I remember when I worked back home in Trini land that when you got in trouble you were called into the office to answer to the boss for your misdeeds... We called it going on the red carpet! Well today I left my cell phone at home and on my return home checked for missed calls; what caught my eye was an email that popped up in the screen from veteran music producer Kenny Phillips of KMP Music Lab studio. My first thoughts were... Choops, then a pause when Kenny said KC (as in Kasey Phillips of Precision Productions) wanted to have a word with me. Then I thought...(images of the red carpet), "What ah do now?"
Well ever since I decided to cut ties with the Wack shout-box I have been spending time reading and doing some posting on islandmix.com/backchat. Yes backchat as in this case insolence (when yuh rude yuh rude)... trust me there is enough going on there to raise yuh blood pressure! The following account is what transpired.
Big news...leaked Bunji track out of Precision studios! I listened and said, "damn this chune is sweet and will mash up Carnival 2012". Sounds innocent enough right... OK (for now). Well as expected islandmix got busy commenting on the music preview with postings like, "Tune Sound Madddddddddd"and then this form the Devil's Advocate himself, VINCYPOWA: "Leave it to them Trinis. Buoyyy, they REALLY LIVING UP to their NAME YES, Trickidadians". I was 'vex as hell' and thought, here we go again; Mr. Powa alluded to this... The riddim for Bunji Garlin's soon to be released song "Go Hard" was stolen from a 1993 song titled "Take Ya Clothes Off" from Spice and Company. I got upset and responded like this:
Santiwah said: Oh gawd... give it ah rest nah....just enjoy the music for once! Teaser sounding real nice... I just spoke to Kenny Phillips... son is Kasey of Precision Productions you should have a chat with him and tell him that his son stole the beat... Come on now man!
Now someone read my posting and contacted Kasey and told him that I said that the riddim was stolen... talk about misinformation! This was the making for some good tra la la because it was all taken out of context. Hey I am used to all of this kankalang... Santiwah is in trouble again but this time from the big guns... but Kenny is meh fren... he contacted me to clear the air. "But wait just one minute now, my blog praises Precision Productions so what is going on here... serious miscommunication my friend. OK, so what happened next... Precision Production responded through Julian on islandmix. The letter was also sent to me. I decided not to post any new songs today and do this post instead.
Here is the official Response from Precision Productions:
"Just to clear the air, this Beat was NOT stolen. It is actually a sample from the group Milo and The Kings, who are from the Virgin Islands, it is their song 'Today' from the 1950's.
What we are doing is taking from our roots and bringing it into today's music. So that we do not lose our culture and art, but all you all seem to see is negativity and stealing where there is none.
As a matter of fact, this song being over 50 years old actually has NO copyright ties on it. That is the Law. So while it is a sample we are allowed to use it Royalty Free.
You all are criticizing us for injecting new life into a piece of music that none of you would ever have heard about without us using it. How is that a wrong thing to do in keeping our culture alive?"
This is what Triniboi had to say on the islandmix thread:
"Kasey my brother keep doing ya thing... There is nothing wrong with what u are doing which is making great music... And keeping the culture alive... The negative man they like 2 Call VP down talks all good music that is not of a Vincy decent... And u can't please everyone... But the real Soca music lovers will appreciate it.... Didn't think that u needed 2 respond because once u know the truth and know what u are doing... Don't worry bout ya haters..... Keep the hits coming... Triniboi from islandmix is a big fan of precision and its not changing cuz of someone hypocritical posts.... Big up yaself kasey!"
This is what Triniboi had to say on the islandmix thread:
"Kasey my brother keep doing ya thing... There is nothing wrong with what u are doing which is making great music... And keeping the culture alive... The negative man they like 2 Call VP down talks all good music that is not of a Vincy decent... And u can't please everyone... But the real Soca music lovers will appreciate it.... Didn't think that u needed 2 respond because once u know the truth and know what u are doing... Don't worry bout ya haters..... Keep the hits coming... Triniboi from islandmix is a big fan of precision and its not changing cuz of someone hypocritical posts.... Big up yaself kasey!"
Now to conclude the post, I have re-posted the Bunji Garlin's teaser "Go Hard" followed by the 'Royalty free' sampled Milo and the Kings song "Today" (song from 1950') and finally the VincyPowa's (chook dem Trinis) short lived claim to fame track 'Take Ya Clothes Off" track by Spice and Co from 1993. After you listen to the songs you will realize that Kasey and Precision took a sweet rhythm and dashed honey on it, making it sound even sweeter, with Bunji 'pelting big stone lyrics'!
Finally, I was asked by Kenny Phillips why is it that I get myself involved in these types of conversations. Well that is my nature. Soca Kankalang went on for some time on Wack radio when I raised a question about the creation of Soca by Lord Shorty... that conversation continues. Sometimes talking about these things help but sometimes it could be counter productive. Once again we have a situation where I was incorrectly quoted but it led to a revelation that set the record straight. I just don't understand this war of the islands regarding Caribbean music and who did what, who was first, Vincy music better than Trini music, who created Island Pop music and who did not... and on and on... Why can't we simply enjoy the music?
Please be advised that the music is presented here for your listening pleasure and for promotional purposes only ("Fair Use" Musical Content Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976). Lend me your ears... Enjoy!
♫ Please press the play button (below) to listen (small triangle in circle).