AWARD-WINNING producer Dada has expressed hope his new Smoke Riddim, which features songs by ragga soca artist Ian "Bunji Garlin" Alvarez and soca star Shurwayne Winchester, will help to re-energise power soca.
The songs Forward by Bunji and Wet Dem Down by Shurwayne were released on YouTube last week and have received 23,000 and 3,200 views respectively.
Dada (real name Krishna Lawrence) told Newsday he created the Smoke Riddim in response to his observation of carnivals over the years.
"I realise the people want hard, hard riddim. The people want to come back to the party and fete and sweat."
He explained the Smoke Riddim is a hybrid fusion of "bouyon soca" featuring elements of bouyon music from his home country of Dominica and soca music. He said bouyon music features a lot of percussion from African drumming on goat-skin drums and this was added to the high energy and high power of the "soca vibe."
Dada also spoke about the choice of artistes for the Smoke Riddim in a voice note.
"These two artistes were selected specifically because these are two of the artistes of Trinidad and Tobago with the energy and gumption to manage a fete with big flags and rags and water. It's time to bring back the energy, it's time to bring back feteing to what it used to be."
'Rekindling' Shurwayne Winchester
He recalled the first of the two artistes he reached out to was Shurwayne.
"Back in the day, he had the kind of energy and perspective on soca that is lacking today. I want to rekindle Shurwayne Winchester."
Dada said that as a fan of soca music and Shurwayne for a long time, the "dip" he went through created a lull in the industry and shifted the "energy" from power soca to groovy.
"And now groovy has lost steam. We have all the groovy we could hear already. Soca has to come back, power soca. The people feeling for it."
Dada said while he still loved groovy soca his objective is to rekindle power soca and bring back that element which Shurwayne added to soca when he was "running the place" in 2006.
Shurwayne won the Road March title in 2004 with The Band Coming and again in 2005 with Dead or Alive. In 2006 he won both the Power and Groovy Monarch titles with Can't Wait and Don't Stop.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="427"] Shurwayne Winchester's Wet Dem Down is on the Smoke Riddim produced by Krishna "Dada" Lawrence of dada-manufakture. The song's chorus encourages people to wet things and each other.[/caption]
Dada pointed out he co-wrote the song, Wet Dem Down, with the artiste, and the lyrics do speak of loss and longing for higher energy soca.
What happen'? We used to be party kings.
What happen' to mashin' up fete and sweatin'?
What happen'? Where all of the big flags dem?
What happen' to jump and wave and misbehave?
Let's get crazy. It's time to get on really mad in de party.
I want all of your energy around me.
I want yuh to take out yuh rag, take out yuh rag, take out yuh flag, jump with somebody!
The chorus also encourages people to wet things and each other
