I kick the first first film, and he's like, Yeah, so I get the feedback and I was like, I everybody in camp loving it, go and write the rest of it now. Right. So all Ash Wednesday, I home dating and writing it somewhere. But yeah, so his pieces, but at that point I didn't know what it would become and if it's just something I'm gonna be doing on a regular basis. It's just like, all right, all these things happen. So it wasn't really taking notes. I didn't wasn't, I don't know. I was just things oh, this happened, that happened, right? Think, thing, whatever, whatever, whatever. And when I say when I went in, ladies, first hand laundry watch me like, what are you doing in here? This is my dance. That's just it's real. That's the first name calling up. I take notes, you know. I think I have all the names in that children too. Let me go through the name, David.
SPEAKER_04:I had time to go through names.
SPEAKER_02:At that point, I'd done this is post puppet and being banned on radio and all of that. And I just uh you know, but why?
SPEAKER_04:If I remember in Puppets, it's Charles Barry, Wendell, uh Peter C. Plenty names called in too, even rumors, really. So you open the first kind of wrap up with laundry again. Because people might remember them days, you can't say nothing about laundry. The laundry was laundry. Nobody, but nobody stop there, say laundry gallon fair and Kimba Sazano, Iowa, Terry Steel, Trevor Sayers, Strays, 30 Roman, nothing to drink, it's just slap your foot. You know what I mean? Destroy fun show, no, just KI. Well, Marshall Boyd, he got all the all the names went on in the in the other voice and thing too. So by that point, you're not worried.
SPEAKER_03:Why dancing Puppet and Rumors and why worry about? Yeah, you go ahead. Why are you worried about?
SPEAKER_02:I wouldn't be worried. I am more to gain and lose at this point, as far as I'm concerned. What radio ain't playing me, promoter and booking me. People love me out from my own dance and thing, yeah. But I nothing to lose.
SPEAKER_04:So, random question, right? How would that song get so popular? They play it on radio. Why why everybody know the initial wrap-up? Where it was gained YouTube, uh YouTube. Oh, yeah, by then it was YouTube and it was the first viral song. There was viral song before. And this big baby, Facebook and Think Thing going viral on Facebook. Facebook, right?
SPEAKER_02:So we had used we had us we had used um Facebook for like puppet and rumors and things like that, got real traction. But for some reason, at the time, the YouTube dog, it was like, I remember we put I put out Sunday morning at 8 o'clock. Right. This is the Sunday after carnival. Right? Hans messaged me lunchtime, Matthew, send that for me later that evening. I was playing on it on boom. Oh, yeah, they were glad to play it. Wake up heading by, I heading to the studio the next day, about midnight. I was like, I watched the views. I called my manager, I was like, Dan, you seeing this? He's like, Dan, 17,000. You say what, 1700? I said, no, 17,000 in 24 hours in 2012. Yeah, you know what I mean? And that was unheard of. Four days later, dog, it was 60,000 views at that point in time. Unheard of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it got removed. When did you say remove? Who did remove it off of YouTube?
SPEAKER_03:They remove it why the beat? Or somebody went and report who could remove it?
SPEAKER_02:Because I put in the end that Marshall Marshall contract was expiring soon. Yeah, right, yeah. Right, right. And and I'd I've been on my little graphic work. I went and changed the graphic from green to red. And well, boy, yeah. I remember I say this in KG interview too. Like, I remember um, I remember my co-manager at the time trying to get some sponsorship from just at the time, from be mobile at the time, right? Now, as I say, companies are companies and people change, right? And the marketing manager at that point say, We will never work with chromatics ever in life. For sure. Ever. Two years later, I sing in the jingle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Different people, and you know, the marketing manager change and they love my stuff, whatever. I see the potential, and yeah, man.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. That's another thing I appreciate you saying by KG because I work in marketing before. So some of them questions only I was talking about that I could answer. Sometimes a man work. Because when you said, for instance, that people might be fearful and why they don't want to touch the thing, you said it boy, it was it was perfectly put. A company is a company, and people is people. The company is the organization is really the people. And as a marketing person in a marketing department, I have a work, I have a salary, that's how I'm making my money. And I like what you're doing because your age, most of the brand managers and things is youth. You understand? So they don't like Trini Bad music, and that's what it's listening to. This dress that's trinity bad. They may listen to why listening to, obviously. But while they may want to take the chance and they may want to go with it, it's a risk and reward thing for them. It had nothing to do with the company and the brand. This is my opinion, right? It had nothing to do with that. It's really that personal work. Because if I do that, like I'll give you an example, right? I was in Jamaica at the time and I was working at that age, I was a brand manager. Our company had a deal with Sony Erickson. We used to do all the markets in throughout the Caribbean. So we, well, the people who you light up, digital and b-mobile, we're working in there every day. We our job is to make sure the phone's well displayed and we train the salespeople on the phones because Nokia is king, right? And um them come a camera phone and music phone, and we hoping. And we also had Blackberry, which was BBM and thing, right? So we're trying to make inroads. And I meet in with store owners or digital dealers and things all the equivalent of Lolby and them. We had to meet with them all the time because we want their salespeople to sell our units, right? Over Nokia and Motorola Race, I was all we dying. And when they brought the music phone, they said, Well, what about musicians in the Caribbean? Well, now you're talking to me. I was like, what? I in Jamaica, so I go and went straight to your boy, you're calling this year rap up. I went straight to Cartel. I went and find him. I was like, hey, he was this is 2008-9, right? Cartel is on fire. Cartel Movado thing is on fire then. So I find out from somebody and somebody and somebody and I reach Cartel's studio. And I tell him, I said, boy, here we're going on. This is what they want to do. I don't know how your budget is working and where you're charged, but I want to present them to you. Two people Cartel and Taurus Riley. Them days Taurus Riley at She's Royal. So I say, I'll do the reggae thing and I'll do the dance whole thing. Boy, Sony Erickson interested. When them here Cartel had clerks at the time, when they see the views and thing them time and what it's doing, because they do you know who they wanted us to promote? Robbie Williams. You remember it's another artist named Robbie Williams. From me, okay. I said that ain't good work done here. We had to get cartel and thing. We have a team dung here with a lot of artists here too. Boy, had the thing we talked to him, we talked to Taurus Riley, all them willing, the management team. I never talked to Taurus himself, but his management team, everybody willing. Brother, the next day, Idonia and Cartel are two guns in the papers on the star. Yeah, they had um that's long before any of the charges he had on ticket. Just had this thing with two of them with two rifles in thing, and both of them was on whatever it is. It makes a big story, he number changed and never get back onto him. Yeah, I'm the same correct one. I never get back onto them up to today. But the point I'm making is this is your work. Because now when I had to go back to a meeting, I again drag over the calls because they're telling me what kind of thing, and if I did my background and this and that. Because now them didn't know Cartel yesterday. But when the article comes out and it things fall true, all of them know everything Cartel does, and they know all the gun lyrics and like how you do that, and then it's your work.
SPEAKER_02:Well, let me give you a funny story that you know that I never talked about before. Um post-carnival wrap-up, you know, things differently. I became brand ambassador for Angus through LLB at the time right in 2014. Because we did some work with them, they sponsored a couple of events, etc., a couple of projects, and they like the work. I was like, all right, we're going to a more long-term relationship now. So we're doing it, you know, we're doing events, the brands doing the jingles, the lyrics like a boss, before Martian Like a Boss. Anyway, just putting that out there, right? Um later down in the contract now, no, well, in the year, I pop a social media post on I just my normal. Yeah. How are you feeling today? You know, what you want to say on the Facebook? What's on your mind? So I said, um, I just type that I find entertainment news reporting in Trinidad, they are fucking lazy. Oh, you just type all that. Yeah. Right. Because every time I hear entertainment news in Trinidad, it don't tell me about what's going on in Trinidad. It is only telling me about J Lo girl, uh, she asked insured for a million dollars, or Chris Brung do this, or Elephant Man have a new album. Of course. Or it don't tell me. They just read other entertainment news from some.
SPEAKER_03:Copy and paste, you're fucking lazy dog.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Straight up, and I don't care who vexed if I say it. You're not doing any journalism. Of course. Right? Entertainment. Now, entertainment news sponsored by so-and-so, right? Yeah, so big company sponsoring your entertainment news to tell me, and especially in this day and age, all the information I could done find when I open up a phone. But I'm wondering what's going on. Don't so who the artist, whatever, whatever, whatever. So I put up a post that they're lazy. Yeah. Well, I get called invited one time in Angostura. Serious? No, because bigger messages, I went and make salute. I went and do a whole article on it. Chromatics calls media lazy. I said, Well, you gave me any cure. But I mean, I I I posted to it. Yeah, your words, right? Yeah, that's when I realized, ooh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's happened fast. Pull me, they pull me in um meeting, yeah. See you, it's like, well, but at the end of the day, I was like to me, it's like, well, I know who all the sign to deal or what? You know what I mean? And I ain't lie. I mean, I might have used some colourful language, but I ain't lie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I this is serious thing at all. Of course, of course.
SPEAKER_04:Where's when you're saying to the news? No, it's something like exactly what happened today. It's something like much change. Yeah. So after the initial wrap-up, I know you're talking about some artists, something that might just feel a kind of way at that point in time. You're deciding that you're doing it long run at that point in time. You you you some of you gonna.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, so after the um I did no decisions. I was like, alright, I definitely know in my mind, I go do about three, and I go in, right? And then I started fine, uh, find like the the momentum after could be like kind of a wrap-up drop, it's real shows. Alright, first one, yeah, second one, yeah, third one, yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, fourth one, I was like, I know, you know what I mean? And it's it's it became somewhat tedious. It is real tedious. I would imagine. Yeah, you know. So people don't understand, you know, trying to write something like that and then record it and get it out within a certain timeline. You know what I mean? And I mean, I could work under pressure, nothing wrong with that, right? I you know, I don't mind it, but it really is a matter like, you know, tell my wife here, you know, you know what time it is. Yeah, see, week, you know what I mean? Crying studio thing, you know, yeah. So yeah, and I decided, but then now it was also figuring out how to monetize this thing, of course, you know, and I tried different ways over the years. I did um I did a show. So when I stopped doing it 2006, I didn't do any in 2016. Um, 2017, I said, Hey, we're going on, I'm gonna try a show, right? The weekend, not the weekend after kind of the weekend after that. Sure. Right? Where you can come and hear it live. So essentially I had a comment by tickets in the show, set, whatever, whatever. But then in the fight finale, you get hit. I did that two years in a row and it was decent. It was good, but that is even more work because I had a righty song now, prepare, record it, whatever, whatever, rehearses. Yeah, that's real because that's a lot of the images. The worst part, you know what I mean? Is the remembering this remember it 2432 bar book is crazy to sing it the week after? Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, that in itself was it was real and then I came, uh, I stopped doing it for so yeah, 2018 was the last year that I did it. And then in 2023, I don't know what just fresh coming out of COVID. Yeah, coming out of COVID. That the the the need for it from the people, there's always the people, and I just take chain up and sure. Chain up isn't do this and what about hoodoo boo? So, all right, cool, bring it out, bring it out. And I I love that 2023 wrapper.
SPEAKER_04:That's your favorite one, 2023. No, not my favorite one. Oh, the first one is just yeah, the first one was just a shock.
SPEAKER_02:And to be honest, I really like 2024. Yeah, serious? Yeah, 2024, different, but anyway, but and so then I was like, I I came up with this concept of sponsors, advertisers on the wrap up. Makes sense. And 2024 we did that, and this year we did that, and it was the most money I ever really make off a wrap-up.
SPEAKER_04:Well, good congrats. That's that's that's I mean, in one shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. So it paused at the right time because COVID comes swinging fast. And I remember coming off of COVID, the sentiments of the audience, people like myself, you know, you want carnival to go back to normal. And I I saw people saying, Hey, Matics had you know what Matics went to. What Matics was feeling that you see in that people's acting thing, people telling you. If you see an ad imagin, why again? I mean, I can imagine people helping you.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I made I can I can bitch about it and wine body any day. I just grateful that I have something like that. I have a product, I have a vibe from the people that the people want, as much as it might be fleeting in terms of from you know, from the time it releases, we'll go cargo after. But I can make more music to people last longer than that. So, I mean, I have I have a product that people still want.
SPEAKER_04:And sure, the body of work I was selling that yesterday too. The before I get to that, the the the parallel you draw when you say love comedy, right? It really stood out to me because this is funny you bring up Colin Lucas too. I was really surprised when Colin Lucas said my songs were kicks. Because I never really saw it that way. So when you say puppet, for instance, you you found that comedy would resonate with people, so you went for it with that. That really stood out to me, you know, because I guess apart from me thinking more battle rap than it's just a way to call people name and attack.
SPEAKER_02:Right, but then that is the influenza the kaisu too, because the calypso ride pecong in it, right? Is is more akin to what we know culturally as opposed to battle rap is a herr, which is still the ex-tempo, but the ex even the ex tempo and all is more you know is pecong, right? So is it was I realize what it was he saying about honey and and and whatever, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, please, yeah, right. So it's it's essentially that that same principle now. It's like I alright. I don't I could be bitter, but nobody's gonna want to want to see that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean it's a yeah, you have a palatopoly of point, and it's funny because in the midst of the thing, it's some people get some strays on to ask it was you know, because sparrow thing he knows it's wild, that's crazy, but used the visual, you just do the visual to go with it, right? It's wild, you're just not expecting it at all, right? You know, Banji Fey and Destro in my mind, right? You know, all the current people go and get blazed. Because just when people are asking you about things, right? People asking you, I'm sure, because they have that in their mind. This happened, like the Eskimo thing they say. Everybody's like, all right, romantics go see. Yeah, but Sparrow just and you know, you put the thing in, you just do that yourself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I missed Okamon out. Yeah, yeah, you just see that's the next thing, too, right? It's not just writing his song, recording the song, and mixing the song, and then editing the video, finding all the pieces.
SPEAKER_04:Sparrow dagging he knows at the moment that was why it's true.
SPEAKER_03:That's the problem anything, it's true, it's be true thing. And why people don't be vexed with me when I just talking, this happened. Why are you vexed with me?
SPEAKER_02:I just say I mustn't say that's one the one thing find about the soccer industry and the calypso. Well, most of you, soaker industry, everybody is real shusho na. Yeah, I don't think you know a lot of people don't reveal their true sales in in the soccer thing. I don't know why. And and have these kind of conversations. I mean, I've tried to, you know, bring them out in my on my show and whatnot, and I mean, and really have deep, meaningful conversations about the industry and about the thing. But I find it's it's it's always been so shushuna in so can I like you care, you know, nobody really says nothing aside from there's my new song and whatever, whatever.
SPEAKER_04:But I think it's a lost opportunity. We don't get to know the artists, we don't get to know the thing, and also we don't get to know the fact that like Bungie could take peekong, he could laugh. You know, there's some people who will laugh at all. It's people whether you get vexed or not, you take shots. But and that's so you're talking about. But my favourite of yours is really the Political rap-up because, like, this is crazy. That election wrap-up. Why another man who why you had to cut all the things with Glenn Ramadar Sing? Wasn't that enough to sing? You could have just simply seen Ramadar Singh trying to sing and you can't sing and sing, and you could have moved on to the next one. That casting. Wow. You put the whole thing in the video where the man was singing, what was the song again?
SPEAKER_03:Love you.
SPEAKER_04:But you're doing my favorite. At least you're typing on. That one was fired.
SPEAKER_02:That one was like politicians and singing everything. I had you see that I had fun with that. And that's the thing. Like that I had real fun with. Like doing the ticker tape on all me and my boy Justin. Shout out to Justin. You just doing the ticker tape, but you're just chupping this and everything. Like that. Like, and I know when I'm doing something like that in that instance, that they're gonna have the same effect. Oh, so you know it's while you're doing it. So shooting the video. The video is crazy. Who's the girl head who pop up? Who's she? We need to find out. I remember she named her. I think I had her in the phone. Whenever the next next girl is Angel, shout out to Angel.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, let's wonder. It was crazy how again, it just is the same thing like we're saying about Calypso. And that's why I was tiny into comedy because there was a time when Carnival done on Ash Wednesday came. That there was this notion that after Ash Wednesday is holy, and so can Calypso care play. And I remember things like Caribbean Comedy Festival and Yangatang and those things. And that's the Glasgow never called me. I don't know why. But I didn't tell them he was a comedian. You wait till KG to tell them that he was taking the comedy route. Imagine what that would have been. Let me take the wrap up. Anyway, imagine what that would have done in the G complex. That would have been wild. But it's the same thing because I saw the wrap-up, it's almost like people would have been selling sprang. He only had to talk about his younger time. Because those comedy shows would have cover what happened in the carnival, the better comedians, I guess. Yeah, for sure. So it's like, you know, people, it's like we need that space where people we need that release, that that that reveal. So it's something you're gonna continue doing. Once you'll see, we'll see.
SPEAKER_02:No, I can't say nothing. If it if I divide take man and it catch, and whatever, whatever, whatever. Yeah, most most likely. Yeah, most likely.
SPEAKER_04:We're gonna see because life is the audience. The audience will put the pressure on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. But political rapper, man. I see I I'm very proud of those moments. Puppet, political rapper, kind of a rap-up, first one on the political rapper, because to me they open doors, they open doors to for hip-hop and artists like myself to be more accepted than children. Sure. You know what I mean? When I drop the political rap-up, it's because my one saying, is he is he moms or somebody, or whatever? Like, your song, white dog, boy, I don't know, whatever. You know what I mean? So it opened up to a whole new demo of you know that this is could be palatable. Now, granted, you have to sing about we and certain things to make it more related, but that's why the the the kind of carnival wrap-up was hip-hop, but it's singing about carnival. What's the two biggest thing is Carnival and politics?
SPEAKER_04:Well, you said you it was so all-encompassing. Like, I used to listen to them, and even as I listen to them now, like just prepping to come here, it wasn't just it was we, right? It's very much us. But it was just it's us and the way we see the world almost be. I heard Hiri and Joe Button. It just happened during that time, and you just slide it in it. So it's almost like a reflection of the way we see in the world. It's very, very, very true.
SPEAKER_02:No, and that is it, it it that's another reason why I'm very proud of them. Is it's saying things that people who don't necessarily have a voice, you know, want to say, or people that people saying things and they're not platformed on a big way, you know what I mean? Now everybody who have a phone feel, you know, their opinion matters. But you know, it's really you know, really trying to. So, like when my boy, when in the first one, is I right this the line, you know, you say Raj, that that that rum only goes to Sapian here. Yeah, boy.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, my brother said that, my brother said, Raj, that rum only good to happen near.
SPEAKER_04:I said, Well, where is it now? I don't say he done it perhaps for you. Listen, the David and them gonna start again. What happened? Yeah, you see, that's what it's doing. Not because I leave this for last. It's probably one of the most important things to me. Your journey into starting our radio. What was that like? Oh, yeah, David, we need time. Let me let me get to our radio last, right?
SPEAKER_00:Of course.
SPEAKER_04:Um, let me let me talk calypso. I glad, I'm glad you said me there. I was telling you when we talked before that um I was asking if your first calypso was the two-party. When I when I when I hear two-party again, just like all the different wrap-ups you do, well constructed. I have this thing I talk about on the podcast all the time about ketchup and mustard. You know, this red and yellow kind of thing we have. And I was waiting to say two party, but we need a new party, you know, we just just get them out of the way. But um, you you remind more about outside man, you know. I mean, can't forget that. When you when you think outside man, and I think all of us would have been introduced to you doing Kaiso, Soka, them kind of thing. Because you in Sokaman thing before that, or outside man was really a first.
SPEAKER_02:I was in, I reached, I do a chat near all kind of thing. I reached semis with that. Yeah, but I was just like like Colin Lucas says kicks, that was just kicks, that was just wireless. That was a better wrong table with a bunch of drunk men and things. Yeah. Right? And then I I went into Sokamonark in 2019 with a song called My Type. Right. This is one of my favorite songs to perform to this day. Right? It's about different types of women that I like. Yeah. Right. And and but that same year, previous, previous year, I would have put out Lie Dong. Um, no, no, 2019, yeah. Lie Dong. I put out Lie Dong. And that was my real first foray into Calypso. Yeah. Yeah. And that was more, that was a very dark, bitter sort of thing, just kind of explaining my journey to that point in music, and you know, and it was just a perfect mesh of sound and vibes. And I tell myself, I say, well, I want to go in a tent, you know. And I went on audition and I ended up in Kaiso House. And what's that experience like? Because you just look uncomfortable on a stage since I ever see you. Nah. That experience was cool because I mean I got a lot of support from the elders and them. So, like when I went to do the audition, it was uh Brother Mudada Valentino explainer was like the panel there judging all the auditions, now you know what I mean. And so when I ended up getting it, Valentino, he said, Dan, I see you there. I give you a big tick next to your name, man. Right, and then any tent now is um black Sage real tick to me and always learn advice and always cool with it. And then at the same time, there might for want of a better term, my pairs there, Mr. Shaq, Sharon Bailey. We all almost the same age, come up under the same vibe. Shaq didn't always think I so yeah, of course, I mean you know, and me and Shalon, we always have a mutual respect. So it was at it was welcoming in that aspect, and then um oh gosh. Anyway, yeah, it was very welcoming in that aspect, yeah. Yeah, in the tent. And then the next year I was in two mines and a poor outside man and butter resistance rest in peace. He said, I think I said, I'll come back with that song. Come in the tent with that, you know. I said, Alright, cool, come in and tent with it, you know, and I kind of sat out. Well, I sat out this year too. Um, but well, right, it was post it was COVID, right? Um, an outside man just blew up. Yeah, just take off. Yeah, it did it went huge. Because it's a very Trinidadian story, maybe.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's a real story for certain people, not me, certain people for certain people, you know what I mean? Yeah, so at that point in time, you're right, and it's you you're not you're not playing it all that time to get back into Calypso. You're playing out your music the way you would usually do it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean that is just how that just kept me uh a vaps, you know. And I I I competitions are very much a part of our culture, sure, and I think they actually are important in terms of creating platforms and exposure for different artists. Um, but I not make any music to go into a competition, you know. I mean, I would go into the competition for more people to hear the music. I see. If I reach somewhere, yeah, said love, you know. So outside man you enter on thing, or you're just student. Well, that year they had um they had changed back the rule to two songs. Me and they had no second song. So I ended up. Look at your timing. That might be only yeah in the mix that they do that because. No, I think they did it like the two years, the year before that as well, right? Right. Could be wrong. Somebody could correct me. Right? And um I rush and write her to a second song, and I went to So I performed outside man in the tent on the judging night, but then I had to go down in the bullpen and sing his second song. But I rush and write the second song, and and it was real weird for me because at the point in time my mother had a stroke, like the week or two, no, two weeks before. And it would have been my first time having to leave her by herself. Because I was taking care of her at the time, you know what I mean? And I just young day just waiting to perform to get back to my mother. You know what I mean? Like I is well. When it comes to the tent, judging night in the tent, flatten, yeah, yeah, yeah, easy outside, man. Flatten, flatten, yeah, outside man to be a classic. Man, true rose for girl and I think the full words, the full tense experience. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so I mean, it that was just a pleasure. And I I think when I listen to Outside Man, sometimes I listen back like, yo, you write that song real good, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but they're writing, and it's not just the writing with you for me as a fan, the delivery. You know what I mean? Because I maybe other artists would understand, but as fans, I'm not sure if people really understand how hard it is to write, deliver, remember, perform, and embody and them kind of thing. So Outside Man was one of them. But talking about embodying, what went on with you and Tobago Chuck, you know, that thing we can cover that and all the time. I have no idea. I think you buy two red and you tell them buy a red and you buy yellow and all it split it in half for one. No disrespect.
SPEAKER_02:What song Tobago Chuck, you say? What's the name of the song? Why are we doing this? Well, I want to know because I can't remember. My song is called Two Party. Not just that. Your rollout and everything did it already.
SPEAKER_03:I doing interviews with a yellow and red jacket.
SPEAKER_02:I remember Amazon. I remember. You understand? It's half, half. I doing all my interviews and promo and rollout and thing. You serious, bro? So you I just thank God I went on first. You find all that's on the night.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't, I coming up the road from Skinner Park. It's because a man messaging me, boy, but things I'm T F your suitors.
SPEAKER_04:Anything is brilliant. There's left side, right side, everything line up perfectly. It's all is the same side. I don't remember the song he sang, but I remember thinking it really had nothing to do with it. Wasn't this thing, yours was directly related to it? I can't remember, no disrespect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. But I saw it then because like I tell you, people like Keegs and Travis and them as we all the time. So when I watch it, that was one of the most difficult years in Skinner Park. I have that dung as one of the toughest Calypso uh well semis and finals in yeah, 86 would have been one with Rodon all them really, and it was just real hard with Stalin and them. But that year was rough. That year was uh he went in when Marshall couldn't sink. Yeah, so even if people might argue that it wasn't the hardest year, it had the most eyeballs on it. Yeah, everybody was watching to see with it.
SPEAKER_02:Because it was Tasha and it was Marshall, and then Karina Shah had a big song.
SPEAKER_04:Italian had a big song. My boy, um I will just mix up his name, Bruce Hammond or Hammond, Bruce, whichever order, Hammond Bruce.
SPEAKER_02:And then and the thing was like rare people messaged me after, Pyle Rob yeah, and the thing and whatever. I was like, nah, I could have come better.
SPEAKER_03:You think so?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what do you mean come better like what? So it's the first time I doing a stage like that. Nah, I didn't realize how big that skin of park stage is, though. Well, that yeah, however, they design it now. And my timing is supposed to be I done mark my cues in my head, right? I'm off the stage and I'm singing, then we're gonna go to party, two party. So by the time I finished the singing chorus, I suppose I hit the front of the sense of the stage, one cannibal pen and then what's saying. I suppose I hit the front of the stage, Jay. Well, boy, the thing coming up, and I still say, I swear, damn, I done run, run, run, run on stage because I underestimate the size of the stage. I was like, wow, yeah, and then yeah, and then I mean everything else aside from that, but that how you hit it there and go, you know, your intro is important. I don't imagine and how timing and cues and all of that in my head.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, maybe particularly for you. Because I remember you doing that's what it's about, Tobago chokey. Yeah, we'll finish at some point in life, right? Yeah, I remember Tobago Chalky. Um, I'm going back to Tobago Chokey. I remember seeing you do the acoustic version of that uh before. That's how I mean do the split, do two, a yellow and a red, which is some work to just edit that down. So who you're talking when you're talking about your friend in central versus your partner in Tobago. But just random questions about that, the acoustic version of it. Who clean like it, no more? Jabs, jabs music.
SPEAKER_02:I see Daniel Paison, big up yourself. Bad, bad, bad. Jabs just played, jabs did additional instrumentation on outside man, additional instrumentation on Lightong. And we worked on many, many, many projects together.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I remember that. If I remember right, he had released this song, it was done getting traction online uh because it just captured the sentiment of what people was feeling anyway. And then um the acoustic version feels like it gives it another length and a different feel to it. So yeah, so actually it was on a rhythm.
SPEAKER_02:Um, shout out to Keshav and uh Raka. It was on a rhythm, but something about it it didn't catch now. It's like, you know, it was going over people's heads. I was like, yeah, okay. Chop it in acoustic to our video, and then I just put it on Facebook, YouTube.
SPEAKER_03:Oh no, it's not going over people's heads and feel to meet it'll be one of them. Because it was like on our more upbeat soccer rhythm with some other songs that was more thing.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, you know what I mean? People wasn't really catching the heights in it now. Okay, you know, so I was like, all right, let me slow it down for them and then give them a visual aid, right? Right. You dig? Well, you get at that, you get it.
SPEAKER_04:But you didn't come in out of that feeling like you're getting robbed, you know what I mean? But I I chalk that up to experiences. We enjoy a skin up experience.
SPEAKER_03:So it's something that you will do, yeah, man.
SPEAKER_02:I growing up, like you know, as much as I exposed to all different types of music in my household, I Dimash Ground. I that stage was just seemed like a a world to me now. Staying up with my parents and watching Dimash Ground, and then getting bigger, and my mother, me and my mother, we would have a ritual, we'd stay up, watch Dimash Gra, and then I'm gonna play my Juvie.
SPEAKER_00:Right?
SPEAKER_02:And that stage has always been uh calling to me to just add something about that. I don't think there's is there any other performance stage aside from like the Olympics or some shit or something? Well, I guess yeah, that could match that. Yeah, and that's just a dream of mine to reach day. Me, yeah, that win. I just want to reach day dad and say I did that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And entertaining people and hopefully with some sort of song that, you know, I mean, have a song put on there by Corey, but they ain't gonna like me, but I feel I feel like I'm not gonna be like, nah, nah, they're gonna say they're gonna they ain't gonna let me.
SPEAKER_03:You know why?
SPEAKER_02:Because it's not um it's a very reflective song. It's it's it's looking at us in a in a mirror, sort of way. Right. It's not, I feel like everything now had to be a we love trinity and we take and we are, you know. That's that's cool, but I really not. You're gonna let me know. I mean, so this one ain't gonna like it, but the people go like. So this is next year, doing it? Yes, sir. All right. Well, I hopefully, hopefully. That's the intention.
SPEAKER_04:Immediately after Skinner Park, right? Let me get it, right? Let me let me do that. Because I'll tell you, it felt good seeing you on Skinner Park stage. You know what I mean? Because you know you're following the career from back in the day and see what it is. So seeing you on that stage meant something as a fan. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And just to say, and not to say that I spur this on, but it's it's cool because then you see certain other, you see Squeezy run out in it, you see young brother run out in it. So I think that you know, my little venture into it coming out of that genre into Kaiso specifically. No, like I went and run down soaker or something trying toward. Yes, of course. You know what I mean? And I think we need more, more, more of us in the other genres. So come on, jump in, you think, man.
SPEAKER_04:I think so, particularly writers, huh? For me, for me personally, particularly writers, because it says something, you know. Maxine put it best for me when she said as well, like you're giving other people permission to realize they could do the same and and they could go in. Yeah, David, I had a cover already, you know, so somebody had a fashion to me, you know, nearly done. What we had to talk about already. All right. Time in them fellas trying to pull me out. Everything working, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, good. You're looking at me, not good, but I've seen you. Not seeing me? Are I supposed to talk to our camera? Yeah, what is going on? I thought I was supposed to talk to the guest. You see why you say talking about team? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, because uh it's important for the clips. I just want to so going from those days and everything, everything you're going through, particularly about entrepreneurship, where the idea for all radio came up initially, you're responding to what you went through with radio back in the day, or another interesting way of putting it.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but no, remember, funny enough, we started this conversation as me as what I am seeing jugglers, Mike Man, DJ, all of that. So the music that element of the music thing has always been there for me. And I started The Grind, my program, The Grind, right, in 2008. Um, on 99.1. Shout out to Mark Abu Ahmad. Right. He had a vision at the time, he wanted to do specialty shows, so he had like a specialty rock show, a specialty disc show, a specialty reggae show. Right. Then he wanted a specialty hip-hop show, and he knew I was in the circle of MCA and announcing and whatnot and whatnot. And she's like, he thought I would be a good fit to do the show. And we did, and we produced the show, and it was um a three-hour show. First hour we dedicated to strictly TNT hip hop on RB. Second hour was like New Jams, third hour classic. Um, did that for a few years, came off when administrations changed, come back on, yeah. And then in 2009. Oh, next was government. Yeah, CTT. Oh, CNMG country. Well, yeah, CNMG, GTD, wherever you know. Right? Right. Um so then they called me back. Um, Chris Granger at the time, shout out to you. Um called me back. And he was like, Matics, you want to do our show? I know you used to do one here ting ting in 2009, 2018, I think, yeah. Right? And um I was like, Yeah, but this time I don't it no, no, no, he can't be hip hop alone. Right. Because there's too much going on, and I just be in everything, I in all these genres. You know what I mean? So, not to say I in all the genres, but I mean as I just be in the rock shows, and as going to reggae dance, and as you know, as a hip-hop man, wherever, you know what I mean? And a singing guy so too like you know, let me let me to open up the show to all urban quote-unquote genres, and it the show brought a lot of life back to certain things that was going on at the station, right? And then um, in the midst of COVID, you know, radio radio stations were still open and operating, and the show was doing a tremendous thing. Like our interview with Boy Boy had like over 200,000 views because we were the only ones documenting. Doing the same thing that doing the same thing that we we do in here. I used to treat it like that. I used to treat the interviews like the interviews as almost a separate thing, it's like a podcast with music in it, you know what I mean? Um and we were creating the content, and I just find things were real viky vi in in certain instances, and then they wanted to essentially move my shift of my show of the grind from to nine to twelve in the night, and I kind of took offense to that um because it's like all the mantra is is TTT, right? All your mantra is live for local, like the only local show on the station, all local show on the station, and I bringing in money, right? I have sponsors and thing thing thing. You can talk more about it too. Right, um, and then also I had a child on the way, so you know, nine to twelve, I was like, nah, I ain't doing it. So I left and I started I shopping to different people, uh I shopped the grind to different shows to different stations. A couple people were interested. Okay, a couple people never respond to me anyway. I'm gonna tell you um and um yeah, so then I just I just started doing my research and about online radio and how to go out about it, set it up back end, and I was like, you know what, let me do this. And I just started it as a home for my show, right? And did like six months of testing and beta testing and and the station was up and running, you know what I mean? And then started reaching out to other like-minded individuals who probably want to do the same thing or the same pushing the same head as me, and that was it, you know what I mean? And we and we built a nice momentum moving forward, and next year, June will be our fifth year, for real, you know, and um it's tough, you know, and I think I mean Kenny Phillips talk a lot because he's essentially doing I mean the same thing that he's doing, but in a different, let's say, demo or a different field, you know what I mean. But we have we have shared a lot, I remember right? Kenny called me. So when I had outside man and thing, and he he hit me that that people's a rapper, a calypso. Then this guy's as a rapper, you know what I mean? Can you call me and he was like, um, Disney mixed a covet, right? I want to do some shows, right? Um streaming them online, but how we monetizing that, buddy? I say crowdfunding, bro. So what's that? I say thing ting thing, fun me t and thoewa, blah blah blah. Boom, boom, boom. Kenny started do shows after that, fund me TNT, call he. Because money making like that. Yeah, sir. So shout out to Kenny. He's definitely, you know, a guiding light in in all of this that I try to do, you know. Right. Um, not to say I'm following him, but he has done it in in different capacity, but the same thing essentially, you know what I mean? So it's tough, but I mean it's important because I dare anybody to listen to my station to our radio.fm for 15 minutes or more and tell me how to blow your mind. Tell me you don't be like, What is that? Who is that boy? Who is where that song? Who is that? Tell me how to blow your mind. Yeah, you know what I mean? And the programming is of such that you know, especially now automated rotation is is is nice, is great music, man. From artists that you will never you never heard of.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and you know what's the question why comes to mind? Because I remember Kiggs telling me this other day. I had a pro S when I first started off. As you say, what I dealing with this year versus what I was doing for the first four years a different pole game. I could have never anticipated any of it. So the amount of new artists will reach out to me to say, interview me, I want to come on the platform and expect that. No, I think that's every day. Nothing. I would imagine. So I just happened to be talking to Keeks before we started with gears and up and I said, Well, Keeks, I don't know how to respond because I'd be genuine in my thing. I cannot break a new artist. I can play the music, you know, it's a full conversation. I feel be unfair to them. And I remember Keeks saying, Send them by me. He said, That's what we just do. We specialize in that. And um, I've been doing that since then. Kigsa, I say I say some of them is like 75 years old and because there's a brand new old artist. That's a brand new old artist here. When they see calling, they say, Well, I have a song ref too, you know what I mean? So I even that kiggs are like send them in the matter. And that's when I started realizing that because you know I seen kigs and I know he on his show. And he tells me, he said, nah, we play local music right through. We play it. And that's when I say, wait, this local? And this local, this somebody from here. And that's when I so when you say blow your mind, it happened to me because I was like, Well, who is this? Who is she? Anally prime is a good example of it. I was like, who is she? You understand? Which station introduced it to Anna Lee Prime? Yeah, I was not paying attention all the time. So when I hear it, as Keeks really, when I when I tune in, Keeks going live and I put it on. Right. And then I hear him saying, but at that point, when I listening to Keiggs Live and I drive it on thing, me realize it local, it's local. Or I saw you interview a young brother, I think it was on your show, and well, the the story had my grip because when you hear his origins and he and Hottie and them kind of things, and just so different.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but and it does I mean, it's providing our platform, and and and as I say, we're not under the prof. Yeah, we would love to make a profit, sure as any business would. Um, but we're not on that is not we guiding and purposeful, yeah, for sure. And the artists need to tell their stories, you know what I mean? And that's why platforms like this are essential, and that's why I will always come and support. Yeah, I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_04:I appreciate that. Like I have a course going on now about um social entrepreneurship, is what they call it. So the venture, as a well, what they call the triple bottom line, you're hearing all about before, because before when I went to school for business, they said in business 101, a business is a profit-making entity, and there isn't a profit, but now they're talking people. That's right, you know, say that's first class, first hour you will learn that, but now they're talking people, planets, and profit as that triple bottom line.
SPEAKER_02:So the what you're doing for people, and I I think I think I think the definition of my entire career has been making passion profitable, and that's what I'm continuing to do. Got it, you know, trying to do that. Yeah, but I have a passion for just because I'm inspired by others around me and what we have to offer as our country in all aspects musically. I created the platform and it's ready to make it profitable now, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Well, listen, I want to be as much a part of that journey as I could possibly be. In any way we could support, anyway we're watching it all the time to see who the artists are because again, it is easier for me to sit with people like you than to sit with somebody who's now coming out just because I see somebody's journey before. Uh, but anything that you're all doing and so on, and uh, David, I feel the way David is structured the interviews so that I can never finish in time, so that I can invite people back every single time. I start to believe that it's deliberate now. But I appreciate your comment through, I appreciate everything you're doing as well with the team that you're building. Just a random talk before we close, right? I remember seeing what I was just watching you live a day, and you were in studio, like getting ready to start, and I see Travis and everything. And then I see you walk out of the room and I see Cappy Passad on them rehearsing in a band room. I was like, I was so confused because I run and down Cappy to come here and trying to get people to us. No, I don't make it happen forever. I make it not happen for everybody. Yeah, because men's stories are stories. I tell him all the time we were back and forth because he was in the country a little bit, and he told me he'd have come through and saying Ricky Jai, same thing. Right. So much to my surprise when I look and I see in your live Cappy and Ricky, two men were waiting to come here. I see what I can.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so because my my is my recording studio, my band room, and the station are all in the same place. So that night it was active in space.
SPEAKER_04:No, I just hear noise immediately. I think this is radio, then I see you had the band room, you went somewhere else and you showed you different spaces and things. So congrats on that. It's amazing. You continue. So, David, we'll start to record my my matches, right? Everybody, we need to get that by him. We ride down the road, yeah. We can walk with the table, yeah. You can make it look the same. But thanks a million, brother. This was nice. I appreciate it, Smart. Thanks a million. Yeah, respect. Good, David. You do a great job, you know.