Fireman Hooper paved way for new artistes – Hypa 4000

Local Soca and Ragga Soca artiste, disc jockey and radio host Shane “Hypa 4000” Husbands has attributed the evolution of local Soca music to persons like Delroy “Fireman” Hooper, and disc jockeys like “DJ Taurus”, “DJ 20” and “DJ Sergeant Simmons”.

In an exclusive interview with SEARCHLIGHT, Hypa 4000 (the 2016 Soca Monarch) said in the days when bands like “Blacksand” and “Touch” were running the local music scene, an artiste would have found it extremely hard to record a track and get it out. “Back in the days if you were not in a band, you couldn’t go in a man studio just so…you couldn’t go there and be like you going to sing,” said Hypa 4000.

He noted all that changed when DJ Sergeant Simmons came up with a ‘bedroom studio’ that allowed artistes like Fireman Hooper to drop songs. “In 1999 is when the thing really made a flip and the DJs take over and everybody start to sing, all them things influence me.

I was young and [was] not ready to touch road, but I look at all them thing and you have to give Fireman respect for that because he come and change the game,” said Hypa 4000 who thinks that Fireman’s move into the Soca industry influenced many artistes to sing Soca as studio time was now easier to get.

Hypa 4000 said that his own move into Soca and Ragga Soca came by chance. He revealed that he was at Dougal Allen’s Megawatts Studio one day screening music when a riddim called “Knockers” started playing.

“I was like, this riddim here bad I have a song for it,” recalled Hypa 4000 who said that people in the studio told him to behave and sit down. “I went up to the mic and was like, ‘what you want girl, how you want it, real hard’ and the studio went quiet and the people in there said, ‘boy da sound good you have to record it’ so I put it and the rest in history,” said Hypa 4000.

The song was Hypa 4000’s first release “Snapshot” which was released in 2011 and propelled the then disc jockey to Soca stardom. But Hypa 4000 said in 2012, he was hit hard as not many people liked his second release and he was told that he couldn’t sing. “…and it was true then, I couldn’t sing.

I met up with Lester and he said I have to learn to sing and he explained it to me and I did learn to sing,” explained the Sion Hill resident who has done some of his best work with Lester Iroha of 4th Dimension Studio. Hypa 4000’s next hit “Show me yo wuk up,” was released in 2013 and that year he was third in the Road March Competition and a hit for Soca Monarch.

The controversial entertainer, currently embroiled in a war of words with veteran entertainer Rondy “Luta” McIntosh has since 2013 recorded songs loved by the public.

These songs include “No Behaviour”, “Too Hard”, “Lit” and “Topman Certified”. “Soca has come in long way, we now have a lot of good artistes,” said Hypa 4000 who will this year take part in National Soca Monarch competition (Saturday July 7 at Victoria Park) in both the Ragga and Soca categories.