BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Friday night’s show of the 14th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival featured a blend of Hip-Hop, Creole, Zouk and Reggae music that left a fairly large crowd memorised.
Upon arrival at the festival grounds, SKNVibes found only a handful of persons present to witness the amazing music that emanated from the French band, Fethi Tabet.
Although their music was in French and new to the people of the Federation, members of the band still managed to involve patrons who had gathered close to the stage during their performance.
The band’s 45-minute-long performance set the pace for the night with high energy and great music that warmed things up for the son of the legendary Reggae artiste Bob Marley.
This was the second consecutive time a Marley was on the festival. Stephen Marley perform was there last year and last night it was Ky-Marni Marley. Both artistes showed off the talents with which their father left them.
Singing some songs from his previous album, ‘Radio’, and also a few that will be featured in his upcoming ‘Evolution to Revolution’ album, it was a high-energy performance that came from the young Marley.
He was a true ‘general’ onstage, taking charge of his music and commanding the audience with his charisma that had everyone locked into his performance.
His performance also included the singing of some of his father’s timeless hits that included ‘Roots, Rock, Reggae’ and ‘Redemption Song’, which went down very well with the audience.
The young Marley also used the opportunity to promote his book, ‘Dear Dad’, which hit the bookstores earlier this year. And following his performance, he sold and signed several of them to his fans.
As the night got older, the crowd steadily increased in anticipation of the first scheduled local act, Jah Fire.
Jah Fire performed well for his 15-minute on stage and used the opportunity to not only sing but also to show off his smooth dance moves.
He ended his performance with his single, ‘Gal Ova Gun’, which encourages the youths to end the violence and choose a relationship with a woman instead of killing each other.
Following him was one of the top rappers in the Federation, SMI, who made his entrance with the same high-energy of the previous performers.
Dressed in all-white, SMI and his back-up rappers ‘tore’ the stage apart with their lyrical content.
The ‘I Stay Fresh’ artiste held his own and showed no sign that; being from a small island would keep him back from his pursuit of becoming an international star.
When Fabolous, the Brooklyn rapper, took to the stage it was again high energy. The crowd had then significantly grown and many young persons had made their way to the front of the stage.
As the popular rapper dished out tune after tune, he had most of the young persons in the audience swaying and singing along with him.
Fabolous sang some songs from his early days, which included ‘Make Me Better’, and also some hits off his platinum albums - ‘Into you’ and ‘Can’t Leave You Alone’.
Following his performance was the headline act for the night, Tarrus Riley, who performed well over an hour.
The son of legendary singer Jimmy Riley, he came onstage singing ‘Lion Paw’ and proceeded with hits like ‘Love’s Contagious’, ‘Beware’ and ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’.
Backed by his band, Riley kept the crowd’s attention all night and left everyone satisfied.
When it came to the song that has made him a household name, ‘She’s Royal’, Riley had all of the female patrons feeling like queens.
The festival ended after 2:00 a.m. and persons seemed satisfied with the various blend of music.
One patron said, “The Festival Committee must be commended for giving more local artistes the opportunity to shine on the festival this year. They must also be commended for the placement of the artistes to appear later down in the lineup instead of opening each night, as was done in previous years.”
Tonight (Jun. 26) is the final night for the festival and will feature C-Money, Pepper Ranks, Infamus, Rolhensha, Baby Face, Sizzla and Stevy Mahy.
