Booster Shot: St. Maarten sore loser tells off soca judges

Authorities struggle with angry soca artiste

(image courtesy of sxmislandtime.com)

In 40 years of St. Maarten Carnival, Tuesday night was a Senior Soca Competition like no other in beautiful Philipsburg.  Carnival Village played host to some serious bacchanal when Ricky de Phox realized he wouldn't be in the top three.

Here's how the judges saw it:

1st - King T-mo (Winner of the 2009 Senior Soca Competition)
2nd - (it was reported as) King Tempo - 382 points 

(however, to my knowledge there was no such person in the competition, possibly King Jacko)
3rd - King Stunky - 377 points 

(Out of the Ten finalists in the competition, 4 have the title King in their sobriquet)

sxmislandtime.com is reporting that de Phox was disqualified for breaking competition rules, however, at the time of posting (4:00 am), I have not been able to confirm exactly which rule(s) he may have broken.

Just after the results were announced, Ricky de Phox got real vex. He stormed onto the stage, snatched a microphone from the head judge and expressed his "disappointment" to the crowd. More than one hundred people were at the show to witness the spectacle.


If you don't know the name Ricky de Phox, don't be too surprised if you never hear it again! In his fit of anger he announced that he will no longer be involving himself in Carnival.

That sucks...cuz with chutzpah like that, I think I'd quite enjoy writing about him again.

What can I say, people? Axes to grind...just one more reason to love Carnival!


Love and Soca,

(Nurse) Karen
http://twitter.com/nursekaren

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The Rounds: Original Square One to Release a new tune for Crop Over

Good Evening Soca Lovers, I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Big week my people! It’s carnival time in St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles and they plan to turn up the heat until May 3rd. Last night, Destra and Ziggy Ranking met Keyshia Cole for R&B meets Soca. ON Friday, it’s time for, Faye-Ann, Bunji, Bomani and the Small Axe Band to get the locals in the mood at the Senior Road March Competition.
On your the last edition of the rounds I gave you a peak at America’s upcoming Spring Carnival, so I figured it would only be fair to deliver some Summer Carnival scoop from the Eastern Caribbean.
St. Lucia’s SLU Records tells me that we definitely have not seen the last of Ricky T. He’s just signed on to a summer long U.S. performance tour that will be marketed to 30 million Americans. But the real hype out of Studio 758 is a new Lucian artist who goes by the name of ILAH Man. Irvin Ace Loctar describes him as a cross between Bunji and Sizzla, but still soca. Can’t wait to hear it mehself!
One Island down in St. Vincent, I’m starting to think that 2008 will be the year of the woman! 18-year-old Danielle Veira just released her solo carnival debut called J’ouvert. You might know Danielle from the second season of Digicel Rising Star, you know the competition that brought us Kimberly Inniss, and Kyron Baptiste? Well, jouvert has all the essentials, bass, brass and flawless vocals. Kinda takes me back to a time I’m too young to even remember. Speaking of age, Tortola’s songbird Jalena flew in to SVG today to celebrate her birthday with friends. This former Da Bhann vocalist of German ancestry is excited about the popularity of her new song Boring Flex featuring Problem Child.
Crop Over is finally back on my radar! On Wednesday the National Carnival Foundation held their press breakfast to announce a slew of changes to the festival. The most significant being a change in the route for the Kadooment Day Jump-Up. Mr. Dale attended the press launch after being commissioned to produce an official jingle called We Ready.
While all of them were enjoying free breakfast, poor Barry Chandler had to skip the bacon and eggs. The Jabae frontline vocalist told me that he’s on a strict vegetarian diet to lose a few lovable lumps in time for Crop Over.
When I was in high school, I was on a strict diet called Square One. That band literally MELTED fat with their waist -pelting rhythms. Great News! Alison Hinds, Andy “Blood” Amstrong and Oshaka will be getting together for a special reunion concert on July 26th. They were on air Thursday morning leaking the news that they will be releasing a new song together this season. Oh, and by the way Blood’s got a new album!
I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Be sure to download the podcast from SocaTherapy.com and leave me your comments at the Nurse Karen Etc blog at triple w dot mustardseeds dot net

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The Rounds: Canadian music pirates get shut down in RCMP raid

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. If you were snowed in this weekend, you might enjoy knowing what de soca people were doing on the sunny shores of Jamaica! Friday night the pre-carnival fetes continued at the Bacchanal Jamaica Mas Camp with a special performance from Kes the Band. Kes was in Toronto last month. After the show, lead singer Kees came out to lime with us in the crowd. Watch sweat nah!




Over so, the students at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus revved up their OWN carnival celebrations. One of those fetin’ students happens to be Skinny Fabulous from St. Vincent. He’s finishing a degree in - get this - MASS COMMUNICATIONS! Am I the only one who finds that funny? Anyway, he was on hand to premiere a few of his new releases for Vincy Mas 2008. Here I am with Skinny Fabulous and Mr. Vegas at Club Xcape in St. Vincent in 2006.



The other hot ticket in the Caribbean last night was WOMEN POWER in St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles. Ms. Alison Hinds and El a Kru made sure to show dem why DEY hot.

If you were paying attention last week, you’ll remember that I ended the rounds with a charge to go out and LEGALLY purchase soca music. The idea came to me after a conversation with a friend over at Homebase Entertainment in Grenada, who showed me a link to their Soca City Volume One CD, and Da Mastamind Project 3, both being ILLEGALLY sold on a Canadian website called Audiomaxx.com. This week Audiomaxx was finally brought to justice. The Winnipeg based counterfeiting operation was shut down in an RCMP raid on Wednesday after THREE years of duplicating and selling pirated CDs and DVDs. The police seized more than 200 thousand discs to be sold at a dramatic retail discount over the internet. Personally, I can’t believe the nerve of these guys. They actually took the time to superimpose their logo on the cover art to fool shoppers like you and me into believing their product was actually authentic. It is alleged that 30 per cent of all pirated CDs in Toronto were manufactured by the bandits at Audiomaxx. Again, If you WANT soca music, BUY it from a reputable source like Trinidad Tunes or iTunes.

Speaking of iTunes, Soca Therapy has a brand new podcast available free of change for soca fans everywhere. Thanks to MP studios. Now you can subscribe to Dr. Jay’s Rounds…download it your computer…and I’ll keep you up to date with your weekly dose of soca news, artiste gossip and carnival info.

I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Please text your comments to 9-3-5-9-35, or post them online at the Nurse Karen Etc blog at triple W dot Mustard Seeds dot Net. Now back to de docta!

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