HE is known as the King of Steam, but Yung Bredda's (Akhenaton Lewis) penetration into the 2025 soca and calypso realm, which has catapulted him into something of a role model, is making him rethink how he portrays himself and the impression he wants to leave behind.
As he crafts a musical legacy, Yung Bredda acknowledged this new-found thrust into the spotlight has placed a great weight on his shoulders.
At 25, this rising star from Sea Lots is determined to uphold and shape that responsibility with pride, to leave a positive and permanent mark, while he grows as an artiste.
Even as he strives to pursue accolades like the Calypso Monarch, his mother’s voice keeps resonating in his ear, reminding him to be humble and grounded, not to forget where he came from.
“My mother is a person, anytime I get too hyped up and thing, she does just bring me back down to ground level. She has instilled that in me so even when she is not around, I still remember that teaching to be just normal.”
He made the comments in an interview with the Newsday after his energising and exciting performance of We Rise at the Calypso Fiesta, Skinner Park, San Fernando, on February 22. Yung Bredda spoke of the burden that has been placed on his petite shoulders.
“I have a big reputation to hold up, a big weight to carry now,” he said. His hit song The Greatest Bend Over has been taking him to ever major fete stage and then some. He said he had seven engagements on February 22 and four more the next morning.
The father of a daughter said he is aware, “the youths are looking up to me (to be the role model they can emulate). Even the elders are looking up to me."
Before his breakthrough into the calypso and soca genres, Yung Bredda was noted for his raunchy form of freestyle music, steam, a sub-genre of dancehall, which he said, is his way of being different from zess and Trinibad music. Steam consists of sexually-charged lyrics which are geared toward women. He said he intends to continue with his steam but with some emphasis on toning it down.
“The youths are the future generation I mean, they are looking up to me, so I am not going to do my steam as I normally do, how I used to do it, anymore. Because I am elevating. I will still do it. I will try to do it in a clean way but still to enjoy myself. I will still be doing the party songs for the youths.”
While working to perfect his craft and ensure that positive influence, Yung Bredda asserted, “I would not be boxed in. Really and truly, I started singing calypso at primary school, so when I get the breakthrough with The Greatest Bend Over, my manager just came and say it is always good to remember foundation and learn foundation because I am a young entertainer.
[caption id="attachment_1141399" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Yung Bredda performing during Kes IzWe Festival at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain on February 25. - Photo by Daniel Prentice[/caption]
“I want to build and in order to build, you have to know foundation. So he tell me about going back to ca
