Inside Mi Car

KI Persad & JMC 3veni - Catch Meh Lover 2009

One of my favorite places to both listen and read about music these days is Rizzla's great sex, drugs, and Soca spot, Wasted Youth Sound System. If not for the amazing web of links to both sides of the issue of homophobia in the Caribbean, than for the fact that he shines light on a genre stuck in the dark shadow of Dancehall. I'm gonna leave all that up to him, but I'll go ahead and dive into this Chutney song about catching your woman with another woman. From what I gather this is a big tune among East Indians in Trinidad right now, and it isn't a no-batty man/woman anthem at all but a rather tongue-in-cheek pop song about lesbians. Pretty harmless, basically right between My Girl Got a Girlfriend and I Kissed a Girl but I can't say I've heard anything from the Caribbean that takes on any similar subject in such a lighthearted poppy manner. It's incredibly corny, but I dig the production. The video is a must see especially for the hilarious bubble captions, and if you were worried about KI and his girls sacred bond it all ends up being a dream in the end. His acting makes me think he was actually psyched about it though.

X-Mas In Trinidad

Bindley Benjamin - Santa Lookin for Ah Wife

I generally loathe Christmas music, but Trinidadian Spanish-Catholic caroling music Parang is definitely worth a listen. Have a happy whatever holiday you celebrate.

King of Chutney

Sundar Popo - Chal Kechal (from Greatest Hits vol 2)

East India in the West Indies has been on my mind ever since I heard this, and these Soca infused Bhajans are really hitting the spot lately. Sundar was greatly responsible for popularizing Chutney music, a genre born in Trinidad and Tobago consisting of songs sung usually in Hindi over a beat rooted in Calypso. While the music is usually dance floor friendly, a lot of it especially in the early days was anything but secular music. Sundar mixed folk music from the island with his own agenda and sang love songs that changed Indo-Caribbean music forever. This track isn't as Soca flavored as some of his others, but his vocals are so great I had to put it up. The man released plenty of music in his lifetime (15 albums!) so next time around I'll throw one up that you can mesh easily with Montano.

Workin' For the Yankee Dollar

Lord Invader - Rum and Coca Cola (1943)

A controversial number here in both subject matter and it's tale of plagiarism by Yankees. A song about the explosion of prostitution in Trinidad due to new US Military bases on the island, Lord Invader wrote and started performing this song in 1943. In 1944, Morey Amsterdam from the Dick Van Dyke show stole the song without Invader even knowing and released a handful of 78s with altered lyrics, the most popular being close harmony group the Andrews Sisters' version. Fortunately, Morey lost the copyright suit but that didn't help the original much. I don't really know about recordings existing on vinyl back in the day, and the couple of recordings of Invaders original that I have are all live. There is a lot of great info and several versions of the tune over at Rum And Coca Cola Reader, as well as an interview with Morey Amsterdam where he lies throughout most of it!

Oh, and I kept thinking dude was saying "Honkeys", not Yankees. Heh.

Stop All This Boogaloo Rudeboy!

Safi Abdullah - Afrika is Burning (from Rebel Soca 1989)

An anti-rudeboy, anti-disco, anti-freaking, anti-boogaloo earlier Soca track from this weird CD I found at the Harold Washington Library. It's not very soca and not very interesting production wise, but the hook is "Africa is burning, and the black man here is doing the freak" and provides some contrast to all the fuckin songs pouring out of the Caribbean.

I'm definitely not anti-rudeboy though.

Soul Glo Calypso

Bunji Garlin - "Put in the Thing" (from Global 2007)

Trinidad and Tobago's answer to Jamaican Dancehall, the word Soca is literally just the combination of the words soul and calypso, The difference between the lifespan of the two genres is that the early Soca (1980s) that I have is on a roots revolution Marley type tip, where as even in the 80s Dancehall was stricly for the dancehall. Fortunately for us deviants, this track by Soca superstar Bunji Garlin is an absurdly blatant anthem of sexual penetration. This track differs from most Soca I have, being a lot slower and more thumpy, yet not dubby enough for a dancehall riddim. I almost have a feeling this track might have ended up like this to appeal to the other islands in the Carribean, as there have been beefs between Soca and Dancehall/Reggae artists on the music, including Bunji and Jamaican artist I Wayne. Soca is now made all around the Caribbean but doesn't really compete with Jamaica being one of the largest music industries in the world. The "Soca Bhangra" meeting between Bunji and Punjabi Soca artist Shammi is worth hearing too, though it barely makes any sense.