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August 22, 2025 42 mins

Machel Montano Talks MSG at 9, Shaggy Comments, HIs Master’s, Atlantic Deal, Ciara, Verzuz + More

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up his Way Up with Angela Yee, I'm here,
Jasmine brand is here. Yes, may we have a real living.
I can here with us today. Masha Mantano is here.
Welcome to Way Up.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you. It's good to be here with these beautiful ladies. Angie,
long time and listen.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
So I was reminding Jasmine, we went to the Caribbean.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Music Awards yes last year, and first of all, I
couldn't believe that you were there, but you got your
Lifetime Achievement Award there.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
How did that feel?

Speaker 4 (00:31):
It was an awesome I mean, it's a funny feeling
to get that so early in life. I'm saying I'm
still young for Green, but I mean for me being
there seeing the progress of Caribbean music, and that night
Mighty Spower was there so for me and it was
really special for that moment because his career really inspired mine.
And to see all the young people coming out right
now in Soca music, you go full cycle and understand

(00:53):
the impact of your work.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So I feel really.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Fortunate to be doing this so long and still relevant
and do it in New York City. New York is
a special place because a lot of our careers, you
know bus in Brooklyn.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I know that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Let him know I'm from Brooklyn for real. And that
was also amazing for you. I want you to talk
about Mardy Sparrow just to give some history of your
career about who Mardy Sparrow is for people listening who
may not have that information.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Well, he's a king of Calypso I mean everybody would
hear Collpso music. I know Harry Belafonte and his major
recorded first record that ever went gold was called Calypso
by Haryelafante. But he was feeding off of a lot
of calypso Onians like Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener and
you know the great great ones you know from back
in Trinidad and Sparrow actually, you know, told the world

(01:42):
took Soca music, popularized it across the globe.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
He's a king of every genre.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
He'll sing you know, sexy songs, he'll sing ballads, he
would sing you know, road matches. So he was the
one that everybody was looking up to. And he was
a pioneer, so I always and he at a very
early age, he took myself and Natasha Wilson was a
female Calypsonia and we were nine years old and he
took us on talk.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is that crazy?

Speaker 5 (02:07):
How did he meet you? How did he see you? Like?
How did that happen?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Already in his career at nine?

Speaker 4 (02:12):
The funny thing is I was singing Calypso and they said, Yo,
you want to represent for your junior Colypso competition in
the country. I did that, and I shot the fame
and a guy came home to my house and said,
do you want to open for the Mighty Sparrow and
Lord Kitchener at Madison Square Garden at nine years old?

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Is that wild?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I was like yeah, and not.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Your family was like, now, hold on, we don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
Do you remember, Like how much do you remember about that?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I remember?

Speaker 4 (02:37):
I have such memories. I remember coming to WBLS, going
to the radio stations and telling them that, look, I
would like want to change the world and sing about
peace and sing about united music, exactly what I was
saying at nine.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm doing right now.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
But if I listen back to that interview, which I
have copies, I don't know who that kid is.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I don't know what is happening.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
So it's something spiritual, but something written and meant to be.
I met Sparrow at that function in Madison Square Garden.
They held me up, and you know today I'm living,
you know, in his footsteps and carrying on the bottom.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
It literally held you up because you were what a blessing.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Imagine knowing at that young age what your career path
is going to be. Because I'm just thinking about what
I was doing when I was a kid, and not
only to have known back then, but to be here
today and still like thriving even the new project one
degree Hatter, I mean amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
There's not a lot of people who.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Can say for the past forty years, I've been doing
this and I haven't missed the step.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Yeah, I think it's a blessing, but it's a lot
about focus and knowing what you want. When I started off,
you know, I really was singing Calypso mighty spowering. These
guys are old guys, but I was young as nine
years old, so I'm looking around like asking my parents
where are my peers. And when they took me to
the club, they were listening to Buju Bantan and Tainted Love.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Lip syncing.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
They were lip syncing and dancing to the New Edition
and bell Bit de Vaux. And when I started singing
the Calypso, none of them liked it. They were really
pissed off at me for bringing Calypse. And I said,
and this was eleven years old. I went in the
back and I said, what is happening? They don't like
their own culture. And then I realized it wasn't hip enough,
it wasn't fresh enough. So I found my mission at

(04:21):
eleven years old. I started to make Soca music fresh,
and I met with people like Pitbull, I met with
Dougie Fresh, I met with you know.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Boister Men.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
I kept doing collaborations a shanty, trying to get socer
music to have that sort of young appeal. And then
I saw a lot of younger people coming into the
Soca business, accepting it as something viable because now it
has a style and has a song. And I just
patterned working with Beanie Man, Shaggy Red Rat, I did
all the legends.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
I want to ask you about something Shaggy said recently
because people were mad about this.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
I'm sure I know what it is about the dand
No bands.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, And I do want to get to you perspective
because and We'll talk about Tiny Desk in a second,
because that was amazing and I thought about it again
because before you came here, I was like, let's rewatch
this because I watched that Tiny Desk when it happened
first time ever that there was a Soca artist on
Tiny Desk over a million views right away, just to
put that out there.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
But when I was watching it again, I was like, man, listen.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was thinking about Shaggy because people were up in
arms about what he said about not having a band necessarily.
But then I also thought about the flip side of
how expensive it is when you are traveling with that
many people, but also the experience people coming out to
see you and wanting to see all of that.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
So what are your thoughts?

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Well, life is constant change. Do you anythink constant in
life has changed? And what might be happening on this
Saturday planet. We might be getting the moon right now,
but some of the Saturday planet is getting the sun,
so you have to look at the waves that is
happening with Caribbean music. I mean, I love live music.
I had a band since I was nine years old.
I took all my friends and I put all of
them together some of them really famous right now, Farmer

(06:01):
and Nappy Plea, Tris Roberts, they were, yeah, you understand,
and I love live music. I remember being signed to
Atlantic Records and they sent me out to I was
signed a Delicious vinyl before and they had me performed
with a DA tape and two dancing girls and I
was missing my.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Band and I was really craving it.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
But I remember being in London one time and walking
into this club and seeing this guy with a five
piece band singing, and I realized that yo, the people
were paying attention to him. There was something magical happening.
I went back home and I had to reconstruct the
idea of a Caribbean band because we had horns, three
horn players, two background singers, We had like fifteen people

(06:40):
on stage. And I started the Ecstatic five point zero,
which I copied from the Jamaican five piece band, drums
based guitar. Yeah, and you know, we had that band.
So it kept changing, and then we had to bring
in Ableton and we had to change. Now people are
cutting shows like Vibes Cartail with just the DJ, and
people are seeing the economics of it. The concert economics

(07:01):
is changing, so some people might choose no band and
just do tracks, but I think you have to adjust it.
If you can carry a drummer, a live bass player,
a guitarist, you do that.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
But we have some elements.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah, can you tell me I have live elements? Is
always better. I love my live shows better because I
could talk to the audience and I could manipulate this
show while it's happening. I use a lot of technology,
but we use it in a way that we're not
being driven by the technology. The technology could follow us,
so if we want to come off script, we could
come off as and make magical moments any night. Because

(07:34):
you never know what is going to happen. With Soca music,
we relate to the crowd. Somebody might be up, a
girl might be up on her boyfriend's neck, some climbing
climate and scaffolding.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
You got to pay attention.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
You have to be very present.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
We have to be present and make it real. It's
like I used to love watching The Grateful Dead and
they would have people talk with them every single night.
I'm fortunate to have that because people know every night
it's a different show.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I do.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
I change up my set this the band is right
there and you know, Okay, I'm moving this to here.
I'm gonna do this here. Let's adding this song because
it's the biggest song in this country or this city.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, that's the bad When you think about even putting
together that tiny desk. I was like, how do you
chap this down to twenty minutes? Because right, you have
so many hits? Yeah, and so how are you How
were you able to even put that together the way
that you did. I'm sure there were some songs that
you were like it was painful to not have them
on there.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
I mean, I love all of my songs and the
whole a different place in my heart, but I know
the ones that are the sign posts. I know these
songs that mean something. What happened during that time, like
Dance with You is about me becoming spiritual and talking
to God, you know, and saying, look God. You know.
I was studying Hindu religion at that time, and I

(08:47):
know that leela was the dance of life. But I
was like sitting on and saying, man, I wish I
could be up there with you.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Gordon. I was like, Biggie Son ready to die.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
And he died, and I was like, okay, I should
be careful of what you're singing lyrically, and I said,
I just want to dance with you, so I want
to come up and dance with you. But then I
had to flip it to be about a girl. And
it's a very spiritual song talking about girls, and the
whole audience sings it all the time, so I had
to put that in there. I had to put like
a Boss, which is one of the greatest road match
hits ever. And the biggest challenge for us doing Tiny

(09:18):
Desk was they said, look, no metronomes, no backing tracks,
you have to do everything live rules. Yeah, those are
the rules, and we hadn't done that in five ten years.
We were working with back in tracks and metronoms and
click tracks. Keep the time in for the band like
a click track, so everybody will have a click track in.
They want you to go free wheel on two, three, four,

(09:40):
and everybody keep the timing, so you have to put
your samples and have to be in time. It's really skillful,
but it shows that Soca music and Caribbean culture could
also be skillful.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
The audience was lit.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
People.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
I was like, look at the audience.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
I've never seen a Tiny Desk audience before. I think
you look at it, but it was would.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Have been on staff that day.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
There's a big meaning to Caribbean culture.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
We have a lot of people who are here in
New York and the mainstream like yourself, but they were
born in Brooklyn, flatbirsh Gcheurch Avenue and they have they
have Caribbean roots. If you talk to Buster Rhymes, if
you talk the Dougy Fresh, they don't have Caribbean roots.
And it's important when you go out in these mainstream
places to visit your root and your root culture and
talk about where your mom is from and your family.

(10:28):
So I think, you know, we have a sort of
unity and love in Caribbean culture that is going to
be influential to the world.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
At some point. And I think we get in there.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
We had reggaeton and the Latin wave, We had afrobeats
and that wave, and I think now the Caribbean wave
is coming, which is a mixture of like Afro and
Indo and Spanish and French, you know. So I look
forward to what is going to happen for Soca music.
Platforms like Tiny Desk. You can see it in that
audience and see it in the people who come out.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
I was gonna ask you in terms of your set
list when you're you know, have shows and stuff. You
have a set list, but do you switch it around
when you see something happen in the crowd.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
And the most important thing for me as an artist
is to entertain myself.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
First. I have to be on board, you know, I
used to I was on tour.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
With people already and we do the same thing every night,
and I wonder, man, can I really do this? But
I try to switch up my show to entertain me.
You know, I remix these songs right there live. I
have an able to guy who knows what I want
and I could do it too, So I could send
him something and let's switch this. Let's switch around these songs.
We might learn in Guyana and they might have their
favorite favorite song is Guyana, which is Indian song. And

(11:37):
I have to learn that. I love to do that
because the people tend to appreciate you pay attention to
their culture special and you have to be flexible like that.
I changed my set I'm very proud of that. Every
single night. This show in Brooklyn coming up, I'm going
to ask I was going to we never did that show,
and we have some magical moments that we're trying to

(11:58):
pull off to this.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
It's going to be special.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
This is the first ever Planet Brooklyn Festival, and this
is something that's never been done before. We're Planet Brooklyn,
the Paramount Theater and bam Angela Day.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Is the twenty third outside.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
It's a free event for the community, but the headlining
event is Mashall on the on Sunday on the twenty fourth,
So everybody got to make sure they check that out.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
And I mean, Marshall is just a big Soka, but
we have top of.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Don So skin Bungie is gonna be there.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Shure Bungeesy, Topa Soka too. You know, we have Ravi
b Housy Chuckney Soka which for that Indian community, but
also Molly is passing through.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Oh I feel is.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Gonna be dead.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
You know.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
We have so many new kids in Soca, Problem Child,
Skinny Fabulous, Oh.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
I love Skinny Fabulous. And you do such great work
with these artists.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
It feels like anytime there's somebody new on the scene,
you're right there.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
That's why I stay young.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
That's say youngs say He's been doing this for so long,
but we got to remember he was like seven years old.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, you're a baby when he started. So it's like
I've been doing the forty years, but I'm still young.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
I'm still doing it at seventeen right now, how do
you stay like current and stay fresh and young and
element and.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
All that stuff?

Speaker 4 (13:11):
I have My company is called Monk Music, and it's
a movement of now knowing, that's what Monk stands for.
But I think it's about tradition, it's about technology, and
it's about truth. So the tradition is the elders in
the past culture, and then the technology is the young
people and their visions. And you put those things together.
Now so I see, I look at all the young

(13:32):
people coming out, and I respect what they're doing. And
if I feel like they're innovating, I go to them
and I say, teach me about your innovation and I'll
give you my experience. So we can blend those two
things to get a bud. The main thing is, let's
bring it to the now, to today, which is a
true moment. What problems do we need to solve, What
do we need to speak about. Who do we need
to bring up in our communities, who do we need

(13:54):
to lift up the young voices of young girls? How
do we you know, what do we need to pay
attention to it? Experience in your technology? What can we
do today? So once we do records like that, and
we do shows like that, and we relate to each
other like that, there's something more meaningful than just music
happening at our events and our collaborations.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
You also went to school and got your master as
well in Carnival studies.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I didn't even know that was.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
The Yeah, yeah, that was important for me. I am
mapping the next twenty years of division and I think,
you know, Caribbean culture is on another rise again. So
I want to have a message, you know. Bob Marley
had a message, you know, one love, you know, and
I want us to know what that message is. And
to know where you're going, you have to know where
you're coming from. So I went and do a little

(14:44):
digging back into Carnival. Everybody taught training alnd to be
because the mecca of Cannival, and will say, no, we
got the real Carnival, and then there's Barbs and Lucia.
But when I really went back and studied it, you know,
this is something that was born in ancient Egypt and Africa,
and it came across with the enslaved people, but it
also went to Rome and Spain and Italy and France,

(15:08):
and they now came and colonized our islands. So there
was like French type carnival, Spanish type cannival, English type
cannival happening alongside the African type cannival. And what is
kind of cannival is about putting on costumes, putting on
a mask. What do you do when you put that
mask on, this physical body disappears and you become one

(15:29):
with the gods. You kind of communing with the gods,
be able to go beyond yourself because you're pretending to
be something else. And if we all in these streets
jumping up, pretending to be something as one, it's a
much bigger experience than being an individuals being together that
when you have that music happening, that's why people love
to come back to Carnival and Trinidad and eat your

(15:49):
food and drinking rum and see one another's and hug
up and you know, feel like one.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
And I don't think many types of music has.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
That in nas And you know, one thing, I also
say about Socca. What I love is that I feel
like women have always been very included. For sure with
Socca music, like there are huge women and even you
working with a lot of women artists, but some of
the biggest songs is women also, and that hasn't always
been the case in different genres of music. But when
I look at SOCCA, I'm always like, Okay, the women
really represent you.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
Just hit a really serious point that I didn't know about,
that I learned about in that carnival studies course. The
men would sing about stick fighting which came from Africa,
and singabout warriors and stick fighting. But during their breaks,
the women will sing songs to relieve them, like sing
songs about their sexy shape and their figures and their faces.
And this music was really attractive to the men. At

(16:41):
one point in time, when the oppressors clamped down the
singing of this violent music, the men adopted what the
women were singing, these smarty, suggestive songs, and the women,
like you know, just allowed it to happen and supported that.
So these set the tune for the new Soca music
was and the new Calypso was. They played an important role.

(17:04):
So it's always that balance of masculine and feminine. And
I mean, you know, we in a time when feminine energy.
We're trying to reclaim what was suppressed and what was overlooked,
and we're trying to accept that. And I feel that,
you know, feminine energy is here to nurture all of us.
We don't need to be so tough for all the
time and can't express our feelings, can't you know, conflict resolution.

(17:26):
We don't know how to do it because we're trying
to be all natural. You need to know that soft side.
So I think it's important and I think Soca music
represents that we have shape, we have form, we have flow.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
You know, we're not trying to be hardcore all the time.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Was yes, but it's a party, it's a celebration. It's
unity because that's what socer music is about. I love
that we're talking about this massive degree that you got
and then you kind of educating us on the background,
because some people might hear the music and think it's
just party music and not understanding the evolution of it,
you know, and understanding Calypso and Soca and how related

(17:59):
those were. You'll say they're the same, Soca and are.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
I mean they're two different things. But I think Calypse
with Soca and Soca is Calypso is soul of Calypso. Yes,
Soca was.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
The Soca was the soul of Calypso. And I mean
Calypso was the you know, the real essence music. But
Soca was beginning as the soul of Calypso. Nor is
the sound of the Caribbean. If you listen to these
buon beats that coming out of Dominica, the every single
Caribbean island is adopting it. I could even hear it
in Mali from South Africa singing Soca Rema has something

(18:31):
so and similar to it because they all related to
that Afro Indo mix. But I really feel like, you know,
people think it's all about drinking, whining, sex and fun,
and we used to get a lot of flat from
the Jamaican audience.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
I've definitely heard them act like it's not as serious.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
When I went to Bonticu said, yo, I need to
do your marshall. But no, I hear not more talk
less like Kevin nic Kevin Nicok kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
And now and then Tenny later, I see Bounty in
a soka and I pull up on him and I
say yo, He's like all right, all right, saying something now.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
And even when we would go to Jamaica to play
Masks in the beginning, taxi drivers will see us jumping
into their cars after they kind of over paint on it.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
They'll be like, yo, this devil thing.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
But eventually, when you don't know something, you know it's
you're stranger to it, so you will be kind of reserved.
But I think now that they understand the depth of
the culture, because once you experience it, you would understand
that this is something to transcend the physical self and
be bigger, which is the spiritual where we are all
one and there's unity, and it's about that masking. So

(19:40):
you know, put the things aside, the drinking, and they
haven't found in the frolicking. But this music is really
uniting and liberating and it's about love, and I think
we need some of that in the world right now.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
I agree with you, we do not. I feel like
I'm practicing for Trinidad car because I haven't been.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
You are nervous.

Speaker 5 (19:58):
I don't think I can handle this you.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
I don't know why I'm so nervous because I know
it's going to be it's a lot.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Those nerves will go out because it's just going going.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
How do how do you practice for Carnival?

Speaker 5 (20:09):
Like? What do we?

Speaker 3 (20:10):
How long does I need to stay up all night?

Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's like two days? Like you start on a Monday.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Okay, First of all, you start juve morning, which is
the muddy dirty pain chocolate.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
You start in the night Cannibal Sunday.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Night hair in Brooklyn?

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (20:26):
Are you doing dove in Brooklyn?

Speaker 5 (20:28):
Me?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
I don't know. It's a little different now, pretty boy, No,
I love you, but I'll probably not trying to get
that paint.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, no, I do do running from it because of
my hair.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
But sometimes when you're thinking like that and you experience
it and you realize the freedom and your liberation, you
just don't care anymore. People will come and smell things
on you, and you'll just and then you go to
sleep at six, seven, eight am and come back out
at twelve pm. So three I will not come back
out put on some kind of dress. Dom but closed
do the Monday from twelve pm to midnight, and then

(21:04):
you come out six am on Tuesday morning, all the
way to midnight the next day, so it's like three
days a nonsense.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
But trust me, you don't need.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
To practice window. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
It's gonna be a learn on the job.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
You will go beyond your limits and realize that I
didn't know I could party like that.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah. Plus I don't listen sometimes I'm not going to
check myself. So accept that.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Accept that. Now.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Look, you have this amazing song with de Vido on
the album too and the video as well. You guys
were in the studio.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Having a time. Yeah, yeah, talk to me about this
link of filling it up.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
I mean, we were inspired to go to Africa and
make that connection because of the afrobeats music and the wave.
We love what it's doing. We love the effect that's
having on the Caribbean. A lot of these songs, the
Bruno Boys and the Whizkys, we've been bringing them to
Trinidad for a while. We've been bringing Run Town t Maaya,
have been bringing Pato Ranking and you know what we

(22:07):
noticed is that people don't know what they're saying, but
we're singing along. It's transcending lyrics, but we like everybody's
singing it, and we thought something was really powerful about this,
and we went back following our roots of our Afro
music and we wanted to make collapse and connections. And
we worked with a lot of the writers, who worked
with a lot of the producers, and we were there

(22:29):
just building some songs for the next wave and the
Vido kind of you know, stepped up till the plate
and said, he wants to do a Soca song and.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
You want to.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
I don't want to do a collaboration trying to crossover.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
I want to do something hardcore and experienced Soca in Carnival,
So we tried to build something that was current and
he liked it. We did about three or four different things.
We still have records under the belts. Okay wait for
that that we're going to be touching soon. But we
wanted this one to for him to experience Candival in Trinidad,
and he came.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
There on cand of a Friday.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
He did the show with us, we performed the song.
He also had a taste at Juvi and so it
was like him learning that experience. And I think it's
important for African people to understand what we came to
when they brought us across the ocean and what we
grew into and let them understand their relationship to that,

(23:19):
you know, because we have been busy going back to Africa.
We went to Ghana with mister Easy for return year,
and you know, we're trying to make those connections constantly.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
What I love, too is the point of the unity
of it's not a competition, because some people will try
to pit like afrobeats against dance hall, against Soca, when
really you can we can all exist and like do
great collaborations, bring each other and educate each other, you know,
about different things, because there's different iterations of things too,

(23:50):
But it's.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
Not even it's not even different things. If you look
at the beats that we share the same things, Reggaeton, afrobeats, Soca.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
People didn't like reggaeton. They were mad about that, you know,
and it's.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
Always you're always mad when it's new and you feel challenged.
But if you you know, for years we have been
all trained to represent our uniqueness. Oh, my country has
this food. We have the best food.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
You know.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
It's like, okay, rice peas and chicken is for plao
cook up.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
Is this same basic very.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Come on, so understand this, right.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Nobody, but seriously, I mean, we've been celebrating our uniqueness
for a long time. I think it's really beneficial for
us to start looking at celebrating our similarities because then
we laugh about it.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
We can't believe, hey, we have that to look at
this beat, look at that beat.

Speaker 4 (24:48):
You know, dancehall influenced Reggaeton, These Shaba records we grew
up on, these Chabaranks records and these you know murder
she wrote records by Slider and Rubbie and not.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
All of them being used in that music.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
And we still love reggaetime, we love Bad Bunny, and
we love Jabalvin, you know what I'm saying. So I
think we have to start looking beyond and if we
want real numbers, we want to be touching billions of audiences.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, those collabse those crossover collapse is what really does it.
I wanted to flash back to you talking about being
signed to Atlantic and Delicious Vinyl. How was that for
you culturally because that wasn't like they had a lot
of artists that I don't know if they had any
Soca artists signed to Atlantic, and you talked about having

(25:30):
just like a DJ, two dancers, So what was that
process like of trying to educate them on.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
What it was that you do and what was needed.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
It was hard for me, you know, it was really hard.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
I was coming from being an established act, and I
mean every time I went to one of these deals,
like when I went to Delicious Vinyl, I had come
dig it. We shot that video on the Eastern Parkway.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
It was getting there.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
We got signed to Capitol Records, and then Capitol Records
merged with somebody like Wana, and then we were dropped
because everything.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Was on the desk.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
So there were always things that I thought would happen
and didn't happen. Then over the years, there have been
some SOCA songs that got a look like Tempted to
Touch by Rupee and turn Me On by Kevin Little
Hot Hot Hut by Arrow and who Let the Dogs Out,
But we didn't have that constant flow of people asking us,
what do we think Soka needs to cross over? And

(26:24):
I think that work has to happen. It's been happening
with people like Marshall and Bungie and Kess and Nyla Blackman,
all the new soak artists. But we have such a
responsibility to carnivals, which is Trinidad, Carnival, Jamaica, Carnival, Barbados,
Sinusha that we have to keep the music hard core
most of the time, so we're trying to cross over,

(26:44):
but we still have a responsibility to be very hardcore.
And I think, what is the hard core music wouldn't work?
So I went to Delicious and the tough time was
at Atlantic. I was trying they would put me with
the best. I was signed by Ahmed Riz again, who
signed to Franklin and Ray Charles, and I met with
him and he was like, yeah, my shall We'll send
you to London to do that two step Craig David

(27:07):
kind of thing. Like what And I'm watching this legend
and I'm excited. I'm very excited for that. But then
I go out there and they put me in the
top rooms with all the best producers and writers, and
they're pulling beats off the shelf and they saying, Okay,
I think he's like a Cisco with Sean Paul, with
Michael Jackson. Make him my record, And you know, they

(27:29):
would just be trying to do these things and they
moving so fast. I didn't think it was what was
necessary for Soca music at the time. I tried to
play them some Soca records to tell them this is
what it sounds like and this is what it means,
but nobody has that time. They flew me to Sweden,
I worked with Merlin Music. They flew me to Norway.
I worked with Stargate, who did all the Rhianna records,
and I was trying to advance Soca. They were trying

(27:52):
to make hits hit some Caribbean feeling, and there was
a disconnect there because I know my responsibility to.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
My own right, because you know, you can't to stare
there too far off there, because it'd be like, what
is happening? Is he trying to Sometimes you're chasing something
and it's the essence of and then people, some people
don't never come back from that. Once you cross over
and try to do mainstream things, you might have like
a couple of big hits, but then it's hard to

(28:21):
ever come back.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I remember when I had to walk away from one
of the deals.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
My manager at the time was saying, look, listen, just
do what they want for now, and then when you
get true, you could do what you want. I said,
But by the time I get through doing what they want,
I wouldn't be me. So I want to get through,
you know, with what I am, and I just have
to walk away from that. But the positive was this
happened to me three times in my life, signed and
come back home and didn't make it happen every time

(28:47):
I came back. I was able to bring you knowledge
of the major industry and apply it to the local
market and move my entire industry forward and set the
example for a lot of young people who coming up
behind me. And you know, I'm still here today. I
still feel I could do something, you know, new and different.
I'm always trying, yeah, and I'm going to keep doing

(29:08):
it because I believe this is a mission that would
influence the those who are coming up and inspire them.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
To even still like party. That was like the big
carnival song for the season.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
That was Yeah, And to you know, here we are
twenty twenty five and you've been standing for so it's
just incredible.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Against the youngest, the smartesty, brightest, and I've been working
with all of them. The biggest record of the Traderada's
greatest Benover Sean Paul remix, Molly and Chloe Bailey remix.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
This was on Music We brought that out.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
The group that writes that, that whole rhythm they wrote
for me for twelve years and they have their own
song called good Spirits. So we celebrating a lot of
wins and I just think like to have party which
was road March, and not only road Match. I've been
to every island since then and it's the biggest song
everybody see.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah, it really was.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's a positive message.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
We're working hard, and you know, it's something special always happens,
but it means that we are still getting the looks
because of our energy and our openness and willingness to
work with the youth and to change and to transform.
And we think there's a lot of good things happening
out there. Afro Beats and Soca that the video and
Marshall collaboration. Fling It Up is one of the ones

(30:19):
that we love the most. But we got to sit
with the video and introduce him to Soca and we
have some records that we want.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
To play for I can't wait to hear it out.
We have records record don't play.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
We want to introduce it.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yeah, look like really having a good time.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
From the footage that we saw in the lookst amazingly
like times.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
No swimming around, but the guys are part.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Of Square and Yeah and his whole team.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
We went to see the video perform and then we
went back to the studio and I mean he brought
like fifty guys.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
In it, and I took young kids. It looks like
a time.

Speaker 4 (30:57):
Trust me, if I showed you real footage, you wouldn't believe.
We have to hold him back from pouring stuff into.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
The mid we're still in the studio. Everybody, calm down, right.
Crement is expensive.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Even when we went to.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Nigeria and we worked with Rage, who did Unavailable, who
produced this after this song that we did together, we
had everybody.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
So you're waving like this playing.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
His song for like three hours back to back to
back to back to back, which means this is the
Caribbean version of you know that afrobeat song that we
want to introduce to you. We just have to get
the right mixture and the right tempo and temperature and
we're gonna get now.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Did you laugh when Sierra was at Trinidad and she
shouted you out? But your name for people if they
don't you know, it's a little harder for people you
don't have the easiest name.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
Listen, I've been getting Michael and Michael Nikel. I mean,
just remember I was named after the president of Mozambique
back in nineties, for Samora Marschell. His wife married Mandela
after his past Oh wow, Mandela's wife was a graptic
of Machelle and that's where my name comes from.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
But a lot of people don't know it. They don't
know so they pronounce it and.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
They say, But to me, I love that because you
know they'll be talking about that guy, that guy who
moves the audience that way, and then you bring people
in to learn who you are. Yeah, that was cute
that I understood that she didn't get it, and.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
You know it was our first time at Carnival too.
It's amazing to me how many people still like if
you're like, oh, so they some people don't really even
know what a Sosca song is or have heard it,
to be honest, Like, obviously, I'm from Brooklyn, so that's
something we grew up hearing.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
But there are literally people.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
Who are like, I don't know what and everything I
know is through Angela because she's my close friend. So
every that's my point in reference, I didn't.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
It's a work in progress. I bet you if you
come and you experience the experience.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Because Soca is tied to Carnival, and that's somewhat of
a curse and a blessing, meaning that you know, you
have to come to Carnival and play mass and it's
a localizing. It's not built for the radio or for
times when you want to be sad.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
It's all happy.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Sometimes you can't be sad and no, damn Carnival, that
would be weird even but you know what's good when
you see people at Carnival. They could be working sweet
remember they were sweeping, but they dancing, winding up on people,
cleaning and they're working everybody.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
It's like every the cops. Yeah, you're right, everybody's having fun.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
You have loans, people have stress, people break up, they
take a break from a relationship and they come to
Carnival and then they get back.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
To that, right unless they're on video winding up on
somebody and they girl don't understand, because.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Then even that is understood.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
No, it's not.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Okay unless you have been you know, like oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
Bring family, brainy wife, bring your friend and let them
experience the kind of love and unity, and it's like my.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Man is not letting nobody wind up at all. Period.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
It's not all about that.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
But it can happen, you know, it always can't happen,
but congratulations on everything.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
I love this.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
You also are teaching, of course, right, yes, so talk
to us about that so people can get information because
from hearing this conversation today, this might be I think
it sounds really interesting for anybody who I think for
musicians and artists today, we got to make sure that
we also get that knowledge in that education because I
think that only helps you move forward and advance in
your career.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
We definitely want to open up people to what's happening
right now. The technology wave. You know, digital transformation is
important for Caribbean artists.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
A lot of them.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
We don't have that solid mainstream record company industry. A
lot of people just putting out their music on YouTube,
releasing stuff, trying to get this stuff on your radio.
Sometimes radio is not even that important to them anymore.
But you know, teaching them about the business side of
things helps them to understand, you know, how serious of
our career this can be. You know, we could save

(34:54):
communities we could save kids. You know, there's there's a
lot of things that were up against, like the new
wave of violence and the guns and the drugs, and
a lot of the youths are choosing music. But now
we have to teach them that it's not all fun
and games. It's a business. And sometimes when we show
them the back end of how fun it could be
and how serious it helps develop their minds, develop them

(35:14):
as human beings. They become more respected. But then they
become business right, well not businessmen, but a business man
showing how to be a business and to help all
their payers around them, their community, their parents. So we
have a sound Bridge program that my management and myself
we try to teach them and introduce them to all

(35:35):
the producers that we work with, explain to them about royalties,
about marketing, about production, about every aspect of the business,
live performance. And I'm doing a masterclass because it's been
through all the departments of it. And I wear those
hats in my everyday life. I produce, I write, I record,

(35:55):
I design, you know everything. So we want to share
that knowledge with the younger generation on a digital platform,
something that they can pull up on their phones, on
their on their tablets on their website with technology that's
happened right now, streaming, teaching them about the changes of
streaming and distribution and all these things empower them with knowledge.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Man, that's amazing. I love I love that, And I
also want to ask you this.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
We had a debate before you came in here and
I was saying, you like this, Okay, So we were saying,
and this is our this is Nick.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
He's a DJ also he works here. He calls you
the jay Z of Soca, just so you know.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
He was like.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, because when you said a businessman, I was. But
we were like, who could he do a versus against ever?
And we were trying to come up with some ideas
of what would be a good competition you for.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
You Well, truth be told, I was supposed to do
versus during the pandemic. I was approached by Speech and
they to do Marshall versus Bungee.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
That's what I said, Thank you, He said, KSS and
I said, it's a different vibe.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Cats is amazing and huge. But I was like I
could see him in Bunde doing and thank you, okay,
go ahead.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
That was it, And I mean I was I was
down for it. But at that time, you know, it
was it was a time that I was going inward.
I used the pandemic to turn inward. I spent the
first year in jungle, the first six months living in
Jungling a woodenhouse, and then I decided to pick up
myself and go to India. And I went to India
to Ashram to study meditation. I was going there while

(37:36):
people were dying on the size of the streets, and
you know, it was risky, but I went to a
place where I wanted to learn yoga and meditation and
rehash my body and my mind.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
And I learned to eat different, I learned to sleep different.
You know.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
I just came back from there during Cannival time, candival studies.
I was studying so much. I was eating, eating and
I lost forty pounds in treatments, eating good food and meditating.
And to know, I have a different approach. So at
that time when they wanted to do that backle, I
wanted to go inwards. I wasn't in a position to
go outward. And I said, yeah, maybe in the future

(38:09):
we think about it, because Bunge and I, you know,
we wouldn't go backling head to head, we have hits.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
We have catalog.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
You have songs together too, songs.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
Together, so it could be a whole different showdown. You know,
I'll consider it no because I'm out, but I always
do ying and yang. I always have a time when
I go in and then I come out to share
what I've learned with new music, new energy, a new
thought process.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
And it's nice that you have the luxury to do
that too.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Some artists are scared to take a break because they
don't you know, people feel like many people are going
to forget about me. But I feel like you have
such a solid, strong foundation. I know it's been a
few years since even the last album came out, and
then putting this out too.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
You have to take a risk because I was told that.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
The first time I tried to take a year off
is when I was signed to Atlantic Records and I
said I was taking the year off back in two
thousand and two thousand to two thousand and one, and
one of the big color studients iwa Joe, said don't
do that. If you ever do that, that would be
the ending. They'll never want to hear you again. But
I knew it was something that I had to do,
and I did it, and I came back two thousand

(39:15):
and one. Two thousand and two was a little rough,
but I came back in two thousand and three with
the biggest Solka record of all time. It's kind of
all with death dra You understand, NICKI, me and I
sing that song. Cardi b sings that song everywhere people go.
I sign that song at.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Barclays and turn your place up.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
You know.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
It was the biggest record.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
But every time I have taken a step back and
come back, I always come back bigger. It works, and
I have that history, So I think that should be
a lesson that that's a myth, and the myth has
been busted. You take some time off and you go
and do the right things, you can come back with
a fresh perspective.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
You know.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
I know about that formal and fear of missing out
and all those things, but the universe is always in
your favor if you're doing the right things.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Was there ever a time that I was wrapped?

Speaker 1 (39:57):
I know you just said it was a couple of
years that was wrapp But like I said, you've been consistent,
But was there ever a time that it was like, Man,
I don't know what's going on?

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Many times, really, I've been through three or four of those,
you know. I remember one in two thousand and six.
I had the biggest record and it hit in two
thousand and seven, Chumbie. But before that, no, okay, let's
go back to the two thousand and three we did
this kindival.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
It was big. Two thousand and four, we had a
low year two thousand and five. I went back in.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
I was trying to do a Rastaman vibe, singing about
no war and tying up my head like Sizzler and
trying to make reggae Soca.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
And the Rasta men were like, man, you can't do that.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
I was trying to get spiritually ketty drum music in Soca.
I was uncle higher and high with a ketty drum,
and I was really genuine about it. And you know,
I was a bit lost, and I taught you know, man,
I look to give up. And then I met with
white Cliff and why Cliffe told me come out to
his studio in New York. We came to the studio.
We recorded a whole album together. You know, that's what

(40:55):
we have is kindivally song that we have together. I
went to the Hampton's rented a house, took the bond.
That's where I wrote Dance with You, which is one
of my biggest records. So sometimes when you're in this
little spot, you just have to retreat, go somewhere, go
with people you love and try to look in. What
a lou is always the beginning of another high.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Oh I like that.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
We got to use that as a bar right there. Well,
thank you so much for sharing with us. We really
appreciate it. Don't forget the twenty fourth Planet Brooklyn. You
are the headlining act and maybe you said you would
revisit this. You know this versus who knows that could
potentially happen.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
You will have fun.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
I'm just glad I was right. But guess what.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Guess what is happening? That planet is gonna be there.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
He's opening up, Surprise Skilly Bang, Asian Molly is coming out.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
I might have a couple of little twists.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Listen, hat I have songs with everybody, so I can't
even imagine what type of surprises we're going to have
it for us.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
But it's just you alone.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
Is this is the biggest shore, biggest show for the
summer for Caribbean music because he's done platy Oh my
Angela another great one.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
Great but also because you say my name all at
the beginning of the song, you.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Know, Angela.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Have that on repeat.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, we love that one. That was a special record.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
It's a special record. Angel Well, thank you so much again.
We really appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
Thank you ladies for flying the flag first and doing
your thing and keeping that positive energy running.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Hope to see you guys in Barclays.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
And this is a true legend here right now.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
Get your bridge, get your bridge done by Angie's show
events on Saturday and then come by me in Barclays
and for me to mess it all up.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yes they will market I love it.

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