AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

While Trinidad and To­ba­go did not com­pete in this year’s World Cup, the coun­try’s pres­ence was rep­re­sent­ed, thanks to en­ter­tain­er Mark “The Mad Stunt­man” Quashie.

Known for his glob­al hit, “I Like to Move It,” made pop­u­lar by the Mada­gas­car film fran­chise, Quashie’s mu­si­cal ca­reer con­tin­ues to soar.

Born in Bel­mont, the tenth out of 12 chil­dren, Quashie did not have a clue what he want­ed to do with his life.

He dropped out of school think­ing that was the “right thing to do.” But that is when his fas­ci­na­tion with reg­gae mu­sic changed his life.

“Even though com­ing from Trinidad and lis­ten­ing to so­ca, grad­u­al­ly I took a lik­ing to reg­gae mu­sic,” Quashie told Guardian Me­dia.

At the age of 10, Quashie’s fam­i­ly moved to Brook­lyn, New York and was sur­round­ed by the sounds of reg­gae­ton, from his Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can broth­ers and sis­ters.

“This type of mu­sic is a whole vibe, you know. And then lis­ten­ing to that I de­cid­ed, you know, I want to do this reg­gae mu­sic. I want to take it to heart,” he said.

It be­came fit­ting that Quashie was dubbed “The Mad Stunt­man” be­cause of his dar­ing at­ti­tude, un­der­tak­ing a unique style of per­for­mance and com­po­si­tion. Quashie part­nered with dee­jay Er­ic Mo­ril­lo and mu­si­cal project, Reel 2 Re­al and re­leased I Like to Move It, in 1993, prompt­ing 3 mil­lion sold copies.

But it was on­ly in 2005, when Dream­Works Pic­tures reached out to use the sin­gle, that it be­came a big­ger hit and the of­fi­cial song of the Mada­gas­car fran­chise for over a decade.

Quashie de­scribed that ini­tial feel­ing as noth­ing short of be­ing “blown away.”

“I was shocked for the song to be used in a car­toon movie. Now the song was al­ready in oth­er movies…but I was im­pressed that Sacha Baron Co­hen with him say­ing all the words. It’s a beau­ti­ful thing.”

Many years lat­er the song is still well-recog­nised.

This is what may have prompt­ed the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) to ap­proach Quashie and in­clude him in their Be Ac­tive #BringTh­e­Moves cam­paign.

The Mad Stunt­man was one of the half-time per­for­mances in the World Cup se­mi-fi­nals to help spread the mes­sage of liv­ing healthy lives.

“When we heard the num­ber of peo­ple that would be watch­ing, over 5 bil­lion peo­ple, it was a huge ex­cite­ment for me.

“I’m al­ways hum­ble be­cause I know, once I start singing, the ef­fect is go­ing to bring out to the peo­ple.”

Many na­tion­als took to so­cial me­dia at­tribut­ing that “we’ve made it” to the World Cup stage. Proud­ly dis­play­ing his home coun­try’s na­tion­al colours, Quashie says that he re­mains in­ten­tion­al wher­ev­er he goes to rep­re­sent T&T. “It’s a world record. I am just hap­py to be that per­son that sang it from Trinidad and To­ba­go.”