BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A popular calypsonian has declared his intention to continue being a voice for individuals in the Federation who do not have one and aims to educate them in song.
Calvin Johnson, also known as the King I-Soursop, is a nine-year trouper of calypso and declared that winning the crown is his last thought.
Speaking with SKNVibes, I-Soursop said he is a social commentator and he aims to tell the public a story and it is nothing to laugh about, and that is the rationale behind the slow beats he has for his songs as well as the reason behind him not being a dancer onstage.
“If I singing a song on stage and I see people laughing, I will be walking off the stage. When I am singing you should be silent and serious because I singing a serious song. When I finish singing my song you could take it to the schools…the kids could learn something from it. You could even take it to the prison and the church and they too can learn something from it. The average calypsonian today is rubbish, you can’t learn anything but they winning; so they continue,” I-Soursop said.
When asked about the brand of calypsos so far heard for this season, he said that a number of calypsonians are stifling themselves by trying to sing in a certain style.
“There are those who stifling themselves and there are those who want to win and will sing certain things to do just that. Right now you will find a lot of calypsonians, if you listen carefully, trying to sing Konris’ style because Konris does win. And as a result of that, calypso lovers, the spectators get turned off because they are not singing what a calypso crowd really wants to hear.”
“So, a lot of them changing to the Konris style and aren’t getting anywhere because they forgetting something…Konris doesn’t win because of his style,” he explained.
“But me, I stick to my style. And you know what gets me to the finals? Not my calypsos, but my fans. Everything I get into I want to be the best, and for nine years what I have realised is that at first I thought it was who has the two best songs will win. It is only when I get into it I realised that having the two best songs is only part of it.
“For nine years I have done my homework and this is my conclusion. If you are singing politics and you cannot bring anyone into the park you out, because they don’t want no politics in the park. But, at the same time, they want good gate receipts and they want a good crowd attending the show, and if they know you can bring a few hundred people to the park they might let you pass with the politics.
“I said earlier that people change their style to win and I would never change my style. So I would lose all the time. I grow up with a grandmother and she always used to tell me ‘every dog has its day’, and I live a lot on my grandmother’s saying. So I am not going to pull away and say that they cheating me every year and I am going to stop. I understand that it is not my time, but I am going through because my fans want to hear me,” he said.
Isoursop added: “I have never ever placed in St. Kitts, and not because I don’t have good songs. It is because it is all orchestrated, but I never stopped! I woke up one day and said let me try something different and I said let me go to Nevis, and in my first attempt I won the crown; a crown that all the big guns in St. Kitts could not win. I was the first person to do a calypso video in the Caribbean on Tempo…I was the first ask about it.”
He however said that if he makes the finals it would be just like any other night, and he would not spend any money on his presentation because everyone knows what would be the outcome even before the event starts.
I-Soursop indicated that his preparation for the semi-finals is going well so far and he would be doing a different tune rather than the two he released in November, which are ‘Thanks in Advance’ and ‘One in Three’.
“Originally, in my mind, I was not going to use the two for competition at all, but I was singing the two songs in the tent to see which one takes off and then I would add a new one,” he explained.
The reason he said for the third song is due to the fact that the lyrics in both were very similar and he wanted to have something different in the style of lyrics, adding that it is a song he had for a very long time but was holding it back.
The song is called ‘Proud Black Woman’ and he said that though the crowd likes the politics there is still a large cross section that wants to hear something with substance.
“I am a calypsonian who never sits down and writes one song for a two-song competition. Whenever I on the radio to release, I release two songs and I never ever sit down and write a strong song and a weak song. I always write two strong songs,” he explained.
I-Soursop is also of the opinion that he has the material to get him the crown but stated that he has never understood the criteria.
“I don’t believe there is one calypsonian whose song has more lyrics than mine. And if lyrics carry the most points on the score sheet I can’t see why I don’t place.”
He said that he does not face the challenges like other calypsonians because it is not a money issue for him, because he does not sing for financial gains. He also indicated that while the average calypsonian wants to make money, the money he makes from calypso is usually donated to charity.
I-Soursop said that there are many short comings in calypso because it is very discouraging.
“The system and the knowing what is going to happen before it happens is very discouraging.”
He declared that his most memorable achievement in calypso was his triumph in Nevis in 2009 when he became the first Kittitian to walk away with the Culturama Monarchy.
