By Leighton Williams, Staff Reporter
TWENTY-TWO year-old Jamaican singer Calibe has a very unique distinction. She was the only Jamaican to participate in the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Conference Awards, held earlier this month in Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States.
Calibe, whose full name is Calibe Thompson, appeared on the Together We Can All song, the video for which airs on local TV and is on Innocent Kru's debut album, Innocent. She has also appeared on BET with Beenie Man, when he performed Feel It Boy and has travelled with him to Europe and the United States. In addition, she was a part of the short-lived girl band called Emerge.
The singer got the opportunity to attend the awards because she is signed to Royalty Network, one of the sponsors.
ROYALTY NETWORK
"Royalty Network is such a big part of my life. They sponsor the Billboard conference and as sponsor you are allowed to submit a new artiste. And I was selected. My selection means I have an opportunity to impress some important people, so I will be giving them my bios, CDs, links to my website and all that good stuff," she said.
Royalty Network is a network of writers, producers and creative musical personalities.
The artiste, who got the link to Royalty Network via the Caribbean Music Expo (CME) last year, said the association came about through the networking at the conference.
"After the conference I tried keeping in touch with the panellists and I ended up signing with Frank Liwall (the president of Royalty Network) and his company, because he was impressed with my work. As they always say, if you can't end up being an artiste at least you can write. I was sent out on some assignments and the feedback that came back was good," she explained.
Her work ethic paid off, since she later worked with some of his producers. Among the producers she has done work with to date are Kwame Holland, a rapper from the '80s, as well as Nottz, who did Get Outa Here and Pass The Courvoisier Part I for Busta Rhymes. In addition, she has worked with Chamello, who has done Put Your Hands Where My Hands I Can See for Busta Rhymes.
While most of her work has been underground, she points out that her main focus at this point is getting known. Calibe points out that she does not expect a record deal immediately.
ATTENTION
"I hope to get a lot of attention. A whole lot of attention. I want people to know I am around. That's why I'm doing some underground stuff and that's what I hope to get out of performing on the Billboard awards. I don't see a record deal right off the bat, as it doesn't generally happen like that. When people see you they need to start searching for you, cause I want to work on some more material," she said. Calibe is not very worried about not being widely known by the Jamaican public, although she may one day get her break internationally.
"I'm worried a little bit, but not very worried. I have been in the Jamaican system for such a long time and have fought with it a lot of the time. I find that producers don't want to work with female artistes readily," she said.
She continued: "If you are a female they want you to sing over some cover song. If you are going the dancehall route you have to go the Tanya Stephens, Ce'Cile or Lady Saw route. It's either man bashing or sex and I'm not into that at all. If that's what I have to do it's not going to happen. Hopefully I will find producers to work with me. Sly and Robbie are not in the dancehall anymore, cause they do a lot of international stuff," she said.
In the aftermath of the conference, the singer hopes to put out an underground compilation. For now, she is planning to tour with Beenie Man later this year and hopes that from her underground work her career will take off.
