BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CARNIVAL CHAIRMAN Noah Mills is challenging Lord Kut’s notion that the use of one rhythm by multiple Soca artistes in the Soca Monarch Competition displays a lack of creativity.
Lord Kut had expressed this view, among others, to SKNVibes Entertainment several weeks ago (see related article below) suggesting that some artistes appear to have a cookie cutter mentality.
Mills, who recently spoke with SKNVibes Entertainment, intimated that he does not agree with Lord Kut’s opinion and believes that the use of a single rhythm by multiple artistes is actually a challenge of their creativity.
“Personally, I disagree with Lord Kut’s opinion. Lord Kut should understand that Soca, within the context of that fraternity, is different to calypso. And what I mean by that is, internationally, the culture or the context of Soca allows for several submissions in a competition to be done on the same rhythm.
“For example, it would have been perhaps two years ago when we had two persons in the international Soca artiste in Trinidad in the finals on the same rhythm. I don’t know if you recall Alatunje doing ‘Ola Ola’ and there was another artiste (Benjai) who did ‘Phenomenal’. It was from the same rhythm and both of them were there.”
Drawing from a local example, Mills pointed out that the fact that artistes produce songs on similar rhythms, creativity is driven and these artistes are forced to produce their lyrical best, given that the foundation of their songs is the same.
“You must make it unique and creative enough to jump out and for the judges to say, ‘These are far more outstanding based on the lyrical content and the lyrical treatment.’
“For example, last year we had the Stickle Riddim and if you were to take Dejour’s song on the Stickle Riddim and compare it to Nicha B’s song on the Stickle Riddim, although the same rhythm, the treatment of the lyrics, the melody and the composition of the lyrics themselves made the songs totally two different songs. So that falls within the parameters of Soca.”
As a prerequisite to performing in the Sugar Mas 45 Competition however, Mills declared that each artiste using a particular rhythm would have to produce a signed document indicating that he or she has explicit authority to use it.
SKNVibes understands that a panel is expected to convene tomorrow (Nov. 5) to sift through all the tracks entered by participants in the competition and eliminations would be carried out.
