Seasons Greetings! On today’s Oldies Sunday, we head on over to the twin Islands of Trinidad & Tobago for some Parang! For those who aren’t familiar, this is a genre of music originated from T&T and Venezuela that is normally played around Christmas time with some songs referring to elements of it including the birth of Jesus Christ. Today’s selection comes from the “Queen of Parang“, the late Daisy Voisin with “Alegría, Alegría“. Produced by Arnold Shuffler and released through RH Productions in 1981, this song is about the birth of Jesus and his role as saviour. The single was featured on her album “Parang Queen” and has been one of her most notable songs. While sung in Spanish, we’ll give you the English version below. We hope you enjoyed our selection, and we encourage you to tune in next Sunday for another! Live on, Queen Daisy Voisin!
Comedian/Youtuber/Actress/Singer/Model Bella Blair hasn’t been slowing down at all. With her appearances on and offline, she has been working to put her brand on a bigger platform. Continuing her lane as a Recording Artist however, she has been teasing her fans with the hashtag, #ICanDoBetter recently, which is the name of her new single. Today, we get a behind the scenes look at her new video and promotion for the single. For those who are familiar with her many characters, you know she makes sure she looks good! “I Can Do Better” is out now, and you can check it out, and the BTS content below.
Dropping new music is emerging Recording Artist, Riki Simmonds! Bringing a new flavour to the scene, she’s definitely an Artist to watch out for. Today she makes “waves” with “Waterfalls“! Produced by Troy Baker of Geejam Records, Riki speaks about someone who has captured her attention, and makes her go from having her head in the clouds, to coming down like a Waterfall! It’s like that sometimes (lol). Blending a mix of Dancehall, Soul, R&B, and Afrobeat with her unique lyrics, we believe she will be making a lot more noise in 2018! Has anyone ever made you feel like how Riki is feeling in this song? Let us know! Check out the track below.
Bringing in some vibes today are Colombian Recording Artist Andy Rivera, and Panamanian Recording Artist Joey Montana! Today they spread some love in the form of their latest music video, “Enamorarte (Fall In Love)“. Directed by Dayme y El High, the Artists sing about falling in love and valuing the person they love, while we see two persons making plans for a get together throughout the day. Be sure to watch to the end for a surprise. Great visuals, and a song that you can vibe to. Off the upcoming “Sustancia EP” from Dayme y El High & Andy Rivera, get some español in your life and check out the video below!
Hello December! It’s that favourite time for many, the Christmas Season! While many may have opinions on the season, or don’t wish to celebrate it, you can’t go wrong with remembering the real reason for the season, and the great music that pops up! On the first Oldies Sunday of December, we kick off a Christmas Edition, and the first selection comes from the legendary Barrington Levy! Remixing the Jimmy Boyd 1952 classic, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus“, Barrington drops “I Saw Mommy Kissing A Dreadlocks“! Released by Mic Productions and features Recording Artist/Producer Trinity, this song was featured on the 1981 Christmas compilation project titled, “Yard Style Christmas”! In the song Barrington sings about catching his Mother kissing a dreadlocked Santa Claus who stopped at his house because of a storm and brought greetings and gifts of Sensimilla (Marijuana) from Jah.
Recently, Recording Artist Royal Blu and Producer Tim Foresta finally released their long anticipated project, the “sinG with God EP“! Featuring 5 tracks, listeners were treated a mix of awesome lyrics, melodies, and production that will have you rocking and rewinding to catch the lines. Recently we got a behind the scenes look at the creative process with Blu and Foresta, more specifically the situations that led to the making of each track. Tune in!
Royal Blu: For “Let’s Get High”, I remember being in studio and one of my Engineers who helped with recording the session was intentionally smoking near the booth so it could aid in me capturing the feeling of the song (haha). Leno Banton and some of the REM crew was in the studio session as well, and they’re like the Ganja gurus. So it made even more sense.
Tim Foresta: “Let’s Get High” was a very interesting process. I only had this rough loop of the hook part of the beat. I had no clue where this could go, but it had a vibe, so I sent it to Blu. He then was able to write an entire song with three verses, hook, basically a whole arrangement on this simple loop. He sent it to me via voice note. I was blown away and it instantly became clear what kind of a song this will be. Within an hour most of the ideas you hear now came to my mind. That’s also what I like about working with Blu. The process doesn’t follow the simple pattern of I send a beat, he writes a song – done. It’s always different.
Blu: I haven’t really said this anywhere else, but the song “Believe” was actually written out of me being hurt. I had a song called “Wrote You This Song” that was originally set to be a part of this EP, but didn’t make the cut. It was the first song Foresta and I ever did, but we didn’t work in studio together for it. He was still in Germany. But basically, that song was about singing to my past self and letting him know that things get better in the future. Because the past self I was singing to at that time lost all the files for his song, the studio I was working with got ripped down, I was betrayed by friends, lost loved ones. It was a depressing time. So that energy carried over into writing “Believe” because I wrote those two songs very close together.
Foresta: Believe. In 2014 I was in South Africa shooting a Documentary about Zimbabwean refugees, living in the streets of Cape Town looking for work. It was an idea by director Thandi Sebe, who at the time wanted to write a Theatre play about it. Growing up in Cape Town, she always saw these groups of men gathering and always wondered who they were and what they do. So, while doing this Documentary I composed some music for it as well and this is where the idea for Believe came from. In the end I didn’t use that beat in the documentary, but interestingly enough the topic Blu found for it perfectly fits the scene of the film that inspired me coming up with it.
