Episode 233 | Kurt Allen - Corie Sheppard Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Corie (00:17):
So, folks, I like to introduce people as royalty and
I enjoy when I have royalty inthe building.
Mr Alunoye going to Hi, goodman, how are you Nice to be here
?
Listen, I want people to knowthat we nearly recorded a whole
podcast before we startedrecording For real.
I'm looking forward to talkingto you for a long time.
I want to start with this year.
How was your competition andeverything this year?

Kurt (00:38):
Second place.
Yeah, it was good, Nice season.
You know have to be thankfulfor all the blessings and this
year was really nice.

Corie (00:44):
Yeah, this year was one of them.
You get rid of Dr Roboy Roboywell, that's part of it.

Kurt (00:51):
That's part of what the Calypsoians represent.
You know, we tend to feed offof the people and translate the
vibrations coming from thepeople, and this song was just
one of those translations, interms of what I was feeling on
the ground, and I justtranslated it into lyrics yeah,
somebody were wrong.

Corie (01:07):
I, I feel you're captured perfectly.
Yeah, man, like I rememberthese statements when, um, when
he was initially talking aboutretiring or stepping away from
political arena and one of thethings he say was too much
vitriol, it get, too nasty, itgets and I remember thinking at
the time, but it's been that way.
I feel like that is somethingthat every prime minister
everybody in public life isdealing with.

(01:29):
Not just politicians either.

Kurt (01:32):
And he had it nice he had it nice for 10 years, compared
to some others right, oh yes,compared to A&R Robinson Pandey,
even Chambers Kamla, you knowjust as the song said.
You call Chambers Duncy, youbeat A&R like a bubbly.
We call Manning Emperor, wecall Kamla Drunker.
Nobody said anything about thisman for 10 years.

Corie (01:50):
You had a little bit of an easy road to be covered, oh
very yes, but the man steppedaside and I tell myself, like I
was telling you come and I watchyour competition, I just feel
Kurt Allen cannot lose.
I say he can't lose, he can'tlose, and this was one of them
years for me too, because one ofyour first wins was also when,

(02:10):
or your Monarch win, 2010.
2010.
Yeah, was that transition yeartoo?

Kurt (02:14):
Yes, exactly.
Well, no, as a matter of fact,the government had three more
years, so nobody was expecting.
Well, okay, an election isgoing to be called this year and
within two months after thecompetition change of government
and the same, similar situation, but the change of the same
government after, so you're kindof lost.

Corie (02:32):
I say you're kind of lost .
The thing lined back up rightdown your alley again and you
had a.
You had a piece of politicalcommentary.
It's powerful.
It's powerful.
I had to ask you about skinnerpark this year before you go
back into the history, becausesee, when you come out I see
toilet paper like, yeah, youknow I was I was disappointed.

Kurt (02:50):
disappointed not because of the toilet paper I mean, I've
seen that with many artistsbefore but disappointed to know
that I've given all I could giveover the years to skinner park
in terms of delivering mymessages and this, this message,
was no different.
But they saw it as an anti-PNMsong and you know that was
disappointing because SkinnerPark is the place that you look

(03:11):
forward to for understandingKaiso, understanding what is
true, Kaiso, and I thought theywould have been bigger than that
.
But when you look at the tapeand from my experience in front,
there was just a handful ofpeople in front with the toilet
paper and some of them werereluctant.
They're looking at me andsmiling and you can see they're
doing this because probably theyhave to do it or some.
You know they were under somekind of pressure to do it.

(03:32):
But when you look at previoustoilet paper issues with people
like Gypsy or Sugar Hallows, youwill see the entire park.
So I knew that it was arespectful toilet paper wave,
but I found that, hey, you allshould know better.
This is Kurt.
This is not somebody who hasever chosen a political side or
somebody who is noted to beaggressive towards political

(03:54):
politicians.
I just say it as I see it andit came from them.
They are the people that feedme to sing what I sing, so that
was a disappointment, yeah butyou never waver, you never
falter.

Corie (04:05):
I was looking for it.
No, no, no, no, no, no.

Kurt (04:09):
Nothing like that can intimidate me.
I mean, you see his experienceas well, not just from the
Calypso stage, but I was aformer lead singer of Roy Cape
All Stars, and sometimes you gointo a fit where the bigger
bands and the people, when it'stime for you to sing, nobody can
come to the front of the stageor they stand up looking at you.
So well, they're telling you,go now, we're waiting to hear
somebody else.

(04:29):
Or you're coming after a big,big gun and you know nobody
ain't taking you on.
So I think that experienceprepared me for dealing with any
type of audience.

Corie (04:37):
Yeah, yeah stand and deliver you, yeah man?

Kurt (04:40):
yeah, I know it's a message I came to deliver.
I know I wasn't going to beattacking anybody or attacking
any individual.
It's a message and how you takethe message.
If you want to shoot themessenger, then that's part of
the job as far as I see you say,it's a great obligation.
Yeah, it is, it is, it isSeriously it is.
Yeah, it's something you takeseriously, Very seriously, yeah.

Corie (05:03):
So you went to the final again and I was saying that I
saw a lot of it was almost liketechnical difficulties in the
final this year, not somethingwe are accustomed to seeing in
that manner.
Yes, yes, A lot of technicaldifficulties.
Yeah, some of the initialperformers you could hear that
they were.
To me it was something likethey're not hearing, you know.

Kurt (05:17):
Well, what was happening from a drum machine?
Because a lot of the artists,so some of the artists, were
using drum machine and once thedrum machine came on, it was
conflicting with the sound.
It was getting a kind of afeedback, a bounce back.
So you're hearing one thing inthe monitor and you're hearing
another thing coming at you fromoutside that's dead far before.
Yeah, so you have to decidewhich one of these beats picked

(05:40):
the one from outside where thepeople were hearing, and after
about just about, I justexperienced 10 seconds of it
because my wife, who is not anytechnical person, right, but she
picked up that the people withthe drum machines were having
problems, so she instructed thedrummer take that drum machine
off.
And that is what I think savedmy performance.

Corie (05:58):
Yeah, yeah yeah, because I was looking at it now and I'm
watching later performers andI'm saying, all right, well,
what kind of competition we'regonna have?
No, god, don't pick my horses.
I say I know now you're notsure.
Yeah, yeah and um, but by thetime you came on it seemed to be
that it was flawless againstand and deliver.
Yes, definitely how you feltabout the result the result.

Kurt (06:17):
I mean when you, once you enter yourself in a competition,
you have to be prepared foranything.
I mean I've come've come as lowas 8th, 9th, so that when
you're waiting for the result,you know your number, can call
at any point, you know.

Corie (06:29):
So when you're backstage, you're waiting, you're not sure
, you're never very sure, you'renot sure, you're not sure of
anything.

Kurt (06:34):
You're not sure of anything because I mean you
might want cater for that.
You always have to cater for it.
The result for me while Iaccept the results, but
information coming after thecompetition, what suggests that

(06:58):
the results could have beendifferent?

Corie (06:59):
Let's put it that way it will suggest that, based on the
evidence that we have, butthat's part of the competition.

Kurt (07:05):
It will suggest that, based on the evidence that we
have but that's part of thecompetition we're not taking
away anything from the reigningCalypso monarch.

Corie (07:12):
Eli Francis yeah, he was good on it.
He ran a good race and he didwhat he had to do.

Kurt (07:16):
He is the monarch without question yeah, I respect that.

Corie (07:19):
Yeah, I respect that.

Kurt (07:25):
Yeah, it's well.
This song was similar I guesssimilar vein, because they was
looking at the outgoing primeminister.
One was in your face and onewas diplomatic.
I wrote you a letter and onewas saying tear up the letter, I
can't even let you talk.
So it was a different approachand I guess they went with the
softer touch.
So I have no problem with it.
So you plan to soften yourtouch?
No, but is that about meplanning to soften or not soften
?
It's whatever is dictated bythe people.

(07:46):
I will give you a okay.
If you look at my 2016 recording, which was a song talking about
rainbow, and it was saying youknow, the new government is now
coming and settle.
I see a rainbow, I see abeautiful rainbow.
That song was written at thesame time with this song, the
same date 2015.
Because if you look, if youexamine the lyrics properly, it

(08:08):
was saying, okay, you now come,but it's your turn now.
It's your turn as primeminister in terms of when you're
coming for your first term.
We call Eric this and we callthis your turn now.
But I didn't feel in theclimate it was the appropriate
song to sing then, so I chosethe other one, which is called
Pot of Gold, but these two songswere written at the same period

(08:28):
for the same reason.

Corie (08:29):
Yeah, so it's just update and go.

Kurt (08:31):
Yeah, the last verse is only one verse I added.
If you listen to the lyrics,all the information in that song
took place between the years2010, 2015.
The email gate, the section 34,everything.
Just listen to the lyricsEverything.
The last verse is whatmentioned Stuart Young and that
was the new verse.

(08:52):
If you look at, my computer youwill see the date of that song,
same lyrics, everything that ismind-blowing.
It was the right time.
Timing is everything.
A good calypso is not justabout the lyrics, it's about
being relevant and timely.
There are songs that wonCalypso Monarch probably if you
look at Sparrow's song Education, which is a timeless song but

(09:15):
wouldn't have won a CalypsoMonarch in 2000.
Or coming up against BlackStalin with Bundems, you know at
that time.
So it's about being relevantand timely.

Corie (09:24):
You see many songs like that.
Like when I look back at I wascomparing this year and last
year in Tombs of the Monarch to86, 87, which would have been
totally strong this year.

Kurt (09:34):
Rudder and Stalin yeah strong.

Corie (09:36):
You know where I always watch this Carnival Institute.
It's so hard to find theinformation sometimes, but
Carnival Institute, I always saysalute to them when you, if I
email them, they will give methe full rundown of the
competition, semis andeverything Right.
And when you see these songs atloss, you see, you see Exactly,
man, the way, captain, the shipis sinking.

Kurt (09:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ninth Explainer had many, manysongs.
You couldn't call it.

Corie (10:05):
So when you're writing songs, you enter the
competitions all the time.
Yes, you're conscious of howlong the music lasts after the
competition.
Yes, yes, definitely.

Kurt (10:15):
Definitely In this era where you find that the songs
are not most of the songs arenot recorded or received the
airplay in terms of the peopleknowing the songs, no, but back
then everybody was singing, wordfor word, you know, and back
then now you would know thatthis one have a party song.
So you're waiting to see if youhave a strong social commentary
to go with that for the finals.

(10:35):
And you know it was, it waslike that.
But now you don't findcalypsoonians releasing
recordings no, in october andgetting that.
That for people, for the nation, to say, okay, I like this song
, I'm hearing this song.
No, we basically operate withyou coming to the tent.
If you do, yeah, and if you'rein a tent as well.

Corie (10:53):
A lot of times people, the fans or the fringe fans, let
me say you're hearing it skinup because it's your first time
hearing some of the songs.
Attention exactly.
Only are too excited to talk tokids I don't know, forget to
get water and all them things.
I've taken a pause, right.
I'm glad we get that sorted out.
You know, I mean I'm not ayoung man.
In my memory I was gonna askyou as well with the popular

(11:14):
songs, because we come from atime where the crowd would have
known the songs going into thecompetition.
The indie tends a lot you'replaying on your radio and I've
seen a resurgence now now where,because most of the music is on
YouTube or it's accessible likeI could find all your songs
over the years on YouTube youstill feel as though people are
not listening to it on thesocials and that kind of thing.
Yeah, a lot of people no, a lotof people.

Kurt (11:35):
that's where they get it, as a matter of fact, because
they're not getting it on theradio stations.
So obviously now the focus fora lot of the artists, such as
myself, is to get that socialmedia presence.
Youtube is the main source orthe main hub for getting the
music and that in itself, whenan artist knows that he's not
going to get airplay, it changesthe type of compositions

(11:56):
because he's not going to bereally focusing much on the
dancing and part of it is morelike lyrics, lyrics, lyrics.
That's the focus.
If you look at the Calypso Monacompetition in terms of this
new era, as in comparison tobefore, you would always get a
hardcore social commentary, butthen the second song would be
something like Me, me.

Corie (12:16):
Drunk and.

Kurt (12:17):
Disorderly Soulfish.
You know these kind of songs,yeah, which is kind of songs
which is not, you know, notconsidered hardcore social
commentaries, even when BlackStalin would have won the crown
with a serious composition.

Corie (12:30):
and then Sundar Sundar was a serious lyrical song, but
it had that vibration to make itdance.

Kurt (12:36):
Black man feeling the party.
You know serious lyrics, butthen the music.
Because he knew at that timeCalypso still got an airplay so
he could still cater for it.
But now you're not getting anyairplay, except for WAC radio.

Corie (12:48):
Of course Kenny.
I see you and Kenny have a hellof a relationship.
Yeah, man I study him now, Isay all right, this man coming
in, I was booked to do itearlier.
And when I'm watching you andKenny as you pull up, kenny says
man, I lost again, kenny.

Kurt (13:01):
Kenny, kenny, kenny, can you have a license to tell me
anything?
It seems so.

Corie (13:05):
It seems so like when watching sports teams.
You know when you talk tosportsmen and they go in a final
and they're lost.

Kurt (13:11):
You know you stay with them for a long time.

Corie (13:13):
That's the experience with you too, you hold on to it.
No, no, not me.

Kurt (13:16):
I move on yeah, because you're laughing.
When you tell him you're lost,yeah, I move on, I'm moving for
a long time.
You know, yeah, nice man, hecan do things like that.
He lost too because he producessongs.
But he lost too.

Corie (13:26):
I tell him I'm going to go buy somebody else next year.
I'm winning producer, but Ilike the little series Oli is
doing.
Before we go back in the day,oli is working on a series yeah,
we're still doing it.

Kurt (13:36):
That's ongoing we paused for because of the election, but
it's on again.
Actually, right now we aredoing it with a St Lucian artist
by the name of Solange.
She is attempting to do well inthe Calypso Mona competition in
St Lucia, so we are workingwith her and that series is
ongoing.
We already did some of thefilming for it.

Corie (13:54):
Oh good, so that should be out by next week.
Yeah, I feel like some of themthings and I like the initiative
you're taking on that thatmight be what replaces a radio
player.

Kurt (14:02):
Yeah, especially in a period where people say that
after Carnival you don't hearanything.
Calypso, you don't hearanything.
Soca.
This is our way of keepingcalypso relevant and alive
during the year, of course,because it's something that
we're going to be doing likeevery two weeks, you know.

Corie (14:18):
I really like it For the election.

Kurt (14:19):
you know and I'm encouraging other calypsonians
as well to start releasing musicduring the year to cater for
different seasons and differentoccasions.
We don't always have to waituntil Carnival season to focus
on the competitive side ofthings, so you're bringing your
lyrics for competition All.
Now is a nice time to releaselighter songs.

Corie (14:37):
Yeah, I like the point that you make.
I never thought of it that waybecause I suppose there's no
payoff as a musician for goinginto a party song or a
borderline song if you're notgoing to play anyway.
I do find as well that one ofmy critiques of the Calypsonian
these days is that you find thatthe quality of the music that
they put up on YouTube, eventhough the lyrics might be
strong, where you get a lot ofschoolboy synthesizer music, I

(15:01):
understand that carefully.

Kurt (15:02):
No, there's a reason for that the artists.
They are the ones producingthemselves and sometimes
financially it's an investmentand they know fully well they're
not going to get back thatinvestment.
It's just to keep yourselfrelevant and out there.
When you talk about all thehits from the Sparrows, come Up
the Road, they were beingproduced by people like Strakers

(15:22):
Record, by Charlie's and bydifferent people who were
investing to produce the musicso that you found that the
quality and the standard of themusicianship, the sound,
everything is well taken care of.
It's live music and it's a bigstudio.
Because somebody's investing.
They never had to take thatmoney out of their pockets Now
the artist has to fund their ownthings because that market has

(15:43):
dried up.
The people who are producingthey're producing the soaker
artists, they're not producingthe calypso artists.
So you're going to always findthat standard a bit lower.
I am fortunate to be workingwith people like Kenny.
Phillip and people like GarrettSawyer from based in the US, so
I'm always working with livemusicians and bring a full team
together, but not everyone hasthat luxury.

Corie (16:04):
I understand, I understand it makes sense.
So Do Paka Rong.
Are they really right now?
So far, yeah, well, that wasyou know that was a quick one.

Kurt (16:11):
I mean once the concept of an idea came.
You know, do Paka Rong, it wasexciting us.
It was easy to flow from thereand it's a serious issue when
you're dealing with foreignrelations and that kind of um,
that big brother, but bigbrother bully attitude towards
the Caribbean in particular.
And you know we have to, wehave to say something.
This is the land of Calypso.
We must defend ourselves andCalypso as well.

(16:33):
So I use Calypso as a means ofgetting that message across
Don't poke around when it comesto our sovereignty.

Corie (16:41):
Boy, listen.
I our sovereignty Boy, listen.
I see it.
And again, I just like thisseries that I'm always doing
because you know who I alwaysremember Like I watch this fella
Hammond Bruce and how he stayson social media.

Kurt (16:50):
You know what I'm talking about that issue, and he's funny
.

Corie (16:53):
But it makes it good for the competition because now when
you're watching Skinner Park,you ain and he contributes to
that show a lot.
So when you take an issue, thatis so live, and it's like
that's how social media works.
Now, at that time we used towait for the news the next
morning that's itself we alwayswait for.

Kurt (17:13):
We, the Calipso Nails, always wait for the carnival
season.
So sometimes things happen allduring the year and you're not
hearing about it.
And then Carnival you getsaturated with everybody singing
about the same thing.
No, if it's happening, we couldbring this thing in real time,
and that's the purpose of thatseries.
We're going to be bringing theissues in real time.
As I said, we paused because ofthe election, but within two

(17:34):
weeks you're going to be seeingus.

Corie (17:35):
I love it, I love it.
I encourage people to go andlisten to that song at Dope
Ockerung Because saw that videocome out.
It must be the week afterCarnival.
It wasn't long after Carnival.
Yeah, exactly, but watch howthat issue escalates from then
till now.

Kurt (17:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, somebody had to say it.
You thought the Dragon Dealcould be included in that issue
as well.
It's almost like this songevery time you listen to it
because I listen to it.

Corie (17:58):
Then, and before we come today, I still have my tickets
here, and it's something else.
And then you're touching on asong, too, from Crookro, one of
the most controversial songs.

Kurt (18:04):
Crookro ever sang.
Again, you know, again, peoplewere commenting during the
election season that a black man, once you're black and you vote
for that is how they put it andyou vote for the UNC, you're a
Lick Bottom African.
And again, I think I was askedto represent to say something
about it, right.
And while I have nothingCrookro, I think I was asked to

(18:27):
represent it to say somethingabout it, correct.
And while I have nothing I'vebeen.
Kroko might be here in this butlet me use KroKo.

Corie (18:34):
I imagine we're using KroKo, so me, I think, with you
everyone.

Kurt (18:36):
It might be the last matchup, but he's one of the
first.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, to comment on the issue,you know that, okay, you're
suffering and you're going to beput in a race in terms of how
you're eating, how you're living, how you're surviving.
No, we need to grow up and movebeyond the race politics.
That's what the song was reallyabout, because, again, it did

(18:57):
not choose sides, it didn't tellyou to go left or to go right.
It just laid the issue and themessage on the table.

Corie (19:04):
Yeah, controversial song when Krookroos sing it, but I
mean I like it because it's justhis perspective.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the Calypso Neon must givethe perspective Exactly.
And you know, the Calypso Neonmust stay fresh to me because
when you gave a perspective, ournext man will get his own.
Listen to it.
Listen to that song now andwatch how the issue unfold,

(19:24):
because I watch his social mediacampaign and they say one party
was paying social mediainfluencers.
Yes, yes.
And it's the same thing thatwas being said about these youth
men who have a platform.
Youth men build a platform.
You have 100,000 views.
He side with a political party.
Maybe it's because he'sinterested in it, maybe it's
because pay, but part of his jobis to get paid.
He's our influence yes, yes, yesand they say all kind of like,

(19:45):
bottom and sell yeah, yeah notthe same race as the people who
might be supported.
Yeah, so again, I love thisseries.
I think I didn't realize thatthat's what you had in mind.
Yeah, man, in terms of dealingwith the issues as they flow as
they come we deal with it.
I love it, I love it.
So talking about balance, right, one of the things that I
notice about you is when yousing a song, you are that till

(20:05):
they sell your next one.

Kurt (20:08):
You feel that yeah definitely that's my laugh,
because some people they sing asong, they get married to that
song, you know.
So next year they're still thatand the following year they're
still that, until you know.
But I, because again it's likea lawyer.
A lawyer doesn't really I meanit's sad in some cases care if
the client is guilty or notguilty.

(20:29):
His job is to provide therepresentation, the best
representation, for his client,and when he goes home to his
wife or he goes home to hisfamily, the case stays in the
office, same with me.
My job is, as a calypso, is toprovide the best representation
to the people, without bias,without fear or favor.
So when I'm done with the issue, and the issue is done with, I

(20:50):
move on because I know somebodyelse is going to continue that
conversation.
I mean, if you hear a songabout violence today and you
listen to song about violence 10years ago, it's the same
conversation.
It's just that we are carryingit out in a different space at a
different time.
But the essence of the lyricsand the, the, what it represents
, is the same.
So I'm not going to get marriedto a concept or get married to

(21:12):
a issue when I know that my jobis to represent all the issues
in our brother, in our brother'sscheme of things, I see.

Corie (21:18):
So you're the issue first for you.
Yeah, definitely, and voice ofthe people?
Yeah, I mean there.

Kurt (21:22):
Sometimes you have some issues that are personal to me
that I don't even sing about, oryou know, like some people, as
a composer.
Now I'll just use an example.
Somebody might ask me to writea song about Allah, and I might
be a Buddhist or I might be aChristian or something, but I
have to show that Allah is Godand they ask me to write that
song.

Corie (21:43):
I have to write the song yeah, allah is God.
And they ask me to write thatsong.

Kurt (21:45):
I have to write the song.
Yeah, even though I may have aconflicting view and that goes
across the board, whether it'spolitics, sexuality, anything, I
have to deal with it from awithdrawn perspective and not
too involved in the issue itself.

Corie (22:00):
Yes, in terms of composing for people.

Kurt (22:02):
Yeah, man.

Corie (22:02):
Now you bring up Crooker, right.
You remember when he say a Vigoand piece of land in St
Madeleine?
You were talking about SugarHallows going on singing in the
next party.

Kurt (22:10):
Remember, yeah, yeah, yeah .

Corie (22:11):
It's something you would do as a, but it's dub plates or
whatever Something you would doup here on platform six songs.

Kurt (22:23):
I have been approached just recently in the last
election to perform for the twomajor parties.

Corie (22:28):
I was going to ask if it was Kizel Jackson.
No, the two major parties, thetwo major parties, and I
declined.

Kurt (22:34):
And they will be here in this interview and they will
understand the reason I declined, as I told them directly.
I'm a Calypsoanian.
First I represent calypso,first I represent I.
Yellow is not my code, red isnot my code.
You see my, my code is red,white and black and, as a
calypso, and that is what I doand what I what I say, I'm not
going to try and influence myaudience to go left or right.

(22:54):
My my job is to listen to myaudience and understand what
they're saying and put across amessage, not to direct them.
So you would never find me on apolitical platform.
You, you would.
You would have never find me ona political platform.
You, you would.
You would have never seen me ona political platform, because
that is not who and what Irepresent.
I understand, and that is clear, although I see my other
colleagues dancing and doingtheir thing that is fine too, I

(23:17):
suppose condemn them.

Corie (23:18):
That's what they want to do and that's what they feel
comfortable doing go right ahead, right, so you're comfortable
going on stage and tell dr rawwhat it is, because I guess
you're just balanced.
I've done it.
I've done it I've done it.

Kurt (23:28):
I've told me and this is patrick manning what it is.
I've told the present primeminister what it is listen to
political symphony and all thosesongs because they were in
power at the time, during theperiod between 2010 to 2015.
I was singing politicalcommentary on who was in power.
Before that I was singingpolitical commentary on who was
in power, so it doesn't matterwho is in power.

(23:51):
As a matter of fact, once youare a government, you represent
all of us, of course.
So from the time you become thegovernment of Trinidad and
Tobago, you're going to get mycommentaries coming.

Corie (24:02):
I appreciate that.
As a lover of the art form, Iappreciate it.
But the audience treats you thesame way you approach it.
Because sometimes if you sing asong and you bad talk the
current prime minister they gosay happy and then, until you
sing a song, bad talking, that'sa mute and that's all the same
bad talking.
But it's not bad talking.

Kurt (24:18):
Okay if you could identify anything that I'm saying in a
song that is not already inpublic domain, or is something
that I sit down and made up.
You know I say you know I meanmake up this about something,
about somebody.
Everything I've said it's inpublic domain or it has been
said by the people.
Now, sometimes it's adifference between what is facts
and what you put out there.

(24:39):
Right Example is it factualthat Chambers was Dunsey?
Is it factual that Manning wasa dictator?
No, but that was said andpeople were saying it, so it's
not factual.
Anything I'm singing.
It may not be factual that DrRowley is this or anybody is
that, but bet your life what I'msaying has been said before and
some people believe it.

Corie (25:00):
So I just repeat it.
I will too, I will too.

Kurt (25:02):
You know and, for example, are lines in in all my
composition.
There would be, you'll noticethat some lines will make you.
That is done intentionally.
There are lines that I place ina song to get your attention,
even though you're not listening.
When I say that, I know youwill jump and then that will
force you know, to listen to theother things I'm saying.
So sometimes I put in that lowblow that I myself think to

(25:23):
myself God, are you reallysaying that?
What do you mean?
But say what you know, becauseI know I don't mean it.
I know I have to say it foremphasis and to get the
attention.

Corie (25:32):
Right, so you ever have issues with politicians, like
when you see them on the road.

Kurt (25:36):
That's the nice thing about it, right, because they
understand, even though theirsupporters may feel a how, they
understand where I'm coming fromand they know there's no malice
, there's no ill will, there'sno ill intent, and I could look
them in the eye and have thatrelationship with many of them,
not just politicians in Trinidadand Tobago, the politicians
Saudi Caribbean that I'm veryclose with yes, including prime

(25:59):
ministers present primeministers that I'm very close
with, yeah.

Corie (26:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I stayed by their homes.

Kurt (26:06):
You know, when I'm visiting their country, I stay
at their home, really.

Corie (26:09):
They frighten you right Something about them.
No, they know who I am.

Kurt (26:12):
They know who I am and they know my purpose.

Corie (26:14):
I'll wait till you get a little bit of who to it.
But there's a song you havewhere you turn the spotlight on
us, on all of us.
That first investigationPowerful to me.
I want to get back to that.
But let me go back into some ofthe history.
You know, because I was tellingyou that I feel you know, I

(26:34):
myself as a Curt Allen fan, youknow what I mean.
I know this man, I know himfrom back in the day.
So my plan to start this thingwhen we go to the history was
bees and roy cape.
But then I hear you startedtalking about 1989 and saying,
yo, you were as early as that incalypso.

Kurt (26:48):
And yes, I am, I started in 1983, in 83 83, as a junior
calypsoan, and then I created abit of a history in that area.
In that area in 1988 I composedfor six finalists in the junior
calypso Mona competition yeah,including the eventual winner,
roger George.
So I was noted as a composerfor young artists at that time?

Corie (27:10):
What age were you at?

Kurt (27:10):
that time I was about 16, 17 at that time yeah.
So people come into yoursupremacist then Well, I would
go to a lot of people too.
If I see you have a littleKaizo, I'll write it for you,
you know, because that's part ofmy duty, as well as a Calypso.
And then I joined the New WaveCalypso Tent in 1988.
That's when I became friendswith people like Tigris Manchild

(27:33):
, al Ronda, who was the head ofthe tent, and that was my first
experience into the Calypso tentworld.
I made well.
During that period I was singingin what you call the junior
young Kings, the NJACcompetition, so I was performing
well.
They usually come in second orthird.
And in 1991, that's when mywife said, hey, you doing all

(27:54):
this, but like you ain't takingit too serious, because it was
like that's fun for me to say Idon't get serious, now you do
this and be serious about whatyou're doing.
And within a year, thefollowing year, I became the
junior young king.
And then in 1993, I becameyoung kings.
I see that is when I wasfounded, I should say, or
discovered by not Christopher,I'm going to say Christopher

(28:16):
Columbus.
Oh well Of sorts by LordKitchener.
Oh, okay, At the, strangeenough at the semifinals of the
Calypso Mona competition.

Corie (28:25):
So those times you still were all wrong.
The 10s yes, I was still withNew Wave Calypso for the three
years.

Kurt (28:30):
And then Kitchener.
I was standing backstagelooking at Gypsy's performance.
By the way, that same yearGypsy faced a lot of toilet
paper for a song calledYesterday's Children.
You know one of my favouritecompositions.
I'm standing backstage seeingwhat's happening.
And Kitchener came to me he saidyoung fella, you're singing
with me next year.
Yeah, this is in Skinner Park.

(28:51):
In Skinner Park I stood next tohim for the rest of the show
until he dropped me home notdirectly, he dropped me in Cribb
Junction to get a taxi.
So I was able to talk to him.
And you know, you know he wastelling me he was the one who
said Kurt Allen, after this, youwill never have to audition for
another Calypso 10.
Once you're with the review,you do ever have to audition for
another Calypso 10.
And I became a singer of thereview Calypso 10.

(29:14):
But before all that took place,I want to must mention in 1989,
I made my first tour to Europeas lead singer of the band Roy
Cape All Stars.
I made my first tour to Europeas lead singer of the band Roy
Cape All Stars and from 1989 to1992, I was his lead vocalist.

Corie (29:30):
Until.

Kurt (29:30):
I joined Atlantic, which was the band in the party, but
Roy Cape was still called theRoy Cape Kaiso.

Corie (29:36):
All Stars Back in the band right at that time.

Kurt (29:37):
Yeah, it was considered a backing band and they were
called Roy Cape Kaiso All Stars,not Roy Cape All Stars.
They dropped the kaiso whenthey got into the fence.

Corie (29:44):
That would have been the time when they were
Spectacular's band yes.
I used to open the show in.

Kurt (29:48):
Spectacular as lead singer of the band the guinea pig, the
testy song system but you wonthat because you won that
audience to see you.
You're looking for a break, soyou're taking that as the
opening act big for you at thetime you know and people might
remember.

Corie (30:02):
I don't know if people remember what the tent was like
then, because the tent was nice,sellout every night Sellout.
Every night Clash the tent usedto go on tour.
It was at the front, at thefront side, if your tent didn't
get come back for you in the wayit was then it could you know
it?

Kurt (30:14):
definitely could it, because, if you notice, this is
not a knockoff, but I just talkin place.
Those days the tents wereoperated by independent
promoters, people who knew howto bring people to a show.
Calypsoans may know how toentertain you, but they may not

(30:37):
know how to bring you to a show.
If you look at that setup fromback then, when you had all
these independent tents, almostevery Calypsoanian would have
had a tent of their own at thetime to know where the tent
structure is operated by Tukoand the Tuko members and the
membership running the tent.
I don't think that they knowhow to promote, to bring people
out.
We can entertain.
So I think that is one of thethings that we could restructure

(30:57):
to leave the promotion of thepromoters, Because if you look
at the spectacular shows thathappens right now, people come
out Right and that's because oftheir credibility and stuff as
promoters.

Corie (31:08):
People know spectacular promotions yeah you're going to
get a good show.

Kurt (31:11):
When you had Jazzy Panton running Kitchener's 10, even
though it's Kitchener's 10, youhad Jazzy Panton and Sonny
Woodley, business people yeah,the Young Brigade and Sparrow,
so that they had that managementstructure who also promote us
to bring the people out.
We don't have that anymore.

Corie (31:27):
The Calypsonians are promoting themselves.
Of course, yeah, tricky, tricky, tricky.
So how did?

Kurt (31:32):
you end up on the right cape.
I was singing with the bandcalled Afsak, another legendary,
I'm sure you're not familiarwith Manu Maslin.
He was one Brassarama for anumber of years.
In those years it wasBrassarama and Manu Maslin was
the main.
You know one of the top peoplewho's winning it every year His
son, curtis Maslin.

(31:53):
And he has another son rightnow called Bert Maslin, who has
the band Brass to the Will.
Okay, right, so it's that sameconnection.
I was singing with him at thetime when I did a video on.
Roy Cabe saw the video andcalled me and we never looked
back.
Now, being with Roy Cabe, beingRoy Cabe lead singer is one
thing, but because of theinstitution that Roy Cabe
represented, black Stalin wasthe lead vocalist with Roy Cabe.

(32:15):
All says so that when you'regoing on tour, you're
essentially going on tour withBlack Stalin, you're essentially
going on tour with Baron, bali,david Rudder, because it's a
backing band so that in myexperience there, when you're
sitting there you're meetingevery Calypsoan in the planet
will have to come to that bandroom to rehearse.
I am 17 years old, youngestperson in the band, witnessing

(32:38):
all this and hearing all thehistory of Calypso, hearing all
the backstage and behind thescenes stuff that happens in
Calypso, hearing all thebackstage and behind the scenes
stuff that happens in Calypso.
I was a I was an attentivestudent, so I learned basically
from behind the microphone, ofsinging chorus.
When we went to that Europeantour, I was singing chorus for
half of the show for DavidRudder, for for Baron, for Black

(32:59):
Stalin, and then myself andAlan Wells will have a half an
hour to sometimes open the showor, if there's enough time, we
get a chance to close the show.
Sometimes you wonder theseCalipers students are staying
long on the stage.
Are you looking at time?
Are you looking for your?
Yeah, people come to see youtoo, because you make little
friends, of course, andsometimes they ain't get to see
you perform because the promotersay your show ends Right and
you now ain't get to.

(33:19):
So those are the things that Iwould call the university that I
passed through to graduate intothe performer that I am today.
Of course, without Roy K WalsasI don't think I would have been
the performer that I am today,even though if I was singing
Calypso in a tent, no way Hoseygotcha, no way that experience
is yeah, I would imagine.

Corie (33:38):
I mean those people you would idol, idolized.
You get to see shoulder toshoulder.
Yeah man, yeah man, I'm withyou.
So you're already composingcalypso, but you're on tour with
them singing soca.
You're singing compositionsyeah so when?
When is really?
When your wife's tell you andyou go on with your own
compositions?

Kurt (33:55):
that's when I really got serious about it in terms of
like focusing what you will sayto be a star, right before I was
just doing it for fun and youknow, helping out others, right,
yeah, but probably she knewwell, okay, wife means, you know
, you have to get, you have tosupport a wife, you have to
support a child.
So hey, of course you have tostart to make some money from
this thing.

Corie (34:13):
Then, of course, yeah, when my wife hears this, I go,
hey, it's the same thing, it'sthe All Stars.

Kurt (34:25):
All Stars with Nigel and Marvin.
That is history in itself.
And then, in 1996, I was calledagain to be part of that makeup
.

Corie (34:34):
Gotcha.
So between 93 and 96, you'resinging Calypso alone or you
take a band.

Kurt (34:38):
No, I was more or less as a band singer, so I was singing
with Atlantic.

Corie (34:43):
I did a stick with Blue Ventures as well.
So when you were Atlantic, whowas there?
Who else was the lead singer ofAtlantic?

Kurt (34:49):
Anselm Douglas, tony Prescott, steve Seeley.
So you see again and I'm theyoungest in that lot.
So again, it's another learningexperience, learning from these
guys who has been doing it.

Corie (35:02):
So when Atlantic Band Room was in St James, there you
were there.

Kurt (35:04):
I was there, man, yeah, and then we moved into opposite
TTT that same road.

Corie (35:10):
I can't remember the name of the street Marava Road.

Kurt (35:12):
Yeah, like Bon and Gros Rides, as a matter of fact when
we were in St James, destro wasgoing to school at St James.
So every day after school, meand Destrell we're looking up
there and carrying outconversations you know, because
we are good friends, you know.

Corie (35:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's historical times.
So what was that like withAtlantic?

Kurt (35:31):
at that point, atlantic was a super occasion and you
know sometimes only when, whenyou're out of a situation and
years pass, you get tounderstand and appreciate what
you were involved in.
Cliff Harris, again a promoter,you know a big, big promoter,
brass Festival Firefet.

Corie (35:48):
Wassal, all these things.

Kurt (35:50):
So you're in, you're not just there as a singer.
You're getting a chance now tosee a top event promoter at work
, of course, because you'll behaving these conversations.
You're seeing people coming inand out of the office and he's
talking to you as a musician.
You're in the company of someseasoned musicians, people like
Panky Boynes, and you know itwas a learning experience.
Now I could say that was myuniversity education for who I

(36:14):
am as an artist today.
Yeah, that was my UTT.

Corie (36:15):
Yeah, of course, because we didn't have UTT at the time.
It's true, it's true.
Now I have a few band singers,lead singers here, and Now I
have a few band singers, leadsingers here, and I always ask
the level of competitiveness,because that would be Atlantic
traffic, oh boy.

Kurt (36:27):
I mean come on man.
You know that was the days.

Corie (36:30):
That's when everybody was cutting.

Kurt (36:31):
you know, personally for me, I've never seen another lead
vocalist of a band like RonnieMcIntosh.

Corie (36:39):
That was he was like, if you tell you I don't know if
people understand.
Yeah, I don't know if peopleunderstand.

Kurt (36:44):
If it wasn't there, you wouldn't understand now, because
you're just saying RonnieMcIntyre, ronnie and Caro, but
you don't know.

Corie (36:49):
You know where I saw a glimpse of it before you go on.
In Stalin's they had a memorialthing for him on the promenade
it's in San Fernando HarrisPromenade and Ronnie went and
sang there and you see a glimpselike people get to see what's
his role.

Kurt (37:02):
That was magic man, kv Charles.
Um Russell Cadogan.
Yeah, even the late HintelDazzle Tony Prescott.
That is a force by itself.
I performed with him, so I knowwhat I'm saying.
That is a force by itself, youknow?
Um just name them man, umAdrian Philbert, who was with
Blue Ventures at the time.

Corie (37:24):
Blacks who I?

Kurt (37:25):
brought into Roy Cape All Stars.
Really.
Yeah, I used to say I did astint with Blue Ventures so I
saw what he could do.
So when I became lead singer ofRoy Cape All Stars and there
was a vacancy, I went for Blacks.
You know Derek Seals, look atDerek Seals and say, wow, I want
to be like that.
Then I brought Derek Seals tothe band as well with Roy Cape.

(37:45):
So, you know, it was myopportunity not only to admire
these people, but it was achance to perform with them as
well, of course.
Of course, with all the names Icall there, the one that I pay
special homage to is the lateAlan Welch, because in that trip
I talked about in 1989 with RoyCape, he was also the lead
singer.
That trip I talked about in1989 with Roy Cape, he was also
the lead singer.
He was older than me, with moreexperience, and he was the one

(38:06):
who really taught me how to dealwith a party audience.
I was a Calypsonian.
He taught me how to deal with aparty audience.
And Juice man, juice man, steveSly, and all of you will laugh
at this one the first gig I didwith Roy Cape, I was singing
Calypso before Right.
So when I came back in 1997 todo the first gig with Roy Cape,

(38:27):
I dressed like a calypsonian, sothey called it a kite outfit
and boy them fellas laughedtheir belly full because he had
this low eye.
But Roy Cape was and lookedlike a calypsonian.
That was the first and lasttime that happened.
Yeah, I repented and was savedafter that.
So I started to become, youknow, embody the fashion and

(38:48):
everything of a soccer artistafter that.
So they taught me that as well,you know.
So it was, everything was alearning experience.

Corie (38:53):
I understand, yeah hell of a university.
Yeah, man, real, real history.
So those days, like I remembertwo in particular Brass and
Customs.
I mean, they don't get any heatof the carnival season and they
have bands them time Square Oneall of them.

Kurt (39:07):
Everybody Crossfire.

Corie (39:08):
Byron, lees, everybody, yeah man Performing in them
spaces.
It started to get.
It's almost like it was stillthe era where Brass used to go
on forever.

Kurt (39:16):
All morning time Brass still going on.

Corie (39:18):
So how are you so whole out for seasons at that point in
time, seasons that are pointingto him, because all the
performing on the road truckgoing on the road, that's part
of it, that's part of the lifeand you enjoy doing it.

Kurt (39:26):
It was part of that became part of me.
Um, it will be noteworthy toknow that in 90s, 1997, when I
joined work in 96, right I, myfinal year in calypso was 97
because because of that rigorousschedule, I had to choose and I
chose the Soka Right Because itwas something new and it was
something exciting that I reallywanted to do Right.
So, yeah, it was part of thejob and the excitement of

(39:50):
meeting all these people andcoming up on the stage with them
.
Your hours change from you'regoing home, sometimes 4 o'clock,
5 o'clock you're not looking togo home, or sometimes you're
not looking to go on the stage.
So your whole lifestyle andeverything would have been
changing and that was one of thereasons I exited the soccer
industry.
For the same reason, for thatsame schedule and stuff I, my

(40:15):
daughter, chocolate Allen.
we decided as a family tohomeschool her rather than send
her to public schooling Right,and that in itself meant that I
had to make a personal sacrificeto be a different type of
father, to be a different typeof, to have a different schedule
, different everything.
So I gave up everything tofocus on homeschooling and
developing my daughter'seducation.

Corie (40:33):
How's she going?

Kurt (40:34):
She's excellent, still singing and things still Still
singing.
It's important to know that forsomebody who has never been to
school.
She's now a teacher in a highschool in the United States and
she's teaching physics and math.

Corie (40:45):
Look at her and she never went to school.

Kurt (40:49):
When she went to school, she went to school as a
university math teacher and hermom told me you know both
parents were involved in thataspect of education and we got
some external help from the lateMr Elton Nelson, also Dr Phage
Vapier, who is also hergodmother.
She was instrumental in shapingher curriculum and stuff like
that.

Corie (41:09):
Structuring education.
Oh yes, there's plenty of workhere.
So sometimes you sayhomeschooling.
I got a partner who duringCOVID he always used to remind
me when I'm on the podcast.
He say stop going there and sayhomeschool, not homeschool.
He used to homeschool his kidstoo.
Right, but I used to say thatwhen Trent was home during COVID
.

Kurt (41:24):
I call it home education.
Yeah, because schooling givesyou a sense of a uniform and
when you go in a particular wayyou have to follow certain rules
, of course.
But home education is wider.
I would imagine you have to dothings differently.

Corie (41:33):
I would imagine accuracy that you deliver with on that
semifinal and that final nightit's hard to match.
You'll find that there areother people who come in the
competition on them kind ofthings and they might struggle

(41:54):
to deliver.
Sometimes man slip up on lyrics, forget the lyrics, but you
seem to be just in a pocket forthe whole performance, like 99%
of the time.
So I'd always be like you can'tlose.
Sometimes it doesn't matterwhat you're saying, you know,
just do it better.
But it's just.
It's just the muscle developover time.

Kurt (42:10):
Yeah, over time, over time and the experience.
I remember back in the 80ssomeone was saying I wouldn't
call it the Calypsoians name todevalue anything, but they were
saying that Marshall Montano hadmore experience than a because
of his involvement in the artform, the number of places he
had performed when he was up to10 years old.

(42:31):
The senior Calypso had nevereven done that amount of shows
in his entire lifetime.
So they were saying thatsometimes you don't look at
somebody at their age or youhave to look at their level of
involvement or the years or thequality of their involvement.
And I think I've been involveddeeply in the art form so that
what you're seeing there is amanifestation of not me saying,

(42:51):
hey, I could do this, like it'sjust a natural flow of what I
experience began to to um, toblossom into fruits of
accomplishment now, yeah, Iappreciate you for saying that,
because there's they have somenames.

Corie (43:04):
Could call with that too, because when they say marshall
for instance, I was talking toum when I had a brother here,
I'm talking about 1986 peopleforget Marshall was in that
competition and he beat a couplepeople too, of course.

Kurt (43:14):
I will go on record as saying I saw Marshall Montano's
first performance as a juniorCalypso, because I was in the
same competition and it annoyedsome of my friends who were
including the defending junior,calabasas, moonock Kern
Applewhite.
When I say nobody can beat thatfella, you know, but you in the
competition we can see that itwasn't just saying nobody could

(43:37):
beat that fella, I was sayinggreatness.
So I have no problems withalways saying when people talk
about Marshall, marshall,marshall was great in my eyes
from day one.
I got you and he maintained hisgreatness.

Corie (43:49):
Of course, greatest recognized greatest is what
reminds me of a time Jordan wastalking, there was an all-star
game and Jordan in the lockerroom bandaging up and thing
before the all-star game andhe's telling them.

Kurt (44:00):
He said hey, kobe you know what he has to say.
He's like boy.
What happened?

Corie (44:04):
He do, he go and and kill everybody.

Kurt (44:06):
It's going to be great.

Corie (44:06):
He's always recognizing it, it's going to be great.
So, at that time, being a bandsinger.
When did it go from being aband singer to composing your
own soca, to do it yourself?

Kurt (44:14):
But again as a member of Roy Cape.

Corie (44:16):
Oh, you've been doing it since then.

Kurt (44:17):
Yeah, but he's singing soca now.
Oh, the second stint in Roypeople's calypso or other
people's soca oh, you was alwaysyeah, always composed it for
myself.
So in 1999, juice man came witha song called the Bees that was
written by Campbell Regault.
So the first thing you're gonnasing a man's song.

(44:40):
Boy.
When he played the song, I said, ah yeah, yeah, right, it was
missing some, some elements andcomponents that I am as a
composer Now added To the soundthe chorus and the stampede
vibes and brought it Into adifferent zone, and you know
that experience In itself Wassomething very special, yeah.
Then in the following, twoyears later, sexy Buddy Came

(45:05):
from Christopher Morris as amember I was a member Of
Atlantic at the time, okay,christopher Morris as a member,
I was a member of Atlantic atthe time, okay.
And we brought in the producerfrom Edwin Edwards producer
Nicholas Branca from Barbados,to produce produce a song at
Caribbean Songbass.
So those were my two.
That explains the feel of thesong yeah, yeah man.
Yeah man, you know, because hewas responsible for Crossfire

(45:26):
and it's got that same kind ofvibe, same energy.
Yeah, so those two, two Socahits were collaborative,
collaborative efforts in termsof composing gotcha, gotcha.

Corie (45:35):
So Bees was a monster.
Yeah, people remember there wasa stampede on them.
Yeah, when that's what Bunjiand them begging to bring back.
Yeah, I know when I hear themtalking about hardfet that.

Kurt (45:47):
Yeah, there was a little joke with that, because the year
before 1998, roy Cape was inthe finals of the Soka Muna
competition with his song JammyJammy.
Mr Cape, oh, he was in the, ofcourse.
Yeah, man, because Nigel andMarvin had just left the band
Right and we needed something tobring back some attention and,
being myself and Derek Seals, weweren't the attractive ones to

(46:09):
say, well, okay, the crowd goingto come at you guys.
Now we needed something.
And we all went at Roy Keep andsay, hey, you're going to sing
this.

Corie (46:16):
Yeah, man, that's how the song came about.

Kurt (46:18):
That's how the song came about and Roy Keep went all the
way to the finals of the SokaMonarch, coming off the stage or
backstage.
I'll call the names.
I'll call one name, althoughRonnie McIntosh is one, but Tony
Prescott in particular, thatman Pong.
He started laughing.
He said Oli is lead singer andOli is singing for us, for Roy
Cape, and you know the generalkicks because we're using lead

(46:40):
singers.
And Roy Cape now in front andthat registered because he had a
way of watching it and laughingand pointing Say, all right,
brother, we had Derek talk aboutit.
We said, boy, it's true, youknow he's saying it's true, he
can't let that happen again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So by the following year, 1999,that's when the bees came down.
I ended up in the finals and Iwon the competitions.

(47:01):
When I saw Tony he had a namefor BMC, big man on Campus.
He said Big man on Campus, boy,big man on Campus.
He'll still call me that up tonow.
But that stepped out of that,that interaction of not you know
of singing chorus for Roy inthe finals serious.
So the next year our mindsetwas different.
It's like I can imagine you'regoing at this.

Corie (47:25):
I have a memory of it where, in Brass Festival, and he
would tell me this, becausesometimes my memories be so
murky, but I remember going toPSA Grounds, and I mean PSA
Grounds are blurred at timesbecause, it's bands, it's hits
everybody them days.
Marshall, still with X-Static.
You see any monsters, any fit abeer's youth.

Kurt (47:45):
As youths come in, eddie and Eric will go on you still
have with Chandelier playing.

Corie (47:51):
Ronnie might have been with Chandelier at that point.

Kurt (47:53):
Burning Flames sometimes used to come in.
Burning Flames.

Corie (47:55):
I forget this other band who was with at one point,
joining when I was playingguitar with them.
One thing too.
Second Image, second.
Image one of those bad, bad,bad and, if I remember right, we
were at there's a very keepstill right with Beez.
Yes, yes, and I remember thelock off Brass, because that
time it started to change fromwhen Brass used to go till

(48:17):
morning, till it started to puttime off and it was trouble
getting bands off a stage and ifI remember Beez, I remember
Fred Dunn, and they tell me wehad to come out of PSV and head
into the gate.
You remember that I was thereand you run on see, I don't know
what has happened.

Kurt (48:34):
Yeah, yeah, we just hear stamping.
You say yeah, yes, yes, yes,yes, yes, yes, and boy, when
that's a big man run back fromoutside again.
Yeah, the fed was locked off.
So they said tell us that wehave, we're already on stage
setting up and tell us, well, wecan't go on.
So we said, no, we're on stagealready.
We said we had to do these 10minutes, so we just start up.

(48:56):
We cut the set.
Normally we'd start with anintro and all that kind of stuff
.
We said the hell with that,just start up.
And I brought Super Blow on thestage as well with me that night
, because Super was thedefending soccer monarch and I
know, coming up against Super,he was playing a little head
game as well too.
Super, come on stage andhugging you up and trying to
soft you.

(49:16):
You know, because he's Super,I've been looking to destroy you
, right, but that is good, thatis good thing for me, because he
is Super Blue and I and huggingme up and giving me that kind
of respect, you know.
So he go in.
But I know in his mind hetesting out certain things, he
testing to see how he can defeatthis man, because he know well,
okay, there's a song probablyhe has to look at because he's

(49:37):
that smart and we perform onstage together.
And then I look at him too.
I say, all right.
I'm coming at you too.
You know, of course, therespect was always there in
terms of that is super blue, soyou can't go in and take
anything for granted.
Then you had Sinhal with River.
Everybody was saying was goingto take everything.

(49:57):
So you know, it took a lot fromus in terms of planning, a lot
of planning.
We brought those bees balloonsIan Small brought it from New
York for us and Roy Cape themachine to pump up the this is
serious, the machine to pump upthe air in the balloons.
That was malfunctioning.
And Roy Cape blow those things,some of them.

(50:19):
I'm telling you, start to blowand blow up some of those
balloons, because that's howserious he took it as well, of
course, yeah, man.
So when we were in that stage,it was Kurt Allen didn't win the
Soka Mona.
Can you?
Roy Cape and the All-Starsfeaturing Kurt Allen is who won
that Soka Mona?
Yeah, because it tookeverybody's collective energy to
pull off the performance.

Corie (50:40):
Yeah, glad you remind me of that too, because Sunil
Dempster that river was, Iremember being down in it wasn't
Mecca at the time could beSpectrum at the time, spectrum,
spectrum.
And that's when I realized she,because that song was so cute.

Kurt (50:53):
Go on, go on, yeah.

Corie (50:54):
But they used to wet down Sinel themself every night.

Kurt (50:55):
Well, ronnie wasn't charged with that.
Wetting to him, ronnie, bringout big size sprinklers.
In PSA Ronnie was really active, you know, pushing Senel and
Blue Ventures with that song.
You know he was the backbone atthat point because he was the
lead singer of the band Gotchaand he was, you know, as he's a
former two-time Soca monarch, heknew exactly what has to be

(51:16):
done.

Corie (51:16):
He knew how to do it Right, so we were coming up
against that as well, of course.
So when.

Kurt (51:20):
Senel went on before me and we backstage boy and we
looking up and it's rain.
You say, go on this girl's side.
You feel like you're droppingyour shoulders.
How the hell that can happen.
There's Ronnie and somesprinklers out there.
Ronnie, it looked real.
It looked real and it was.
It was effective.

Corie (51:40):
I remember her complaining that boy, she take
too much wet voice before theseason is done she can hide from
that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So leading up in Brass thatweek before Carnival, you know
you have a shot.
Yeah, I know.

Kurt (51:53):
I have a shot, but the critics didn't think I had a
shot.
No, no, the cease again.
Alexis, who was working withthe Punch newspaper at the time.
He did a list of 22 people andmy name nowhere inside the first
22.
He come down first, second comedown and Kurt Allen name
nowhere inside of there.
Roy Kip, kick some brass forthat because you see, you find

(52:15):
that was you know being kind ofbiased.
Yeah, man because, you see, inthe impact that we're having in
the Feds and stuff, so all thosethings is what probably helped
us to go a little harder.
Some saying that I'm causingthe Feds a mashup and call it a
bandy song.
So all those things.
There's discussions in the bandroom and the more that they
discuss us and the more they tryto keep us down, the more we

(52:37):
become resilient and say we goin, of course, and that's why I
say it was a collective victory.
I'm with you.
That support was all around.

Corie (52:43):
I remember them things with Manu saying band because we
come into mashup F, we comeinto that right and the only
time I've ever seen that sinceis Mr Killer, when he's saying
pick up something I had seen itbefore.

Kurt (52:55):
Toro, toro, chad, that's where it started.
Oh my god.

Corie (52:58):
Toro Toro Chad.

Kurt (53:00):
Yeah, the year before yeah boy, when you hear Toro and
that it's back and all in theFed, yeah boy, ronnie didn't
have to tell you to do that.
All Ronnie had to say bring thetent and come, bring the tent
and climb the tree, the climbingpalm tree.
He just had to give theinstructions.

Corie (53:13):
Yeah, I don't know what he had with people.
I don't know what he Super usedto do a lot on stage.

Kurt (53:17):
Yes, ronnie used to make people do different things.

Corie (53:26):
Ronnie used to make people move, carry it back.
I said carry it back.
At least he was responsible tosay carry it back.
It was a special time.
So how long was that After?
Beasley was a draw.
You keep still for a while oryou stay in the band For one
year for one year.

Kurt (53:40):
That's when I made the decision, as I said, to go full
homeschool and I formed anorganization called Caribbean
Vision, which is an organizationthat was formed to lobby for
cultural and economiccooperation between Caribbean
people and their governments.
And we launched theorganization at Cricket, west
Indies Cricket and our patronsbecame the Prime Minister of St

(54:01):
Vincent, the Grenadines, who isstill the Prime Minister, dr
Ralph Gonzales, dr Kenny Anthony, prime Minister, who was Prime
Minister of St Kitts, togetherwith his deputy, mario Michel,
who was very instrumental in usreally making some inroads.
Dr Timothy Harris, who is now aguest opposition leader, but he
was previously Prime Ministerof St Kitts.
He was a patron as well.

(54:23):
They're all members of theorganization Caribbean Vision.
Dame Paulette Louise, theGovernor General of St Lucia, is
also a member of theorganization Caribbean Vision.
Dame Paulette Louise, theGovernor General of St Lucia, is
also a member of theorganization.
And from there we got theendorsement from the CARICOM
heads of government and weactually took a tour for five no
, seven years throughout theCaribbean without returning the

(54:44):
Trinidad, and we had a memberfrom every Caribbean island as a
member of the organization andwe had a theat from every
Caribbean island as a member ofthe organization and we had a
theatric presentation calledEduculture.
We were encouraging youth tostay in school, discouraging
them from deviant behavior,promoting CSME for the Caribbean
Secretariat, and we got fundingfrom USAID, unaids, the

(55:06):
Commonwealth Secretariat, headsof government, ministries of
education, culture, throughoutthe region, and we lived
together as a family and taughtfor more than seven years and
then the last three years itcould have been 10, but the last
three years were spent inJamaica With another component
of that same tour, sponsored bythen Prime Minister, bruce

(55:28):
Gouldings, but was sanctionedbefore by Portia Simpson, who
was the Prime Minister at thetime, before the government
changed, oh yeah this is so,this is 2007.
Serious, the current PrimeMinister, mr Holness.
He was then the Minister ofEducation.

Corie (55:40):
I used to live in Jamaica at the time.
Right, you see?

Kurt (55:49):
So we were invited by Rita Marley and the Bob Marley
Foundation for my daughter to dothe feature speak at the UNI
that's Marcus Garvey, at hisinstitute, and she presented the
feature speech there.
Nice we spent three monthsliving with the Marleys, working

(56:10):
with the Malis, and then, whenwe were about to leave, dr
Hullness asked us to stay on tocontinue the edu-culture tour
and that's when we linked upwith Tony Rebel and Flames
Recording with Queen Africa.
My daughter was signed toFlames Serious, yeah, she was
signed to Flames and basicallywe lived in the same compound
and everything in the studio andeverything.
And basically we lived in thesame compound and everything in
the studio and everything.

Corie (56:29):
What was?

Kurt (56:30):
that like it was, like it was different to me because I'm
a Calypsoian, coming from a SokaCalypso background and to be in
the center and heart, not justbeing in Jamaica but in the
center and the pulse of thereggae movement.
We mentioned Rita Mali and TonyRebel and Flames recording was,
as you know, the Rebel Salute,so my daughter performed three
the Rebel Salute Right.

(56:50):
So my daughter performed threeyears at Rebel Salute Really
yeah, man.
The same year that Virgo he hadwon the Rising Stars.
So they did a duet betweenChocolate and him to release one
of his first songs Wow.
But because of our plans andhomeschool ideas for chocolate,

(57:11):
we couldn't go ahead with itbecause of entailed touring and
uh different type of life right,so that we we kind of
backpedaled on that, but thatwas the same.
It was the same um sameopportunities at the same time
yeah, I think so.

Corie (57:25):
She did a song, something more to you.

Kurt (57:26):
She eventually did a song with queen africa yeah, we
recorded a song called friendsand then she made a song.
She eventually did a song withQueen Africa.
Oh, she did, yeah.
She recorded a song calledFriends and then she made a
conscious decision that she didnot want to pursue the road of
entertainment as a profession.
I see she had interest in otherthings and so we eased up with
her being, you know, pushed as aperformer.
Of course, of course.
Yeah, interesting she stillperforms, but she's not putting

(57:49):
that to the forefront of herbrain.
Yeah, she put a choice there,she decides when she does.

Corie (57:53):
Yeah, she has adopted.
Yeah, the homeschooling workoutboy.

Kurt (57:56):
Oh yeah, man Totally did, Totally did.

Corie (57:59):
It made me right choice yeah yeah, yeah, that's a hell
of a time, because Queen Africa2007, mate she, is she red-hot
at that point in time, red-hot.

Kurt (58:08):
Daddy, don't touch me.
We were there, we were in thestudio, serious.
Yeah man, we were in the studiowhen that song was recorded.
We were there present.
Oh yeah, is this why I wassitting down?
As I told you, I was sittingdown on the step of the
recording studio and Tony'soffice is upstairs.
So I was singing.

(58:32):
I was singing a song calledLast Bad Jones of Calypso.
I was singing that one inparticular, and then I went in
to Too Bright, but I was justworking on it.
Tony heard me from the office.
He had no idea that I was asinger.
As far as he concerned, I amChocolate's father.
When he heard me singing, hecome out.
He said man, you gotta sing.
And he say you should startsinging.
He tell me come in the studio.
Tell him I like not no reggaething, I just sing Calypso.

(58:52):
And then he got a littlehistory and he told me man, you
have a natural calling.
He say what I'm hearing here isa natural calling.
You need to go back home andfulfill your destiny.
Of course I was probably sayingnah, man, until he went to my
wife and he told her he's goingto buy a ticket for me to go
home.
Don't tell me nothing yet.
He has to go back home forcarnival season Short pants.

(59:14):
I came back home for thecarnival season, won the crown
when I was heading back in theairport.
Short pants saw me in theairport that same night.
Sunday night, after thecompetition, I went from the
stage straight to the airport.
Short pants said where are yougoing?
What are you doing here?
You know where are you going,right?
I said no, I'll explain to himwhat's happening.
I went back to Jamaica tofulfill the last three months

(59:34):
and then came back here.
From then to now I've beenbased here.

Corie (59:39):
I've moved on, so the organization that you formed is
still active.

Kurt (59:42):
It's still very much vibrant and active.
We did.
We were responsible for whatyou call Kairikam Day
celebrations on July the 4th.
We were based in Guyana at thetime.
We lived in Guyana for twoyears, so my organization was
responsible for staging theKairikam Day activity in Guyana.
Kairi Fester also did a specialshow in 2014.

(01:00:04):
Kairi Fester was held inSuriname, but what they found is
that a lot of the countrieswere sending their cultural
artists, but they weren'tsending the ones who really out
there, who noted artists with areputation.
They were sending people thatnobody knew.
So what did they do?
They formed a special show tocater for those artists who were
like Brain Stevenson.
I brought Brain Stevenson, Ibrought Kevin Little and even

(01:00:28):
the guy who many artists fromall over the Caribbean to
perform at a special showcase,and I brought in A&R
representatives from Europe,from United States.
I was in charge of producingthat show for the Carriacom
Secretariat.
It was about five events withinCarriFest, so that's one of the
last things we did.
We presented, the heads ofgovernment had a meeting and

(01:00:49):
they wanted us to take theoutcome of that meeting and put
it in a theatrical presentation.
We also did that in Surinamethe year before.
So we've been doing a lot ofstuff, especially with hiring
artists.
We've hired so many artists,including Christopher Martin he
represented Jamaica.
Arturo Tappan.
He represented Barbados.

(01:01:09):
Boo Hingsonados, boo Hingson,ronald Boo Hingson.
We brought him To represent StLucia as well.
Wow, as a matter of fact, weformed a band Out of our
experience, called the WindiesBand, and Kirtley Ambrose Was
the bass player and singer inthat band.
We came and we performed whenBrian Lara had broken the record
.
We performed at the PrimeMinister's residence, prime
Minister Manning, and that bandconsists of people like Onion

(01:01:30):
from Burning Flames, wokey Wokeyand the Armstrong Spare One,
claudette Peters.
She was not yet a Soka Monarch.
She has since went on to winfive or six Soka Monarch titles.
Billy Rogers, who is the onlyChutney, as I said, the only
African, who has won the bothChutney and Calypso Monarch
competition in Guyana.
All these people were part ofthe band.
Madzat, who is the currentCalypso Monarch of St Vincent,

(01:01:52):
he was part of the band, so itwas a super band together, you
know, with members of Roy Cape.
Roy Cape also played in theband in St Vincent.
He played for Ben Greenada hadthe Hurricane, ivan had this.
He did some Benefit concerts,gotcha.
So we brought in Roy Cape andChuseman To compliment the band
as well With other top musiciansFrom around the region and that

(01:02:14):
was done For three yearsstraight.

Corie (01:02:15):
Yeah, that is amazing.
Played at the Sinkits.

Kurt (01:02:16):
Music Festival.

Corie (01:02:18):
The Wendy's band.
Yeah, kirtley Ambrose.
I just happened to Bounce upsomeone On YouTube the other day
and you saw him singing.
Yeah, he started that with usman Singing and he playing and
the guy behind him is RichieRichards.
Right, yes, yes.
I was like what the hell isgoing on?

Kurt (01:02:31):
Richie couldn't make the gig, but Richie was part of the
band too but he couldn't come tothe based on his schedule.

Corie (01:02:37):
Oh, he couldn't make it to the gig.

Kurt (01:02:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah so those are the things that I've done,
produced I'm with you.

Corie (01:02:46):
So it's not just Greer, it's not just Tog you're active
in the mix.
So you bring us back to Tube,right, this would have been your
first time entering the CalypsoMonarch at that point in time,
or you were entering sincebefore.

Kurt (01:02:56):
No, I was a finalist in the Calypso Monarch in 94, 95,
97, in 91.
I've always been asemi-finalist to now got you.

Corie (01:03:08):
Yeah, so I've been around .

Kurt (01:03:09):
Yeah, you were always in the competition then I composed
for Denise Plummer when she wonthe competition I composed for
Johnny Williams recently whichsong was for Denise Plummer that
?
Was um.
I'm not denial, even everybodyyeah heroes, heroes that heroes
won the best social commentarycompetition that year.
She had the best socialcommentary With that song.

(01:03:30):
Yeah, powerful song.

Corie (01:03:31):
Yeah, powerful song, like when you listen to.

Kurt (01:03:34):
Composed for other people who won the Young Kings and who
was in the finals and stuff, notjust in Trinidad, as I say From
Dominica.

Corie (01:03:40):
Yeah.
When you have the Caribbean,yeah Throughout.

Kurt (01:03:43):
Because of Caribbean vision, of course, of course.
In my time I met with thesepeople and you know that was
part of it.

Corie (01:03:49):
Like before we started recording, I was telling you as
I listened to these songs.
We started with Too Bright.
I keep listening to it and Isay, but they have a reggae feel
to these songs.
Yeah, you're going to find that.

Kurt (01:03:57):
Yeah, of course, yeah, you're not understanding where
something's from.
I had a rebirth in a certainstyle, but Jamaica opened up.
Jamaica is one of the mostcreative places or creative
spaces you could find.
You know, you know for anartist.
I guess that's why you havethat kind of conscious capital

(01:04:20):
come out of Jamaica.

Corie (01:04:21):
I'd spend a little time in.
Is it Edna Manley School?
Is that a?

Kurt (01:04:26):
music school.
Yes, yes, yes, I used to gothere to play guitar, boy.

Corie (01:04:28):
Listen.
I school is as that musicschool.

Kurt (01:04:30):
I used to go there to play guitar and it was so, boy,
listen, I mean, it gets sobecause it's so strong when you
try to change that, you know but, it's.

Corie (01:04:36):
I mean, when you walk into the school, you feel that
sense of talent.

Kurt (01:04:40):
I mean.
Apanya is the closestcomparison to it when you see so
much young people, so talentedboy and that that gave me a
greater appreciation for ourmusicians too, you know, Because
in Jamaica you're getting thereggae strum, but they cannot
give you that kind of strum.
No, they can't.

Corie (01:04:55):
They can't give it to you but in Trinidad.
No, trinidad musicians they'regiving you anything the chord
structure, the patterns, thestrum there, trinidad, musicians
switch.

Kurt (01:05:03):
Something is a different story altogether.

Corie (01:05:04):
So when you're going with two brights, you're sure you
know you're going to win.
You had them, or what was youthinking when you?

Kurt (01:05:09):
went in, I knew that I was going, I was singing again.
It could be taken as ananti-PNM song because nobody was
singing anything in terms ofthat type of political
commentary.
So I know that I was coming inan environment where people were
watching, watch your soul andyou know you could get some
cuffs and coats.
But the message I couldn't deny, the message it wasn't coming

(01:05:32):
from Kurt Alan Perseid was whatI felt and picked up.
So I had to do it.
So it wasn't a case where Iknew I was going to win.
I knew I was doing, I was goingto do well because I sang in
Kroko's tent that year.
He allowed me to be a guestartists in the tent.
Basically, and from thefeedback from the audience and
stuff, you know that.
You know it's going to be agood song, but winning, no.

(01:05:53):
I think for me the presentationof the song is what kind of
tipped the scale for me, becausethat was the first night I was
doing the presentation of it.
All the time I'm singing itnormal.
But when I when he was on stageand I actually saw myself and I
felt that energy off of thepresentation, the imagery and
everything, when I came off thestage I say, aha, I feel you

(01:06:14):
have it.
You know, yeah, it's a feeling.
It's a feeling, you know.
Sometimes you just get thatfeeling with other people too.
Like all the other years, wedidn't call names again, but
when certain people won and theystand up backstage when they
finish performing, they say, ah,boy, they get the magic, they
touch the spot.
That is the winning song, thatis the winning performance.

(01:06:34):
And so said, so done, so younever could go into a
competition saying I win, or youknow, I'm going to win this.
It's at the night when you comeoff at that stage, you have a
sense of yes, I did my best hereand it feel good, right.
And if it feel good to you,chances are you did well.

Corie (01:06:53):
Got you, yeah, so you stay.
You hang around to hear theresults and things.

Kurt (01:06:56):
That year I didn't hang around, you know they called me.
I was already by maritime RightHeading home and I got the call
that, kurt, you win, you gottacome back.
Where are you?
Where are you man looking foryou backstage?
Yeah, I tell them I'm not hereright now.
They say why are you talking?
Why come back Shoma?
I will call her name Shoma.

(01:07:18):
Oh, it's the one who called me.
She was the PRO of Tuku shecalled me and told me she said I
buffed my up.

Corie (01:07:25):
You were trying to run from this competition, because
you leave to go home, you leaveto come back to Jamaica.
I didn't even head in theairport.

Kurt (01:07:32):
I go in home.
I have a couple hours before Ihead in the airport, so that was
my intention.
This year, the same thing.
Unfortunately, it was said thatwhen they called me for my
prize, I wasn't there either.
I had an emergency, so I left,and the unfortunate thing about
it is that my trophy remained onstage and one of the officials

(01:07:54):
of a certain organizationselects to stay there and let
the cleaners go with it.
We didn't care about that.
We didn't pick it up Becauseyou're not there, no, because of
the song that I sang.
I mean, I know what I'm saying.
That's the kind of nonsense thathappens right.
So that you leave my trophy onthe stage.
As nonsense that happens right,so that you leave my trophy on
the stage.
As far as somebody told mecleaners, everybody, go on, and
the trophy remain on the stageand they would not take it up.

(01:08:16):
Yesterday I was called aboutthe prize giving, which is
happening right now, and theyasked me to bring my trophy and
I had to tell them I don't havethe trophy because somebody
decided to leave it on the stage.
And what motivated them isprobably the same reason that I
came second.

Corie (01:08:31):
Yeah, I understand.
Yeah, that's unfortunate,that's unfortunate and you see,
the thing about it is, I feellike that's why I keep going
back to the line Greerobligation.
That line's a standout in thatsong, because that's what I
meant.

Kurt (01:08:44):
It's true, it's true, it's true.
So it's my great obligation,not Kurt Allen obligation.

Corie (01:08:48):
Well, think of it like this when you do a song like Too
Bright for people who mightknow the song, the crux of the
song is basically the people incharge.

Kurt (01:08:55):
Too Bright, right, the one at Woodford Square, yeah yeah,
a layman, somebody whounderstands the roots of the
people.
What concerns, you know thewrong report in terms of, like,
really reporting from the ground.

Corie (01:09:07):
You know how relevant that song is now, like the from
the girl.
You know how relevant that songis now Like the last election
we went.
The biggest complaint about theparty that was voted out was
that.
Yeah, exactly so the song's sorelevant that a judge should
never come between.
Like I was talking to Mr Shaqhere and Shaq say he don't watch
them judges, he don't watch hisscorecard.
I was confused.
I was like, well, why?
Because I want to see Mr Sharkwin one.

(01:09:27):
But he said he said that's whatyou're saying.
He said my responsibility is tothe written song and to who I'm
talking to.
He said so if the judges can'tcome between that, for me to
stymie what I'm doing, which?

Kurt (01:09:38):
makes sense.

Corie (01:09:40):
But when you release a song like that, you put it out
there and soon after that a snapelection call and the
electorate responds the way theydid, then it tells you that
there was a voice of the people.

Kurt (01:09:54):
It was not Kutal.
It says what it is.
Same thing this year.
Yeah, right after the song wasout, the election was called and
the same result, same result.
You know so, and it's importantto note that those were the
only two times that I reallysang songs of that vein actually
coming at somebody like direct,like that, direct direct.

(01:10:15):
You know what I mean.

Corie (01:10:15):
The results showed.
But the thing is like one ofthe things you talk to younger
people about Calypso and I wantto ask you about that too, in
terms of the amount of youngpeople in the competition now.
But apart of where they find,you hear it all the time the art
form dying, the thing, da, da,da, da.
A part of it is the.
You know the wailing andlamentations and the little near
woes that's come on on ourfinals night where it's just

(01:10:36):
about crying and how hard thecountry is.
So I feel like it's an art tomake a song still entertaining,
which is what we know Calypso tobe entertaining.
It's formative and provocative.
So even though you did, youmight say you know it went
directly at the person.
But two brides is such a is iscleverly written, is almost
double entendre and samecleverly written and delivered

(01:10:58):
so and again.

Kurt (01:10:59):
That probably came as a result to where when once
there's a one song competition,you have to try and put
everything into that one song,to try and make that song a
complete entity.
Probably if it's a two-songcompetition, you have a next
opportunity now to be a littlelighter, to come with a
different issue altogether.
That is not as heavy, right.
But since they brought it downto the one song, you find that

(01:11:19):
everybody concentrating oncommentary, political or social
because they want to get thatmessage across, they believe
that is the blueprint to win atitle.

Corie (01:11:27):
Yeah, social political community, maybe nation building
, punto finale you don't getmuch other kind of songs.

Kurt (01:11:31):
Remember in you hear that KroKo song Nobody Bad Song,
nobody Should Go, no, nobodyAin't Go, no Right.

Corie (01:11:38):
And you want to come with it.

Kurt (01:11:39):
What do you mean?
Which was careless, yeah, whichhad?

Corie (01:11:42):
I didn't know the song at all and as a Trinidad, you know
from here.
Calypso Fiesta on every TV inthe house you know how this?
Go and.
I hear the pa pa, pa, pa, pa,pa pa so it reminds me of a old
song a man sing my father nameis Low, my name is Low.
See you remember it, correct,correct so that catch my

(01:12:03):
attention one time and when Ihear the first verse I said what
the hell is my dude doing?
Flip the script.
It was something especially inthe context of what was
happening to the rest of thecompetition.

Kurt (01:12:15):
Bad, bad, bad and every verse.

Corie (01:12:16):
I always watch it back on YouTube now and every verse the
reaction from the crowd getbigger.
Yes, but the truth is that is,for me, still very, very similar
to Too Right, Because allyou're doing is tapping into
something that we already feel,Exactly Because Trinidadian.
I talked to my sister aboutthis all the time she's in DC.
When you see her travel, it'sbetter you don't tell it's

(01:12:40):
better you don't say it.

Kurt (01:12:41):
Because somebody has sweetbreads and that man call
everything in that song.

Corie (01:12:46):
I don't know how you remember to sing that, so I
don't know how you can rememberthe lyrics.

Kurt (01:12:49):
Probably personal experience, because he travels a
lot, you know.

Corie (01:12:51):
So he remembers it all the time.
He feels like he's playing as ashell.
Really Bad, bad.
So what was your feeling whenyou get a call and you find out
you win after all them years itwas a special, special feeling.

Kurt (01:13:06):
You know I've been in winner's row before in terms of
winning the Young Kings, winningSoka Monarch, but when I
started off to sing Calypso,that was my goal to be Calypso
Monarch.
It didn't have a Soka Monarch,it didn't have a Young King when
I just started.
So the aim was not to be aYoung King, but the aim was to
be a Soka Monarch.
As a matter of fact, a CalypsoMonarch at that time was

(01:13:26):
representative of everythingRight, because you had the
Calypso Monarchs were thewinners of the road match
competitions.
In the same way, you knowwhether it's David Rudder who
won the road match and CalypsoMonarch you had people like
Sparrow and Skitchner who waswinning Calypso Monarchs and
road match.
So to win the Calypso Monarchtitle, that was the crowning
moment for me in terms of whatit represented and what I saw it

(01:13:50):
representing within the artform.
Yeah, it was like, yes, goodvalidation, yeah, from junior
monarch to calypso monarch.
And you know, thank mr johnphillip disease for making sure
and helping me to develop mywriting ability.
I mean all the key.
All the other students who werepart of that experience.
They never followed up with thewriting, the composing part, so

(01:14:12):
they were into singing and Iwant a song.
I'll get a song.
He made sure that I kept myfire burning as a composer and
was giving me all theencouragement in that area for
me to be who I am as a composertoday.

Corie (01:14:25):
Otherwise, that would not have been possible.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, congrats on that.
You're joining an elite company, Shadows.
You're the only other personbefore to win both Caleb Sumanak
and Sumanak.

Kurt (01:14:35):
Correct, that's right.

Corie (01:14:36):
Yeah, and only one man after yeah, marshall, yeah, yeah
, yeah, it could be hard foranybody to accomplish that now.

Kurt (01:14:41):
It's only Sumanak, right right, that's it, or is it
Trinity?
It's over, it's over it's oversomething else.

Corie (01:14:50):
I had to go to again one of my favourite songs you put
together where I say you turnthe spotlight on we because that
first investigation.
Again you get a loss in my mind, right, you understand when I
hear that song, not saying thatthe year didn't have real good
songs, because that might havebeen one of the best years for
Calypso Monarch we've seen in along time.

(01:15:11):
I was shocked by the results.
Where you come down here?
Fifth, no man.
Eight, eight, yeah, yeah,shocked yeah yeah, yeah.
Because Marshall was going towin.
Right.
I can say it right, marshallwas going to win.
Kareem Nashua was real goodthat year.
Chucky was good.
I was shocked.

(01:15:34):
You feeling that way, then, oryou're going in there thinking
you have a chance to win.

Kurt (01:15:38):
Yeah, going in there thinking that you have a chance
to win based on the results fromthe prelim semifinals and the.
You know the interaction fromthe people about the song.

Corie (01:15:45):
What was the results for the first two rounds?
You were up there.

Kurt (01:15:47):
I know I was up there.
I was up there, okay, good, inthe preliminaries this year.
So you know that.
Okay, you have a nice chance tomake the finals.
So you're going in there withthat in mind and you're going to
deliver to make sure Of course,yeah, to just follow through on
the first place, I came ninthin the semifinals, barely made
it to the finals.

Corie (01:16:05):
Yeah, coming back to that , because that was weird to me.

Kurt (01:16:19):
I don't know to say it, but me being who I am, as he is
not outspoken calypso, but whenI say something I don't say it
from an emotional point of view.
Politics was involved and I andI'm saying this with evidence
to support it.
It may not be evidence thatadmissible in court or I may not
go that direction, but in myheart and the people who know
what they did, you all know, andI'm letting you I know too.

Corie (01:16:35):
So we even yeah, that's unfortunate for me, just as a
lover of the thing Again, thesong Investigation.
You might say that somebody'ssinging about politics, or
they're singing about thisleader or that leader, but you
kind of turned that song ontothe parents.

Kurt (01:16:49):
Yeah, yeah, it was based on personal experience.
The core of it, right, is thateven now, a lot of parents teach
their children to be fearful ofpolice officers.
So if they do something wrong,I will call the police and the
police will come and look at me.
Right, that's what I tell them,it's true.
So when they see police passing, they already have this thing

(01:17:10):
already, right, right.
I always tell my daughter oranybody around me you don't have
to fear the police, that is notyour problem, I am your problem
.
You have to worry what I think?

Corie (01:17:23):
No, seriously yeah, it's what.

Kurt (01:17:25):
I think the police ain't gonna do you nothing.
It's me, you hear with me.
You have to worry what I willdo.
You have to worry how I willreact when they do your
foolishness.
I ain't putting thatresponsibility on no influencer
or nobody, nobody who come in tosing a song and no, no, no, no,
no, no, no.
It's me you got to deal with.
So it starts there.
It starts home.
The first investigation startswith peer-renting and if you

(01:17:50):
can't get that right there, thengo bother for no investigation.
It's too late for investigationwhen they have bloodstain on
their hand.
You call an investigationpolice, make it.
They make it.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
That investigation starts here.
You got to watch me and my eyeand know I am the one dealing
with you.
If you choose to misbehave,that is your greatest fear.
The police are going to do younothing that I could do, trust

(01:18:11):
me.

Corie (01:18:11):
It's one of the biggest changes we see in society, where
the parent is no longer holdingthat kind of authority.
Yeah, man, yeah, they give itup.

Kurt (01:18:18):
Yeah, of course, and to be frank, the parents, some of the
parents, need parenting.
They really don't know, becausethey grew up in a time where a
lot of things they experiencethey tell themselves.
When I have my child, that canhappen.
Sometimes they talk about acommunity to raise a child and
elders.
Sometimes elders are wicked toyour children, right, wicked.

(01:18:39):
They're doing them wickedness.
They're telling them all kindsof things.
You want the child to respectthem.
So they're saying when I get mychild, no elders can tell my
child nothing now, because lookhow he does move.
So that is what you're gettingnow.
So you can't blame them either.
They need guidance as so whenyou talk about parents, look at
who are the parents.
When you're talking aboutparents, it's 19 year olds, 20
something years.
Is the parents you're thinkingin your mind?

(01:18:59):
It's some 50 something year old.

Corie (01:19:01):
No, no, no no people who lost themselves exactly so.

Kurt (01:19:04):
It's a whole.
You know the approach is aholistic approach, of course,
that you have to use.

Corie (01:19:09):
So it's the first investigation.
Yeah, and it seemed to me Ilike this song in terms of the
sentiment behind it because Isaw it as a response to the well
, it's wicked.

Kurt (01:19:17):
You know them videos.

Corie (01:19:19):
It's almost like somebody make a post on Facebook about
this.
Well, it's wicked.

Kurt (01:19:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Corie (01:19:24):
And somewhere along the way in society we start to.
Everybody else was the issueexcept the parents.
It started being a schoolteacher.
This is from the late 90s, theteacher's not doing nothing, and
then all of a sudden it startsto become now the church, now
the religion's nothing, and whenI was small, the religion was
this, and then it started to bethe government, this mystic
government that we like to talkabout exactly as if you know

(01:19:46):
where the child every dayexactly, and then they tell you
community to raise a child yeah,of course, but yeah but that
may have been so in the 1920s,30s and 40s, when a community
was made up of family members orpeople who have the same vision
, the same philosophy orideology in religion or politics
.

Kurt (01:20:05):
Now a community is a man from Socom to live here, a next
one from Socom to live here.
He's a Buddhist, he's aChristian, he's a Muslim, and
you find all that in a community.
How do you, community, raiseyour child?
And we don't know each other.

Corie (01:20:18):
Exactly, you don't want nobody to cut your child down?
Yeah, of course.

Kurt (01:20:20):
So if you're talking, about community raising a child.
The first thing you have to dois establish your communities.
If you don't have communities,you have people living together
in an area, but that doesn'tmake it a community, so you
cannot tell me what communityraising your child, so the
parent isn't kind of just hidingfrom the responsibility it's
their responsibility.
That is where the community is,in that household.

(01:20:42):
That is where it starts Mommy,daddy, uncle, aunt, sister,
brother, grandparents, whoeverit's made up of, that is the
community.
And if you don't do yourinvestigation there and you wait
for them to come out of theroad or to go to school where
they've been influenced byothers, nah, man, no, no, no way
.
See, yeah, there are peoplethat you wouldn't deal with
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, because you know, see that man, but when you

(01:21:03):
send your child out to school,have to deal with that man's
children who come with that samemindset, mm-hmm, you're putting
them in problems.
Yeah, you have those things.
It's just this generic thingabout community raising and
child and child, yeah, orgovernments and police.
Police, police somebody else?
Yeah, of course.

Corie (01:21:20):
Sometimes the police doing the job.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
That's why the term too late tome was so powerful.
Too late meant so many thingsto me when I heard you song,
because you lost control of yourchild.
Yeah, these are things that youjust say.
I remember they used to tell meall the time you work in no
place, you're sleeping late, getup and do something.

Kurt (01:21:39):
you know there's a sign that's right.
There's time to investigate.

Corie (01:21:44):
That is the time to investigate Because I think,
especially during when COVID allof a sudden gets a stop and
watch the situation a little bit, you're seeing a lot of that at
the point in time where peoplewant ones, where there's a
second autopsy, they want a nextinvestigation they get the one
thing and that.
It was a hell of a song boy.
So how come it boy Well?

Kurt (01:22:02):
again, again, I have my suspicions, but that might be
coming from my emotional pointof view, so I keep away from
emotional findings.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, Ithink it was one of the Apart
from all that emotion, you wonthis year.

Corie (01:22:18):
Right, not the emotional findings.
No, you say you know.
Yeah, I know.

Kurt (01:22:22):
I know.

Corie (01:22:24):
And you want them to know that.
You know, yeah, but they know Iknow.
Now they know I know.
Okay, good, good.

Kurt (01:22:27):
But because of who I am, it cannot affect me.
My responsibility is to thepeople and you all can't prevent
that.
You all have been trying somuch time.
And when they have this thingabout who is they?
Man, I ain't gonna point no day.
Know the self, night.
Know the self, day and night.
Right, and I know I know whoyou are.

(01:22:49):
Don't try, don't feel like Idon't know, because I'm not
saying or not behaving in aparticular way.
You're not gonna find me beingemotional and burning down the
house to kill the mosquito, ofcourse, right, but because
calypso is about discipline andabout exercising the art of
restraint.
So hence the reason, instead ofcussing somebody, we'll say
pock, don't pock around, insteadof going direct, because we

(01:23:12):
understand that is what kaisorepresents, right, to color it
and shape it, it to make itpalatable, right.
So don't feel, because I'm notcoming at you all in the way
that you all expect is that Idon't know, please, just you
know, do what you have to do andI will continue to do what I
have to do.

Corie (01:23:27):
That's what I want to ask you.

Kurt (01:23:28):
This ain't going to stop you from entering competition
the only way that once you putyourself open for a competition,
then you give up all rights.
You have to leave yourself inthe hands of the judges and
whatever they decide to decidethe day that I remove myself
from the competition, then Imight be able to speak a little
clearer and to say things theway that I want to say, because

(01:23:50):
I'm no longer part of that cycle.
Right and I sang a song in 1997called Right.
Right and I sang a song in 1997called Pass the Ball, and very
soon that is what I intend to doin terms of competitions and
stuff to pass that ball, so thatI will be able to comment and
do other things to help Calypsowithout that, that umbrella or
that shadow of he, vexed becausehe didn't win or he vexed

(01:24:13):
because it had nothing to dowith vexing.
It'd have to do with the artform.
There are certain things that Iwant to see for the art form.
There are certain Calypsoianswho come and put things in my
head.
They ain't see what they'redoing.
They ain't doing this, theyain't doing that.
The organization, organization,that I understand all that, but
it must be done strategically.
We must engage the right people, have the right go.

(01:24:33):
You can't keep pulling downsomebody because you don't like
him.
You pull him down because he'sthe president or he's this, and
that.
No, no, no, no, no.
Let's do it in the right way.

Corie (01:24:42):
Yeah, well, I guess your history and your experience with
activism you know how to moveand shake and make them things
happen.

Kurt (01:24:48):
Yeah, man.

Corie (01:24:49):
So you feel like you will still compete at that time, or
that's something you're lookingat helping others and moving
away.

Kurt (01:24:54):
I need to move away from competition.
Yeah, because Black Stalin hadsaid something where it's not
that he doesn't want to compete,he doesn't feel comfortable
putting his hat, you know, as ametaphor, putting your hand in
the same hat as Kurt Allen.
He didn't feel comfortable withthat, you know.
As far as you're concerned, Iknow you as a junior, as a child
, put my hand in shame, had topick a number to compete against

(01:25:15):
you.
It has.
I don't feel comfortable, evenup to now.
There are some artists who inthe finals I don't feel
comfortable competing againstthem.
I've seen them as juniors.
I supposed to be out of that asfar as you're concerned.
But the economic side of it,this is what provides not just
the platform, but it provides aneconomic window that the

(01:25:36):
Calypsoanian.
Without that there is nothingfor the Calypsoanian.
So that is probably one of thereasons a lot of them, a lot of
us still there, but I don't havepatience for that much longer.
Yeah, there are other thingsthat needs to be done other than
competition, competition, andyou know it's come like you grow
out of primary school, you know, keep putting on your school
uniform, primary school uniform,go into school and say I used

(01:25:57):
to go to school, here I used togo to school.
Look miss, look miss.
It's that every time you moveon you might go to a university
which is a different school, butthen the time you come out to
lecture in that university andnot to be part of that
competition aspect in, you coulddo it differently.
And you know my time is windingdown for that, oh man.

Corie (01:26:20):
It's sad, but I have my support regardless because I
think in terms of yourcontribution, like you may have
people talking about it inbusiness where for the last 20
years, the same boards, the samepeople, are the heads of boards
for years that's what'shappening?
now, that's what's happening nowand I feel like, if it's not so
much, it's not to discardpeople and sister runny and she
was talking about that, it wasinteresting her perspective on

(01:26:40):
it where sometimes you see olderpeople who are the foundation
people and you want to discardthem as a thing that we have
sometimes.
Maybe it's not to move your way, but you just do it differently
which is what you say.

Kurt (01:26:52):
Contributing a different way.

Corie (01:26:53):
Yeah, so how's your feeling on the last few years
where you're seeing severalartists who will ever start with
marshall?
Because marshall had steppedaway from competition for a long
, long time all forms ofcompetition and then came back
into calypso monarch at anypoint in time, as people are
doing it every year, yourfeeling is that he's stepping
into all your domain.
You welcome it.
What was your thoughts?

Kurt (01:27:11):
no, that is not all the domain.
That is his domain to people.
As I said, junior calso Monarchwhen you are a Junior Calypso
Monarch, the next step of thatis to become, or dream of
becoming, a Calypso Monarch.
So after he has accomplishedall this in life, he sit down
and say boy, I want to be aCalypso Monarch, I already win
that title.
What is wrong with that?
What is wrong with to win theCalypso Monarch?

(01:27:39):
And then they say you know what?
I want to win the Chukli, sothat I will go down in history
as the person who has won allthese competitions.
I don't see anything wrong withthat, because in the United
States you have people breakingrecords and becoming the first
to do this and nobody can touchthis record in a thousand years,
you know.
And if that is, then who am Ior anybody to want to put their
foot in the way of that orcondemn it?
No, no, no.
He is free to do that.

(01:28:00):
And he has the ability to do itand he has done it.
He's come from that and he isMarshall Montano.
There's some you know we haveto respect.
You know he might be soaccessible to us and you know,
but there is no other than him,no other like him.
You'll never find an ex-Brigo,you'll never find an ex-Stalin,
you'll never find an ex-Shadow.
These are, and many others,because they have made

(01:28:21):
themselves into legends and hehas won.
I am not going to disrespectthat.

Corie (01:28:26):
But when you hear he's coming in in competition, you're
looking to beat him.

Kurt (01:28:29):
But he is once you come inside of there, of course, okay
, he won last year, but lookwhat happened this year.
Yeah, yeah, no fear about that.
And again, as I mentionedbefore, as a soca artist,
sometimes you have to comebehind Marshall with Music Farm
and all these hits.
You had to come behind RonnieMcIntosh and you say, no, you

(01:28:49):
don't have a hit song.
But when you go on that stageyou have to make the people
dance and we conquered that.
We came after them with no headsongs and did it.
So that confidence sound, thatetched in your mind, that memory
.

Corie (01:29:01):
There was nothing for nobody who feared in competition
.

Kurt (01:29:04):
I mean I defeated Super Blue.

Corie (01:29:06):
Iowa was in the competition Bunchy was in the
competition, so why should I bescared?
That one was so common, thatwas so common.

Kurt (01:29:11):
So why would I be fearful of Marshall or anybody coming
into a competition?
You must respect what theybring to the competition.
And the fact remains, becauseof his involvement in the
competition it brought a renewedinterest in people not just in
Trinidad but all over the worldpaying attention again to the
Calypso Muna competition Eventhis year to see even if it's a
see what he will come.

Corie (01:29:32):
They're still seeing you in the process.

Kurt (01:29:35):
They're still hearing about you in the process, so I
would think that hisparticipation elevated the
competition.

Corie (01:29:39):
Yeah, I would say so.
I think this year he didn'thave a chance.
I don't think this one waslyrically strong enough.
It was.

Kurt (01:29:44):
I don't think that he really.
I'll be honest with you?
I don't think he really cameout to compete for that crown.

Corie (01:29:52):
He, but you know what's funny to me, that's not partial.
I respect him more this yearbecause of this year, because of
what you said, because I agreewith that.
I saw the show he put on inSkinner Park last year and then
in the final and I said, well, Idon't see that.
I said, all right, they ain'tgoing to beat him.
I said I know, and that's onlyfor me If I go back this year

(01:30:14):
and I know, okay, I won.

Kurt (01:30:15):
I come in and do like Gypsy.
Gypsy sing, mother.
Can't Gypsy walk?

Corie (01:30:17):
on his stage.
He never dance.
I will do that.
So when did the fact that hewent all out again, probably
himself knowing that, is not awinning song?

Kurt (01:30:26):
he went all out because he's a professional artist and
he know he has to deliversomething to his best of his
ability.
But if he had I believe so, ifit's strategy he would have had
a different song specificallyfor the.

Corie (01:30:39):
Calypso Mona, I think so, I think so, yeah, but that you
have to respect that, that hewent to his standard regardless,
yeah, man so, with the youthscoming in now, where I would
have seen Mikael Tejo, severalof them, particularly young
brother this year who wasSkinner Park, is one of the more
impressive things I've seen ofthem, because the more I talk to
people like yourself, peopletalk about Skinner Park and how
difficult it could be, even yourexperience this year, and I

(01:31:01):
guess it's a renewed interestnow because young people waiting
to see.
As far as I'm concerned, he's awinner, but when I see him, the
way he walked out to the edgeof that stage and delivered Like
he was in our life before.

Kurt (01:31:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the vocal.
You heard the vocal treatment,how he sang it, of course, and
how he executed that, yeah.

Corie (01:31:19):
Like he'd been singing in Calypso yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, total, total,yeah.
So you welcome that.

Kurt (01:31:24):
Of course.
Of course Young brothers andthe others who come from that
background as well, thepretenders, the roaring lions of
the art formula long ago you'llfind roaring lions and
kitcheners who have a tent wouldhave already gone and picked
them and said young fella,you're in my tent.

(01:31:44):
We don't have a tent to go andsay, young fella, you're in this
tent, so we cannot go and scoutthe way that they would have
scouted.
And that is where, when youlook at look, I was listening
spiral calypso yesterday A youngand strong mainframe that's all
in town who thinks about agunslinger.
Of course he's thinking aboutguns and saying they're buying
guns and they're making sure,but once they have the guns,
nobody can handle them.
And that was since the 50s,right?

(01:32:04):
So what your brother and theseguys do is nothing new.
It's just that they're doing it.
We talked about the by reggaeinfluence being in Jamaica.
Mm-hmm, when you, when you,when it comes out to a DNA, you
can see somebody resembling anex-person and they, and when you
check they, have no relationwhatsoever.

(01:32:25):
It's just a resemblance, mm-hmm,the DNA of reggae, the DNA of
what they call Trinibar, and theDNA of Calypso and Soca is the
same.
It's the same DNA.
Even though you might come froma home to where you're looking
totally different from yourbrother, they might say they're
all unrelated.
But when they check the DNA,that is your brother, the DNA

(01:32:47):
which is what I call thealgorithm of all those music, it
comes down to one Calypso.
And when I say Calypso not justcalypso in the way that you
might know it from the Sparrowsand them, I'm talking about the
original calypso in terms ofthere are nine rhythms.
Now, this is something I don'treally talk, but there are nine
specific, distinct rhythms.

(01:33:07):
That makes up the rhythm thatwe call calypso.
Calypso is not based on onerhythm.
That's why you find that whenyou listen to calypso has and
you listen to rock and roll,listen to even jazz, you just
wait now you feel it's feelingsomething.
That's the dna talking to you.
It's there.
So calypso is not just what youfeel.
It is right we call it bydifferent names reggae and jazz

(01:33:29):
and rock and roll and all thesethings but when you look at the
dna it's the same, becausecalypso it took nine, the coming
together of nine rhythms tocreate your original rhythm that
we know as calypso.
Right now, what you're hearing,you're hearing about four or
five, for the most you reallyhear entry, but I was sticking
at four to a fifth out of thenine, so that we lost a lot in

(01:33:50):
the process.
From the early 1920s come down,we have lost a lot and that
loss came particularly when thebanning of the African drumming
and the drumming you take awayyour cell phone for a hundred
years.

Corie (01:34:04):
They took away your drums and that they think that
drumming is just aboutentertainment and communication.

Kurt (01:34:09):
But it's high sciences, mathematics to the highest
degree, highest order of math,that we, over the years, we lose
a lot of it.
So, what we call Calypso now isjust about fall 39.

Corie (01:34:20):
I see, I see.
So you see, the train ofthought, the steam, the zest are
still in the same essence.
It is the same.

Kurt (01:34:27):
To the trained air who understands the science behind
the music, Not somebody who andlisten for certain things.
Once you understand the science, the cosmic relation that our
music have, when you deal withcosmology and not just the
subjective wine and jam and howI feel what this music really is

(01:34:47):
, we are not using it.
This is a spiritual music.
Calibur is something highlyspiritual, the highest form of
spirituality in terms of therhythms.
But we have lost that.
We have lost the knowledge ofit and by losing the knowledge
of it we have lost what it coulddo for us as a people.

Corie (01:35:04):
It is a science.
I'm with you.
So then, with this knowledge,you're not surprised when you
see somebody like Young Brothercome in that arena.

Kurt (01:35:10):
Not surprised at all.
I find it took long.

Corie (01:35:12):
So you think they'll come home.

Kurt (01:35:14):
They are home.
They are home.
It's just that we don'trecognize.
As I say, we're looking forsomething else, we're not
looking at what is there andunderstanding that they are home
.
We want to see them homesounding like Attila.
We want to see them homesounding like Lion, but that has
gone.
Lion cannot come and sing likethat.
If you bring back Lion now andall, he cannot sound, sound like
that.
Everybody has a space, me too,right, and everybody is.

(01:35:38):
My new degrees are separation,so that it might look like a
resemblance here and then next,20 years down, you'll look like
something different.
Sure, but when you understandthe DNA and the algorithm,
because everything has a numberassigned to it it's the same.

Corie (01:35:52):
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
So you talk to them now.
Our kitchen will handpick youand bring you into the thing.
You talk to the youth now andthey're feeling like society is
not accepting them.
Society is trying to sidelinethem, trying to silence them.
What would you say to them now?

Kurt (01:36:06):
Be resilient and express your true feeling, regardless of
what society wants to accept.
The society changes over timeand what society accepts in 2025
was not the same thing thesociety accepted when I was a
child or when I was a youth in1990.
So it changes.
That level of acceptance andtolerance changes.
Slavery was something that weembraced at one time.

(01:36:28):
When I say we, the society, sothat was good.
And now you see what happenedGood and lawful, yeah good and
lawful.
So things change.
Your vibe and your energy mustnot be conformed to society per
se.
It must conform to your naturalmystic that is blowing through
the air, and once you're in linewith that, nothing can stop you

(01:36:49):
.
Stick to what you're doing inthe way that you're doing it.

Corie (01:36:52):
I hope they hear that.
I hope those messages areimportant.
It's coming from you.
I feel we're living in asociety sometimes where part of
why I do this is because I feelin society there are too much
gaps.
So I deliberately try to decidewho I want to put out this week
and who I want to put out nextweek.
So when I put out somebody whoyouths want to hear, I want to

(01:37:13):
put out somebody hear now, sothat maybe they'll hear what the
youth saying, because there'sjust too much disconnects in the
society.

Kurt (01:37:18):
You have to give the youth a chance to dance, to them
prance and when you look at itin a true context.
You need to give them thatchance to dance and prance and
express themselves.
The way they see it.
It may not conform to what youknow, what you would wish to
change it.
Change the society Right.

Corie (01:37:40):
Simple I'll wait till you're with me.
It reminds me of a song yousing with no slave.
No more slave movies.

Kurt (01:37:45):
Right same thing.

Corie (01:37:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah even back then you're feeling
like especially when you sangthat it was like you're away
Subconsciously, subconsciously,yeah, yeah.
So in terms of the competition,going where it is and that kind
of thing, one in particular.
Again, maybe my bias is thefirst investigation and not
understanding how you come whereyou come.
You explain this here.

(01:38:07):
I have a theory about why youain't winning the rest of them
too.
I have a theory about that,because when you're winning with
two bright, what are youwearing again?

Kurt (01:38:15):
Pig run outfit you dress up too nice for this last
competition.

Corie (01:38:19):
As you said, I dress nice .

Kurt (01:38:20):
No, you see you can be so correct.
No, that can be part of it.
Try it, try it, you might catchthem again.

Corie (01:38:29):
But when you look at this investigation on where Going
back to that song with Gypsy andMother Cant, I don't understand
how these songs compare.
I didn't understand how he madethe final that year either, but
again, he's such a professionalin terms of his ability to
deliver on stages, one of thegreatest who ever do it.
So he comes out, stands,delivers.

(01:38:51):
But he would have beenpresident of NCC at the time and
performing and competing inseveral competitions.
You have thoughts on that interms of.

Kurt (01:39:01):
It might seem as a conflict of interest in terms of
, if you look at, morality andintegrity and all these things,
but, as he always says, he's aCalypso first and if he can't
get away with it, he will getaway with it.
If you cannot get away withsomething, then you cannot get
away with it.
I have no problems with thembeing a calypso first, but it

(01:39:22):
doesn't take away the fact thatin people's mind it is a
conflict of interest.
It is my address, yeah.
So then you have to decide onyour own merit.
If you don't mind keeping astraight face and doing
something that people don't wantyou to do, it's up to you.
In that position, keeping astraight face and doing
something that you know peopledon't want you to do, that is up
to you, you know.
But in that position I can'teven say what I would have done,

(01:39:42):
because you have to be in aposition to understand it.

Corie (01:39:44):
Well, I guess that's fair , but I mean, I could guess what
you would have done, becausenow you're talking about
stepping away.

Kurt (01:39:50):
You're going to pursue other interests in, to be sure
you can hear about.
Kurt Allen has decided that,you know.
But again, I don't want it tocome across as making those
kinds of decisions after comingsecond in a competition because,
again, because he didn't win,he vexed.
Yeah, it's not aboutcompetition, it's about that
message that I have to deliverand I already have my message

(01:40:11):
that I want to deliver next yearin terms of, you know, like
knowing what I want to focus on,so we could say that my song is
done, okay, okay, yeah.
So that you could very wellhear that I'm not competing, or
you could very well hear I'mgoing harder in the competition,
okay, good.

Corie (01:40:24):
Well, when you decide, come back now we're going to
talk about that too.

Kurt (01:40:26):
Yeah, no problem.

Corie (01:40:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm looking forward to whateverthe next iteration is, because
I appreciate doing that series.
I think it powerful.
Yeah, I think it's powerful.
The, the, the, the people likemyself.
With social media, people havethe opportunity to um, like you
see this current issue going onwhere they say a photographer,
yes, yes, yes, everybody had adifferent site, yeah, but we

(01:40:50):
have the opportunity to go ontwitter, go on facebook and
respond emotionally to thingsimmediately or even with a lot
of research, because you have alot of professional
photographers talking about it,calypsonians talking about it.
But I find that series that youall have creates a space where
now the griot gets back.
You know, we get back the griotBecause we lost the griot.
I feel the Facebook comments, Ithink, is what makes the tent.

(01:41:13):
It loses its luster to anextent, because if I had to hear
political commentary or socialcommentary, when I get that on
Facebook immediately.

Kurt (01:41:23):
I have something up, Exactly exactly.
You know what I mean.

Corie (01:41:26):
From uninformed people sometimes like myself, who not?
But I don't get to hear acomplete thought from a Kurt
Allen or Mr Shaq or Kareem Nashor anybody who in this space,
Because I mean, you're taught tocome out in a text the same way
you come out in a song, andsometimes why we put things out
in a text is because we have itfor a song and we want the
competitors to know.

Kurt (01:41:47):
Well, okay, this is where we come in.

Corie (01:41:48):
I would not talk to that at all.

Kurt (01:41:56):
But it's good that I mean with the speed that you could
produce now.
You're willing to go on that.
Yeah, I'm willing to go all theway because you know that's
part of what I want to do now.

Corie (01:42:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I appreciate that.

Kurt (01:42:02):
I appreciate you coming through, brother, I appreciate
you being here, man, this wasgood, you know.

Corie (01:42:04):
Thanks a lot, this was a great, a great, I think, people
are going to.

Kurt (01:42:13):
I'll get back to him.

Corie (01:42:14):
I'll get back to him, he knows that he knows that.
I appreciate that man.
I'll come back to you wheneveryou decide where you're going
and tell Chocolate to send herlove Will do.
Yeah, you know she's one ofthem names who was, so it was
like Chocolate.

Kurt (01:42:28):
Island, yeah, man, and then they don't hear.
So it's, you know.
She's not even on social media.
No, no social media footprint,because what she's doing she's
doing independently and she'sdoing it for people who are here
for nobody to get involved andmake comments on these kind of
things.

Corie (01:42:43):
Well, listen, we're taking it that you will go have
impact as your workers.

Kurt (01:42:47):
She's on a number of boards in our community
Beautiful On the financecommittee, nice Cultural
committees, and this is inpredominantly.
It's not the normal areas withWest Indian people, of course.
No, she doesn't have a lot ofWest Indian people where she is,
you know, she's probably theonly one.

Corie (01:43:05):
That is right, she's making a serious impact out
there.

Kurt (01:43:08):
Even as a teacher I was there and I saw the impact
personally with the students,not just her, her class, but the
entire school embraces her.
That must be proud of you theentire teaching staff and you
know she's something special tothem, as she is something
special to us of course, yeah,that must be our proud yeah, it
is no, I should have takenschool more seriously.

(01:43:30):
I should have done somehomeschooling myself well, it's
never too late.
We have kids coming, I guess.
Yes, we have about 10 more kidsto have.

Corie (01:43:36):
Oh yeah, guys, I should play some rap over the sink
rather than looking for you.
I appreciate it, bro.
That's a million.
Nice to be here, man.
Thank you.

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Episode 233 | Kurt Allen

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 233 | Kurt Allen