While Vincentians and Caribbean people tend to discard music seasonally after each carnival, the success of our own Kevin Lyttle proves the folly of our habit and the potential of our music.
Just about everywhere you go in major US cities these days, Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On” dominates rotation on major FM radio stations. {{more}}And with the July release of the self-titled album it seems that Kevin is just all over the place. Atlantic Records’ publicity arm seems to have pulled out all the stops. Kevin appeared on the popular “Regis and Kelly Morning TV” show, BET’s “106 & Park” where he was featured for most of the show, and this past Sunday on the “Rick Dees Top Forty” syndicated radio programme where he is dominating the charts and is expected to go to number one this weekend.
His presence in the US has hardly been limited to the radio. The New York Daily News Sunday Magazine of Sunday, August 1st, featured Kevin with a flattering photo of the Vincentian superstar where he is quoted as saying: “Most soca artists just make the music for the Caribbean audience … I wanted to take a risk and make it for the world. I took that smooth vibe of R&B that Americans love and made my intonations and enunciations clear so everyone could understand.”
But the world is yet to discover that there is a lot more where Kevin came from. That smooth soca sound has long been a distinctive feature of Vincyland’s contribution to the world of soca. Its been done by Touch, Gratitude, Becket and others in the past and more recently in the Adrian Bailey-produced tracks by Tabia, Scorpion and a host of others. It’s to be found in the monster album from HS Phactor and in so many other tracks released this year.
All it takes now is for local radio DJ’s to believe some more in the potential of our music and continue to put them into rotation -giving more prominence than usual to Vincy music.
Today we celebrate Kevin’s success. Tomorrow we look toward more persons following his footsteps.