- CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Entertainer Elephant Man
Teino Evans, Staff Reporter
AS THE excitement of Christmas rolls around again, Jamaican artistes have been scurrying to release singles and albums for the festive season.
Among the artistes that have hopped aboard Santa's musical sleigh this year are the Rising Stars' Competition entrants, Q, deejay Bounty Killer with a bMobile campaign, male group TOK, Elephant Man and the gospel group Katalys Crew.
TOK has a single entitled Gyal Ova Gun and even though the title may not sound quite like a traditional Christmas carol, the song is about what they will be doing for the holidays.
A line in the song says, "gyal wi a pre dis Christmas, wi nuh have nuh time fi buss nuh AK ..."
"It deh pon Don Corleone new rhythm, mi not even know wa it name, but it start play pon radio already," Flexx of TOK said.
In the case of Elephant Man his Christmas Carol is dedicated to the 'thugs'. "Mi drop one, it name Gangsta Christmas, produced by Daseca, it a gwaan bad. Well it's about like mi do a Christmas carol in a gangsta way, weh mi a big up di thugs, suh mi a seh yow, big up the thugs dem straight. Mad a road!" Elephant Man said.
According to a source at Solid Agency, Bounty Killer's effort Fallen Angel was produced by bMobile. The project also features Wayne Marshall and Marlon Binns.
Four-member boy group Q (Damara Danni, Kalvin Tahal, Jerome Powell and Peter Edwards) wowed television viewers with their tight harmonies and trendsetting outfits on the recently completed 2005 Digicel Rising Stars competition well. Now, they are also diving into the bag of Christmas goodies.
Their debut single Q is For Qristmas is written by Powell. Former Chalice keyboardist Allah Lloyd, who has a wealth of experience working with group harmonies, produced the song while Shocking Vibes' Patrick Roberts and Clyde McKenzie are the executive producers.
Powell said that they decided to record a Christmas song as their debut single to spread some good vibes and cheer to their fans.
ROLE MODELS
"Basically because of the things happening in Jamaica and the image that we portray, in that it gave us the opportunity to be role models for young people, we felt that by doing a song imploring people to be kind and spread the joy of the season would be appropriate," Powell said.
It will find a home as more than a single. "We will be doing an EP for the Christmas, which will consists of four songs, with people like Devonte with Give Love At Christmas, Kirk Davis and Little Lenny doing a combination and Q ...," McKenzie said. The other artistes have not yet voiced their songs.
Only gospel group Katalys Crew has produced an entire album for the season. The 15-track Christmas Inna Jamdown features collaborations with artistes such as the 2005 Digicel Rising Stars winner, Christopher Martin, guitarist Dwight Pinkney, Dwain 'Wiya' Campbell, Steve Golding (who puts down his guitar and sings this time around), DJ Nicholas, Kerron Ennis and Lamont 'Monty' Savory.
The album was produced by KATSJAM Records and, according to Katalys member Paul Barclay, it was something they had in mind from last year. "From Open Your Eyes people have been asking for more and last year (December 24) we did a little thing at Prayz House (a Christian club) and the response was so over-whelming that I decided that next year Christmas wouldn't pass an' we didn't do something," Barclay said.
The Katalys Crew said that they felt compelled to give their Christmas effort a Jamaican feel.
"We decided that we would do a Christmas album, Jamdown-style. Not hitting other artistes, but the reindeer and the snow is not our style," Barclay said.
He further said that the album addresses social issues and global crises ..." even in the midst of Christmas celebrations we have to address these issues, because persons are not able to even see Christmas because of these issues."
POPULAR SONGS
In the past, various artistes have compiled singles and Christmas CDs. In 1997, VP Records released The Christmas Album, which featured the likes of Sanchez, Beres Hammond, Mikey Spice, Fiona, ARP, Freddy McGregor, Lady Saw, Baby Cham and Wayne Wonder, Dean Frazer and others. Some of the more popular Christmas songs include Bounty Killer's Ms. Ivy Last Son in the early '90s and Kipmus Carol by Kiprich, which was released last year.
But while several local artistes have shown interest in Christmas projects, because of expectations of more spending in the festive season, representatives of some of the record companies and stores say that the sales of these Christmas songs are not consistent. The success of the projects, they say, is strongly dependent on the popularity of the artistes or producers/promoters.
"Elephant Man had a single out one year, I think it was called Father Elephant, and that did very well, but I don't think others have really done that well," said a spokesperson at the Aquarius Record Shop.
In addition, VP's release of The Christmas Album is said to be still selling quite well.
