Although Nadia’s Batson’s mega-hit song “My Posse” really hit its stride in the “Carnival Season” months (January through February) of 2008, the story of its creation really begins back in October of 2007.

Alot of my best songs come to me while I’m driving – for some reason – and in the case of the Zouk-tinged smash “My Posse”, I was streaking down the Beetham Highway when that unforgettable horn line first popped into my mind as clear as day, followed shortly by the chorus “My posse/Ah wanna see yuh/Jammin on de road/Wining de road…”

The really good tunes come fast usually. In this case, it took almost no time for me to construct the entire intro, chorus and the basic structure of the verse as well. At this point, like any real songwriting tech-geek would, I stopped jamming to my catchy new creation just long enough to reach for my trusty smartphone (RIP Motorola A1200) and quickly recorded myself banging out the drums I heard in my head on the steering wheel (yes, while driving lol) while singing the melody and lyrics simultaneously as well, to “catch the moment”.

A few days later, my good friend Nadia Batson invited me to one of her recording sessions over at KMP Music Lab Studios in San Fernando (South Trinidad for you foreigners) with our longtime friend and collaborator Kasey Phillips of Precision Productions.

After working on one of Nadie’s songs for a while, we were almost ready to wrap up for the night when I said to her: “I have a tune for you to sing… if yuh interested.” She was curious, so I uploaded the audio from my phone to Kasey’s computer so he could play it on the studio speakers for everyone to hear.

The next thing I  knew, an excited Kasey was hustling me into the booth to sing a guide vocal for him to build the “riddim” (music) of the tune around. Once again, I sang the distinctive horns and the “Hey! Posse! Hey!” intro in my best falsetto as Nadie and Don Iko nodded their heads to the rhythm of my voice in the studio.

After completing the guide, I came back in the booth and explained to Nadie that I wasn’t totally done writing the tune. At that point, I had the entire intro, the chorus and the pre-chorus (that’s the part that goes “Slowww. Slowww, wine back yuh bumper”) all worked out with words and everything, but I only had a definite melody for the verses with sparse words.

Nadia agreed to finish writing the verse lyrics and I remember being a little tripped out that she asked Kasey to keep the intro arranged EXACTLY the way I had initially sung it, and then she went home and learned precisely how I had sung the “Hey! Posse! Hey!” in the intro (in my best falsetto at the time lol).

A couple weeks later, , Kasey had finished a wicked Zouk-inflected riddim for the track and Nadie – having finished writing the verses – was back putting down vocals at Kasey’s studio. For some reason though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still not quite right… and then it hit me!

“Nad – yuh don’t think yuh should sing it in a higher key?” I asked her? We all looked at one another, and put it to a silent vote – arriving at a unanimous agreement, judging by the smiles. For those of us that know her well, Nadie is notorious for being more comfortable singing higher notes, so as soon as Kasey raised the key a couple notes, all of a sudden Nadie was belting out the song.

After recording background vocals performed by myself and Lauren Birot (an ex-member of Nadie’s well known previous singing group Silhouette), the young ace producer Kasey added the finishing touches, including live electric guitar (big up Kenny Phillips lol) and live horns, before mixing and mastering.

By late November (2007), new Soca releases for 2008 Carnival were being debuted fast and furious on the radio in Trinidad, but almost all of them were slower-paced so Nadie’s first instinct was to release one of her Groovy Soca selections first, but both myself and the savvy sound man  and DJ that is Don Iko (Digital Enertainment to di worldddd – uzeet! lol) insisted to Nadie: “My Posse hadda buss (release) now!”

Eventually, in early December, Nadie bowed to peer pressure and released the single to local radio and club/party DJs. One week later, you couldn’t turn on a radio in TnT without hearing “My Posse”. Instant smash!

The next two months were filled with quiet pride for me, watching Nadie mash up fete after fete (NO that is NOT an Iwer George pun) with the seemingly unstoppable song, which became one of the top contenders for the Road March title. It also carried Nadie to the Soca Monarch finals where many people strongly felt she was robbed and should have placed higher than the controversial 4th place she walked away with.

Regardless of the Soca Monarch controversy, the bottom line is that to this day the “My Posse” song continues to “get forwards” and at this point I think it’s safe to say “My Posse” is a classic “mash up tune” for Soca lovers everywhere.

Amazing what a long drive, a lil’ “vibes”, a good smartphone, a talented friend and the right timing can produce right.

Big up to Kasey and everyone else involved in the production of the tune, and special thanks to my friend Nad for believing in my ability enough to voice the song, and, in the process create history.

Hmm… who say Nadie and Vybe should go back and give dem another baddd “chune”?

You never know… it could happen lol. After all this isn’t the first time we collaborated on a big “chune” by any means.

On that note, I leave you with the video of Nadia’s Soca Monarch Finals performance. If you look really hard you might catch me singing backgrounds live there too ;-)

NOW you know ALL about Nadia Batson, her hit song “My Posse” and ME! That’s all for now – Mista Vybe outttttttt!

Most true Trinis will remember that circa 1997, Andy Stephenson was well known in Trinidad and Tobago as “The Local Michael Jackson”, thanks to his stunningly accurate impersonations of international superstar Michael Jackson. What alot of you didn’t know was that YOURS TRULY was responsible for the bulk of the writing and production of the hit song that catapulted him to fame as the “Soca Michael Jackson” – not to mention having a big hand in the now-legendary choreography that made the song such a smash as well (who say “Moonwalk and Wine” dey? lol).

In case you somehow don’t remember the hilarious tune or the amazing performance… maybe you need to watch the Soca Monarch performance that changed Soca Monarch presentations FOREVER, that I recently found on Youtube.

It all started one seemingly ordinary night in December in a little house in Barataria where my partner-in-crime Andy Stephenson had been living at the time, when Andy out of the blue said to me that he wished there was some way he could parlay the success he was having as a highly sought after local MJ impersonator into something that would work for the coming Carnival season. “I wish Michael would sing a Soca tune,” he said, “I’d have it made!”

Suddenly a brilliant idea flashed into my head… why not do just that?

Andy and the rest of the then-infamous Nostalgia dance group (his backup dancers and makeshift, rag-tag family at the time who lived with him in the house where all this madness was born), lit up when I proposed the idea.. it was so crazy – it just might work! A Michael Jackson Soca SPOOF! Madness – but brilliantly so (even if I do say so myself).

Not being a Soca guy at all, Andy didn’t know where to begin, but I had plenty Soca experience under my belt having been the right hand to my buddy Sheldon “Shel Shok” Benjamin (RIP Sheldon) in the studio for years while he crafted then-revolutionary and now-classic hits like “Rollin’” by Home Front, “High” by 3rd Bass and many many more. Not to mention the shows/sessions where I had sang background vocals for local legends like Shadow, David Rudder and so many more.

Andy – in typical Andy Stephenson style – suggested we “work out de idea” over drinks at the rum shop around the corner and so we made an excited bee-line there. Several Stag beers and not even an hour later, after beating on the rum shop table (much to the delight of the owner, who was happy for the entertainment), we had what I knew was a smash.

I came up with pretty much all the lyrics and the whole melody, I could hear the riddim (“beat” to you foreigners) in my head, I could see the choreography that went with the lyrics – it was clear. I literally built the verses around the original storyline of the classic MJ song “Billie Jean”, adding dialect and making the starlet Billie Jean a true Trini “wajang” who wanted to “wine up” on poor MJ.

Twenty four hours later we were in a studio working on the track.

Three studios and three producers later, we refused to give up, despite having dealt with some shady character and wound up at Roger Israel’s studio. Roger was Andy’s favourite producer at the time, and was happy to help us create what turned out to be the biggest smash of carnival 1997 after two horrendous attempts to bring “Whoa Jean” to life.

The third time was the charm. I beatboxed parts of the riddim to Roger, who played in the instruments on his keyboard. Andy threw in his two cents, and the other members of Nostalgia chimed in as well with little pieces of gold. In the end – we had a monster to release onto the unsuspecting public of Trinidad and Tobago.

Literally minutes after receiving the final Mastered Mix from Roger’s studio in Diego Martin we raced to the country’s only Urban station (at the time) and released the song that afternoon. By night-time, we were jumping up and down in the car, celebrating, as DJ after DJ in shift after shift played OUR song over and over… and over!

Andy then decided we needed to perform it, and started working on the details of the choreography with me directing him as to what the lyrics I had written said. Somewhere in the midst of all this another bomb of an idea struck me.

Andy performed a near-flawless Moonwalk which always brought the house down when he impersonated Michael… why not give that trademark dance the Trinidad Soca treatment too?

“Andy – yuh could moonwalk and wine at the same time? Yuh think dat possible?”, I said to him excitedly. He pondered… and then perfectly executed the now-famous Moonwalk And Wine move. We all screamed in excitement. “Dat goin to done mas up de place!” I howled. “The LAST thing you have to do is that, right at the end.”

The very next day Andy – never the type to “stick” (Trini for “waste time”) – jumped into my car and announced that we needed to go to Spektakula. At the time Calypso “tents”  (shows) were still very much the rage in Trinidad for Carnival and the tent called Calypso Spektakula was undoubtedly one of the biggest, hosting superstars of the artform at the time like Sparrow, Watchman, Rio, Funny, Ruppe and many more major stars of the day. Andy knew that in order to really have a smash we needed to big amongst “the big guns”.

The Martineau brothers, Frank and Claude (RIP Claude) knew Andy well since they often used him in the role of Michael jackson or Tina Turner for their popular Comedy shows in the year, so it was easy for him to explain our crazy idea for the song to them. A quick audition later, Andy was a full fledged member of the cast of Calypso Spektakula.

From then on there was no stopping us – or Andy. Starting with the authentic intro to “Billie Jean”, guitars wailing, Andy would come out in full MJ regalia and then  the riddim for “Whoa Jean” would kick in and the place would go nuts. Night after night. EVERY time.

By the end of Carnival, Andy had qualified for the prestigious Soca Monarch competition, and went on to literally change the game on the night of Finals. No one had ever used props like a lift to raise them above the crowd of thousands at the Stadium. Very few people had dancers and even less had extravagant costumes.. Andy, however, used the full Nostalgia troop to dance and myself, his wife and various other “friends” on backup vocals.

It was a show truly befitting the Soca Michael Jackson, as he came to be known. After that, Andy proceeded to tour Canada, the US and all of the Caribbean extensively as the Soca Michael Jackson, cementing his year as the hottest new sensation in Soca out of Trinidad. Crowds worldwide rejoiced and went wild at the uncanny impersonation and bacchanal-filled performance that Andy, Nostalgia and I had spent all of Carnival in TnT carefully building. He arrived to shows in limos (a la MJ), flew First Class… he did it big.

In another clip I found on Youtube, a patent-leather-clad Andy takes the stage at a Mother’s Day show in NY, and even trades quips with host Tommy Joseph at the end, just as he did every night at Spektakula during Trinidad Carnival 1997.

For those who only remember Andy as a “one hit wonder”, I’d like to leave you with Andy’s second tune that also scorched the airwaves in TnT. In the summer of 1997, hot on the heels of his carnival smash, Andy wowed local DJs with a Dancehall-Meets-Soca tune called “Sexy Raggamuffin Girls”.

The ground-breaking (locally anyway) video had Trinis talking about the intro where he transformed from his popular MJ persona into another dark-skinned, dapper-dressing character that those of us involved in the project from Day One knew was actually just Andy’s REAL self (sans makeup and wig).

Anybody remember the video for “Sexy Ragamuffin Girls”?

If the background looks familiar it’s because it’s the interior of the store that is now TSTT’s West Mall branch (at the time though, it was the newly opened Cragie’s high fashion store for men – Trevor Cragwell AKA Cragies also provided the tailored suit that Andy sports in the clip).

Oh and see if you make out yuh boy (that’s ME lol) in the clip… Also look and see if you can spot any other Trini Soca stars in there while you’re at at it… ;-)

If you’re wondering where Andy disappeared to, all I know for sure is he migrated years ago with his family. Recently he popped up on Youtube as the mysterious MegaMega Popstar, just in time to pay tribute to the MJ, who had just passed when Andy’s channel on Youtube appeared.

Me? I’m still here. Still breaking the rules. Still changing the game every chance I get.

Producing and arranging the music, writing the bulk of the lyrics, singing backgrounds, arranging/producing all the vocals and helping to orchestrate the stage show for the now-classic “Whoa Jean” (aka “Billie Jean”) is just one feather in my proverbial hat. There’s plenty more to come.

So… if you didn’t know the whole story before – NOW you know! Mista Vybe inna yuh dancehall again… OUT!

I had been a finalist in the International Soca Monarch several times before (2000, 1999 to name a few), but because I hadn’t been singing “Road March contending”, “Top Ten” tunes that the masses knew word for word, hardly anyone remembers those performances other than myself. In 2006, however “Ting 4 D Road” was a popular favourite not only for the Road March title, but also to do well at Soca Monarch, and so my trip to the National Stadium to compete in the Power Soca category this year was special to me and everyone else as well.

YES – I had performed “Ting 4 D Road” tons of times that Carnival already that night at all the biggest events in the country, and YES – I had shared the stage with many of my adversaries that night, having spent the season “running on” to Bunji Garlin’s & The Asylum’s stage, along with Fayann Lyons, not to mention doing countless gigs with Shurwayne Winchester (& Traffik), Iwer George, Rita Jones (& Roy Cape All Stars), Nadia Batson (& Kes The Band) and all the others…

And YES – I was coming into the Finals having outright WON the Semi-Final rounds (beating out the likes of Iwer, Fayann and many other top Soca stars in the process)…

This time, however was different. It was competition. All the gloves were off.

Having fought my way through RIDICULOUS traffic jams to get INTO the Stadium, then fought my way through uncompromising security barely getting IN to the backstage area, I was already tense to begin with.

Then, as I readied myself to perform, one mishap after the other plagued the set up for me to hit the stage…

I had spent days working with respected local director and longtime homey Nigel Thompson on a video intro, in which the plot of me being created in a laboratory by scientists who were seeking to create “The Perfect Soca Monarch Performer” was visually explained, but inexplicably that video NEVER hit the big screens above the stage.

I had asked for total darkness for the prop that would allow me entrance to the stage to be put onstage and never got it so my surprise entrance was ruined…

And to make matters worse there were some technical issues with the band backing me.

Nevertheless the show must go on, and this clip is an example of me making the best of a bad situation and doing my best to channel my intense frustration and anger at all the aforementioned negatives into an energetic (as always) performance…

Bad things happen sometimes. All we as individuals can do is remember that Energy is neither created nor destroyed – only transformed. The best thing we can do is take the negative and make a positive out of it.

I give you Mista Vybe, rolling out the most impromptu performance that earned me an admirable 6th place that night and a spot in history as a finalist in one of the best Soca Monarch Finals ever!

“Ting 4 D Road”: 2006 Soca Monarch Finals Performance! from MistaVybeWorld on Vimeo.

Big up to the backing band (Roy Cape All Stars) and extra special thanks to my riddim section Hands Of Rhythm, who not only jammed some amazing rhythms but also ventured out of the box to do dance choreography as well – something I haven’t seen an “iron section” do before or since.

Another day in my life that I cannot and will not ever forget. Fantastic Friday 2006!