Tag: cropover

Awaken Ultra Premium

2 Comments

I know that this review took like a week to come but, to be honest my job got in the way and then this past week’s tragic events internationally brought my spirits right down. I’m really looking forward to letting loose this Crop Over feeling some joy. It’s part of the reason I love this time of year so much. There’s an opportunity for everyone in the country to come together, feel good and temporarily find a reprieve from all the ills of the world.

That being said…I bring you this review in the name of Kadooment Jesus.

Praise Her.

I’ve been hearing about Awaken constantly from last year. Normally, I don’t do breakfast fetes because I’m a massive grump in the morning and I don’t relish the thought of an angry mob of party patrons demanding the promoters kick me out of the party. However, I took the advice of  one of my personal training clients and purchased a ticket.

Parking

I woke up around 4:30 to pouring rain and literally cursed the fact that I don’t drive a truck or SUV. There’s nothing more annoying that trying to get a small car out of a muddy area. I briefly reconsidered going back to bed and not going at all but I’d made plans with a friend to carpool. The parking didn’t turn out to be bad at all and patrons didn’t double park.

Venue

Kendal Sporting.

I’ve always found Kendal to be beautiful as a location and it didn’t disappoint. It’s very green and the clubhouse is lovely. You’d be hard pressed to make a mess of this venue. The entire layout of the fete was great and the raised dance floor in front of the stage encouraged patrons to do dixie.

Drinks

No gin! Again.

I’m really starting to think that wunna don’t want me at wunna fetes but I gine do like my Auntie Ena says and not take things personally. Therefore, as a founding member and leader of Team Bad Decisions, I chose to drink champagne, which was fantastic. According to my other friends who were there the cocktails and other spirits were good as well. For the most part, the bartenders were friendly and attentive except this  bartender chick at the champagne bar, who tried to school me on how to pronounce Moet et Chandon and then ignored my group every time we went to the bar.

Here you go boo.

 

Food

I like my belly. A lot. If I attend an all-inclusive like Awaken I expect the food quality to be superb. I was not disappointed at all! Bar Cutters and Caribbean Villa Chefs by Dane Saddler provided a wide array of traditional Bajan and  continental breakfast foods that had patrons waiting patiently in long lines, especially at the roasted breadfruit station, which was done by Strong Foods.

I love when parties showcase local talents and fare. I’m so tired of attending parties where doubles, corn soup and bake and shark are offered exclusively.

Vibes

From my previous posts,you can tell I have nothing but the utmost respect for Grynner. He is legendary. However, the legend seems tired and his performance was lackluster. Lots of people stood around, talked and drank during his performance.


Don Trent. Meh. The boy can sing but he didn’t bring much hype to the fete at all.

DJ Puffy came on and sent the crowd wild by playing the first bashment soca I heard since I arrived around 5:30 at the party.

The party got even more hype when the newly crowned Bashment Soca King Stiffy came on and sang almost all of his discography.

Stiffy!!

Despite the fact that the police threatened to shut down the fete an hour prior to the scheduled finish they didn’t and patrons carried on partying in the blazing hot sun.


On leaving the venue, the door staff gifted patrons with branded souvenir bottles of rum punch. I thought that was a nice touch.


Well done to the guys at Brewster’s Road Crew. The party was great. I’ll definitely be attending next year.

 

*Due to some stuff I’ve been hearing and direct questions I’d just like to say I am affiliated with no band or business for Crop Over. I’m just a complete Crop Over lover who runs  Juck Down: The Crop Over Bootcamp, which helps people to improve their fitness to do dixie on the road during the season (and yes that is a complete and shameless plug)*

 

Krave Band Launch Bim Edition

Leave a comment

Last week I discovered that Krave would be doing a Barbados launch of their band after having launched 3 weeks ago in New York. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn’t attend that band launch because I have not yet won (positive thinking every time) the lottery to fly around attending band launches.  I called up a friend and we met some people there and attended the launch.

 

Parking

The parking was adequate but the launch was in Bridgetown so I’m unsure if to give Krave kudos for this.

Venue

Daquairi Beach Bar. Sand, more sand and breeze. I mean you can’t go wrong with a beach location.

Drinks

No gin! Lol.

Seriously, the drinks were good. The bartenders were quite attentive and let you taste the drinks before you paid to see if you liked the drink; but maybe that’s because there weren’t many people there.

Vibes

My face most of the night

The music was really good until the DJ decided to switch genres and play a mix of dancehall and hip hop. Despite the music being good there were no vibes at all. People were standing around waiting to see the costumes I suppose. I was dancing because…well…I had some Johnny Walker Black in me but even that didn’t help after a while because the wait for the costumes was so damn long.

Presentation of costumes

At 1:06 am the costumes came out.

Well …the Foreday morning costumes for Klymaxx came out. I’m from the school of thought that Foreday morning launches and costumes are unnecessary. I mean, it was cute Monday wear but it didn’t move me.

Next came the Krave costumes. This was the only high point of the night (outside of the Johnny Walker Black) for me. Krave’s theme this year is Burlesque and the costumes certainly reflected that. Krave is known for its’ extravagant costumes and they did not miss the mark at all. Even the male costumes were on point with one section bringing that wow factor for the guys.

Tracy Boyce ( designer of the band) wearing Encore’s individual costume

 

Russian Roulette.

Striptease Individual Costume

Exposé Individual costume

 Kudos to Tracy Boyce yuh costumes do de dawg ma’am!

Models

This launch did not feature the usual non-Bajan Krave vixens. What I saw was a stunning mix of local and foreign beauties. The models really sold that costume and the vibe (that was lacking from the entire launch).

 

This review was initially one sentence because I was annoyed by the wait and the lackluster vibe in the fete; but in life yuh gotta be nice and ting.

*Due to some stuff I’ve been hearing and direct questions I’d just like to say I am affiliated with no band or business for Crop Over. I’m just a complete Crop Over lover who runs  Juck Down: The Crop Over Bootcamp, which helps people to improve their fitness to do dixie on the road during the season (and yes that is a complete and shameless plug)*

Baje International Band Launch 2016

3 Comments

I’ve been participating in Crop Over since I was 3 years old in some form or fashion. My second time participating in Grand Kadooment, at age 16, was with Baje International in 1999. Marcia Chandler designed the costumes and I jumped in the Rasta colours section ( I refuse to show a pic of how tragic I was at age 16). I took $165 out of the grand $250 a week I made as an intern at an insurance company and my friend Tammi and I signed up for Baje. On the morning, my granny found out I was wearing a bikini and not a whole piece and nearly had a conniption. In the end,I was allowed to go on the road since it was my money spent and not anyone else’s. I had one of the best Kadooments of my life that day.

If you’ve reached this far you’re probably like “Sooo she gine ever review the blinking launch?” I said this to say that I always have high expectations of Baje. In the past 17 years, I’ve only not jumped with them twice and every time except the last I had a blast. That being said let’s dive into the review.

Parking

The parking was definitely a high point of the launch. There was plenty of security, the area was well lit and there wasn’t any double parking or anything of the sort.

Venue

It was ok. I mean meh. I can’t say that I hated it or that I loved it.

Drinks

They had gin! So on the strength of that alone I wish I could tell you that all was well on the drinks front; but alas, the drinks were weak.  Or maybe I have more rum bibber in me than I previously thought.

Vibes


Lord, there were no vibes. The DJs tried their best. The music was good but some extra element was missing from the event. I think I will go ahead and blame this one on the crowd. People were just dead. Clearly interested in seeing the costumes and going home. There was a lot of people talking with one another but no dancing or partying going on.

Presentation of costumes

The theme of the band is “Neo: A New Day”. I was actually really excited about this theme. In the days leading up to the launch, I was picturing metallics, leather-like materials and  some kind of futuristic theme.

The emcees for the night Salt and Nikita came on stage around 11 (the launch started at 7…) and tried to hype up the crowd for the costumes. The crowd apparently was having none of that.

Salt left the stage and Nikita displayed her excellent  vocals with some dancers in the background.

Ok.

Then came some ballerina chicks who ended up brucking out and the first costume came on stage. There were violinists and a fire dancer.

Look man, at this point I felt a little deflated. Now, I’m sure that could be due to my interpretation of the theme, but nonetheless, I felt deflated. The costumes were pretty costumes but they were just that, pretty. There wasn’t a wow factor and there was no cohesiveness between the sections presented and the theme.

However, one section caught my eye and if I decide to jump with Baje then definitely I’d try my hardest for the Limerz Cruise section.

This section would pop on anyone

As is standard for Baje the costumes were very well made and the craftsmanship was on point. They will hold up well on the road and can be kept for souvenirs after the fact ( I still have Baje costumes from 2009 that are intact…and I does get on stink on the road).

 

 

 

 

There wasn’t much offering for the men. Standard boardshorts with sparkly bits. The male section was disappointing, not because of the models but whoever came up with that god awful boy band choreography. I feel like I was at a bad rap concert circa 1999.

Yes, the male costumes were choreographed to rap music. Sorry, this is Crop Over. Soca please.

Bleh.

You can see all of  the costumes here.

Models

There was definitely more color diversity this year and all of the models, both male and female, were gorgeous. However, everyone modelled the costumes like they were on a high fashion runway. I know this has become standard for Crop Over launches but I like when the models bring that extra vibe that makes you feel like “Yeah I could see myself wukkin up and going on the road with this band”.

I didn’t get that at all last night.

All in all the Baje launch was like good sex, but not fantastic sex, the type where you expected more, didn’t receive it; but still don’t feel like you completely wasted your time and energy.

 

 

*Due to some stuff I’ve been hearing and direct questions I’d just like to say I am affiliated with no band or business for Crop Over. I’m just a complete Crop Over lover who runs  Juck Down: The Crop Over Bootcamp, which helps people to improve their fitness to do dixie on the road during the season (and yes that is a complete and shameless plug)*

 

 

 

Tune of the week 

Leave a comment

I hope to highlight a new tune every week that I love. Hopefully de artistes don’t form the fool and shame me into having a tune of the month.
Peter Ram aka Ramma aka De Yella African dropped his first song “Good Morning” for 2016 and I am already doing dixie to it.

My Top 5 Bajan Soca Songs

Leave a comment

This morning I was idling on my bed after my morning workout and shower when a friend sent me a WhatsApp message. I opened the phone and all I saw was “Peter Ram got song of the year again”. I actually scoffed at the message . I scoffed, not because I don’t like Peter Ram but I’m just that kind of person that has to experience things for herself. I tuned into Hott 95.3 FM to listen.

DE TING SWEET!! OH GOD IT SWEET.

I leaned to the right and did my customary soca lunge with a slow juck down. I get on bad de whole time.

After the song was done I started thinking about Bajan soca and decided to do a list of my top 5 favorite Bajan soca songs. I cant even list them in order because all rank at #1 for me.

Bobo has to be the most underrated Bajan soca artist. I ainno if he foop somebody woman but there was a couple of years where de man was producing the best songs every year bar none yet couldn’t get any airplay at all.

Not only is Grynner “The Ugly Man” he is the grandfather of Bajan Road March tunes, and has won the title an unprecedented 6 times. He was a child hood favorite and he still delights to this day.

Lil Rick is the quintessential Bajan and I believe he should be knighted. The first 5 seconds of Hard Wine is the bashiest, dibbiest of any soca song ever. If Grynner defined the 80s for me, Lil Rick defined the noughties (yuh does say that? cuz I ain really know. The decade after the year 2000 is wha I mean).

If you’re like me and aint bout de chipping and yuppie wines in a fete or Kadooment Day this is the song for you. Even though this song is barely a year old  it became an instant favorite for me. I remember when he debuted it at Elevate last year. Bechrist, I never see nuttin so yet. After initially clutching my pearls and then bending down I looked left and right and realize that all the girls were bashing out. Sometimes I’m at work and I hear this song and it’s a struggle not to juck right down.

 

Turnnn aroundddd fahhhh big redddddd.

I’m sure my friends on social media are sick of me posting this. Since this has been released I’ve posted about this at least 3 times every year. This song can never die. If you’re into bashment soca you can’t deny that this is one of the bashiest things to ever come out of Bim.

I gine here and bash out for the rest of Friday and then hit Baje launch tonight.