From left are Nadz, Tami, CamarChaos, Freelance Writer
THERE IS an air about them. An atmosphere of fun and relaxation. The rapport they share is immediately obvious from the light or sometimes loud bursts of laughter they often indulge in, the little smiles, the jokes and the looks they often share. There is something special about them.
They are the Univerzal Playaz. Nadirah 'Nadz' Seid, Camar Doyles and Tammar 'Tami' Chin.
A year ago THE WEEKEND STAR told you of 'Da Univerzal Playaz' (DUP), which consisted of Nadz, Mud Bone of P. Funk and Parliament Funkadelic fame and producer-extraordinaire Dave Stewart, who is formerly of The Eurythmics.
As Nadz explained it, "Dave and Mudbone are now the godfathers of the group, the executive producers. Dave wanted to make the frontline different..."
Enter stage left Tami and Camar and, with them, the change in name. "The group will still have that funk feel, but with a taste of Jamaican dancehall as an undertone," Tami told The Sunday Gleaner with a smile that can - and probably does - break hearts.
Nadz is sporting her new hairstyle, one in stark contrast to her, up until recently, normal cornrows ("It's just the new look, I'm just developing a look, it's refreshing... I had the cornrows for years."), her bright eyes looking ready to haunt someone's dreams for nights to come.
Camar is relaxed, wearing a blue jeans jacket and half a smirk as he slouches half-way down in an armchair. The room where the interview is being done is often filled with laughter after some questions prompt an amusing reminiscence or two.
They describe the group as "Dynamic crazy for sure, but it works."
It is easy to see why.
Let us meet Nadz, Tami and Camar.
NADZ
Who does not know of this young rapping dynamo? What with her inclusion on the Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life movie soundtrack and her work in the recent Coco-Cola advertising campaign, the idea seems unlikely but just in case...
She seems incapable of keeping still and there is no sense of arrogance or potential for the same. Her light brown eyes are constantly darting and one body part or the other is always in motion as she speaks with The Sunday Gleaner.
She nibbled at the fruit of her labours at the Caribbean Music Expo (CME) early in 2002, when she became the first signing with Dave Stewart's Artist Network, a three-year-old development company based in Europe which describes itself as a 'provocative, independent media company'.
In fact, it was Dave Stewart who saw Nadz at CME 2002 and was impressed. They were introduced by Brian Jobson and the rest, as they say, is history.
In the months following CME 2002 Nadz toured Europe with DUP and worked on her soon-to-be-released debut album. She has also worked with acts as diverse as Annie Lennox, blues singer Joanne Shaw Taylor, saxophonist Candy Dulfer and reggae icon Jimmy Cliff.
Her journey on the road to success has no exactly been a smooth one and Nadz, a former Gleaner employee, gives a few details when prodded.
She was in a group called DKODE that pretty much did not go anywhere. She has done songs with Madd Anju, Shakira, singer Aisha (Can't Wait) as well as with Ce'Cile and Danny English. None of these efforts brought her the attention she deserved.
She met her manager, Stephen Ventura, in 1997, who took some convincing but finally took her on.
In early 2002 she made the decision to go into music full-time and be broke for a while "I was broke while I was here anyway," she laughs and on the urging of CME 2001 winner Abijah entered CME 2002, where, out of 300 contenders, she emerged a winner in more ways than one.
A former student of St. Catherine High, Queens and the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, she explained what she has been doing for the past few months.
"I've been recording tracks -- when you're working with an international producer like Dave, it's all about quality..."
Here Tami chimes in excitedly she is quite a bubbly young lady and everyone would step all over each other's answers throughout the interview "You have to record like over 50 tracks before you can choose 10."
Nadz was also in Los Angeles, California in the United States performing for record company executives and working on her album, of which she says "We're not rushing it we're revising it. I think there's some better stuff I can put on it. I'm at a stage where I can put some better stuff on it."
"Now I kinda feel complete with the people that I'm with... Dave and Mudbone sat with us and we kinda found ourselves... Everything kinda clicked. That's the most important thing - finding where we are right now," she said, with her typical, almost invisible shrug.
TAMI
Beautiful. Wild. Loves to smile, if not laugh outright at the drop off a hat or even without the hat. Tattoos and piercings. Meet 20-year-old Tammar 'Tami' Chin.
She went to Campion College in St. Andrew for two years before leaving with her family for England and ended up attending Stratford-Upon-Avon College where she did "Everything to do with the performing arts even lighting, everything."
Then there was a stint with the Oakley Kibble School of Dance, she did the A-Level examination in dance and even taught the subject for a while.
With regards to singing her preference is towards Jamaican dancehall by the way she says: "I used to sing at all the performance things I would do, but I never took it seriously until about three years ago when I was in Florida.
"I don't know how I ended up in Florida, but I ended up in Florida. I met up with Conroy (Conroy 'Icon' Forte, of Miami-based South Side Records, who was also present during the interview) and he asked me to sing a few tracks and I just fell in love."
According to Conroy, "She was introduced by a friend ('Who knew I could sing,' Tami breaks in) and we decided to do some songs...We laid down some vocals... I thought she sounded really good, I was blown away by the package, she's a very well-rounded person, an artistic person. I just saw a diamond in the rough."
Being artistic makes sense, since she is the child of a family with a varied and interesting musical pedigree. Her father Richard once led the band E=MC2 and her mother Christine was part of what has been described as 'The first girl band in the Caribbean', The Carnations.
Tami was also at one point prior to her inexplicable arrival in Miami on tour as a dancer with Shaggy. "I want to be a triple threat - everything. Even acting."
Up until now Tami had been meeting up with different producers locally, has sung on two tracks with a deejay by the name of Sanjay, but "...it's never been quite right. It works now, thank God it works. The good thing is that they're not asking me to give up being a solo artiste (each of the trio will still pursue solo careers and put out solo albums). I never thought I'd end up in a group like this..."
"We jus' flex," Nadz chimed in.
"We've just had the good luck of being from the same culture we can talk about everything," Tami said.
One of the more noticeable things about her are her tattoos and piercings, the latter would probably glitter even without the aid of a light source. When asked how many she has, she paused, did some mental arithmetic and then said "Several," laughingly.
Someone once told Tami something, which she has taken as her own personal philosophy. The lines are from Black baseball player Satchel Paige.
Work like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like nobody's watching.
Which sums her up rather nicely.
CAMAR
He wears a perpetual half-grin that would look sinister on anyone else, but on Camar just looks like he is quietly laughing at a private joke.
More draped over the chair than sitting on it, he has an accent which sounds strange coming from someone who was born and raised in Kingston 16 - Dunkirk, Frankfield, to be exact.
It turns out that after a stint at St. George's College in Downtown Kingston he went to the Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (to study computer animation) - which explains the slight accent - before returning to the island to pursue the performing arts at the EXED Community College.
He is from a church background ("I grew up singing and performing for my church, as a choir boy, a musician.") However, "After I saw what happened to a couple of musicians in my church... people always want you to perform for free. When dem do dem ting deh to dem people, it hurt mi heart. Nothing in life is for free and outside people appreciate it more and appreciate it more from a business aspect."
He spent some time 'hustling', doing harmonies on tracks and so on to make a 'small change'.
Then something curious fate, perhaps took a hand. "One day, my madda a read the newspaper and sey 'Yuh see this nice girl, nice eyes, yuh should marry her'. Me sey 'Mummy, nuh duh yuhself dat' an' den I saw she was right."
The girl was Nadz.
Camar was doing the usual struggling artiste thing, going from producer to producer, and met Stephen Ventura. "I was supposed to go by his studio; as soon as I stepped tru the door, nuh di said picture mi si pon di wall? Mi neva ask nuh question, mi inna di studio, nuh di said girl walk tru di door man?" is the way he described the woman he now describes as "A fren', dat nuh betta dan getting to know her like a 1000 other guys out there waan do?"
That was their beginning.
Camar has a penchant for a particular Stevie Wonder song, Ribbon In The Sky, and when asked about it he said "Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye a dem people deh mi madda used to play, that's the stuff I like. She always tells me that good music always lasts."
"I'm still working on some new stuff, different songs and styles. I'm trying to find an original style, so when I enter the market, people can say 'Yes, da yout' dey have an original style'.
"I'm still growing, I've taught myself by trial and error and now I'm in a circle with people I'm working with wha mi like and, with experience, I can learn a lot more."
The Univerzal Playaz. Three distinct, yet compatible, personas which have come together to form a gestalt that just might rock the world.
