Written by: Nekisha Cyrus
No, it’s not your auto-correct playing tricks on you. ‘Trinibad’, the newest style of Dancehall music originating in Trinidad and Tobago continues to gain international recognition and support.
With the huge success of Trinibad’s very own trendsetter Prince Swanny, who continues to set the bar high, with his latest release ‘Radar’ recently featured on the popular BBC Radio 1Xtra ‘New Music Friday’ playlist which also featured four-time Grammy Award-winning Rapper, Drake. Yes, in such a short span of time, the local dancehall movement continues to soar.
In our previous Trinidad Dancehall blog, we featured some of the heavyweights who have propelled this movement forward. As we continue to support the growing Dancehall movement, here are some artistes who we believe are well on their way to international success. (CEH will like to advise our readers that some of the videos below may include profanity, violence, vulgarity, and may not be appropriate for children.)
JAHLLANO
First up, Llano Grant who goes by the artiste name ‘Jahllano’ is considered one of the Trinibad’s favorites. From his unique vocals, humble persona and versatility as an artiste, the Laventille-born singer has been on the scene for some time delivering many favorite hits.
With anthems such as ‘War Dem Want’, ‘Need a Change’, ‘Come from Nothing’, ‘Expensive Lifestyle, ‘Melodies of Love’ and more; he even surprised fans recently when he released a collab with Chutney soca star Ravi B, called ‘Rum in meh Veins’. And it also seems like all his hard work is beginning to pay off as he was nominated at the 2020 AEUSA Awards in the ‘Best Male Artist’ category, which also included some of the top African artistes such as Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Davido.
MEDZ BOSS
Up next, we feature another Trinibad artiste, Joseph Ollivere, who goes by the name ‘Medz Boss’. Hailing from Beetham Gardens, Port of Spain, the Ztekk Records artiste has been creating his own lane within the movement, rolling out hits like ‘Fear We’, ‘Blood’, ‘Welcome to Trinibad’, ‘Bad Gyal’, ‘No Media Badness’, ‘Love Yuh’ and many more.
In 2020, he also teamed up with the Sokah princess, Nailah Blackman for their hit collaboration ‘Say Less’, which is still very much a crowd favorite. Since breaking onto the music scene, Medz has performed in countries such as Barbados, Grenada, and St. Vincent. He was also one of the Trinibad artiste featured in the 2020 local ‘Zesser’ movie.
TAFARI
Next on our list, is a young man who as it seems was destined to be an artiste. Tafari, the son of well-known Trinidadian Reggae artiste, King David, is bringing his own unique style and flavour to the Trinibad pot. Hailing from Maraval, the Hilltop Entertainment artiste is known for hits like ‘Bompton Law’, ‘Fully Active’, ‘Murder’, ‘Freak’, ‘Buss Meh Gun’, ‘Crisis’, and many more.
Tafari recently released his very first album called ‘Sovereign’, which features (7) tracks and is available on streaming sites such as Apple Music. As he continues to make his waves, he also recently performed at Nailah Blackman’s virtual concert ‘FIAH’.
At this time, CEH will also like to salute two of Trinibad’s fallen soldiers, K-Lion and Rebel-Sixx who’s lives and career were cut short in 2020. Their music is still respected and is considered to have a huge impact in pushing the movement forward. May they continue to rest in paradise.
As the Trinibad Dancehall genre continues to make history, we believe that this is only just a scratch on the surface of the talents still to come. To add to our featured list, here is a video playlist of a few more artistes who have definitely been putting in the work thus far:
Sources include: OutDey TV, Artistes featured social media
Hashtags: #Trinibad #TrinidadDancehall #Dancehallmusic #Princeswanny #Jahllano #MedzBoss #Tafari #BoyBoy #PlumpyBoss #Zerimar #Kalonji #DJLila #TrinidadandTobago
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