Cherisse Moe

In 2008, he gave women of a dark­er hue a rea­son to smile. Dark­ie, an in­fec­tious reg­gae tune, sang the prais­es of women blessed with rich­er skin tones. It was a ma­jor hit and cat­a­pult­ed Or­lan­do Oc­tave, aka D Orig­i­nal Rude­boy, in­to the lo­cal spot­light. In 2009, he fol­lowed up with the R&B sin­gle Dis­con­nect­ed and the so­ca track Bruck Out An Roll, both of which blazed the air­waves, re­ceiv­ing com­mend­able re­views.

But, even be­fore those hits, the Rio-Claro na­tive, who start­ed singing at the ten­der age of three, was mov­ing at an ac­cel­er­at­ed pace, de­ter­mined to leave his mark in the dy­nam­ic mu­sic in­dus­try. Cred­it­ing his fa­ther, Or­lan­do Oc­tave Sr, for his strong melo­di­ous vo­cals, Oc­tave has proved that he can hold his own, cap­tur­ing first place at the Prom­e­nade Sum­mer Com­pe­ti­tion back in 1999, when he was just ten-years-old.

Now, in 2010, with a big so­ca track gen­er­at­ing loads of air­play to his name, the 2004 Ju­nior So­ca Monarch champ is reap­ing the re­wards of his hard work. Speak­ing about the track, Let's Make Love, which rides the Pas­sion rid­dum, he says, "The feed­back has been fan­tas­tic. It's a song that stands out. The lyri­cal con­tent is on a next lev­el. It has that youth voice and it's more of an in­ter­na­tion­al brand."

Jack of all trades

From reg­gae to dance­hall to R&B to so­ca, Oc­tave, who now writes his own songs, is as dri­ven as they come. De­scrib­ing him­self as a "Jack of all trades," he says any­thing goes when it comes to mu­sic. The artiste, who's a part of the Mil­lion­aire fam­i­ly, found­ed by pro­mot­er-turned-artiste Makavel­li, is rid­ing a wave of pop­u­lar­i­ty this Car­ni­val sea­son, hav­ing been booked for some of the more pop­u­lar fetes, in­clud­ing WASA, Army, Brass–The Re­birth, Bazodee Fri­day and Sexy In Black.

Stay­ing ground­ed

Nev­er one to for­get where he came from, the for­mer Rio Claro Col­lege stu­dent says giv­ing back to his com­mu­ni­ty is very im­por­tant to him. "I thank the Most High, my fans and par­ents for the sup­port." He tells young artistes: "Put God first and be­lieve in your­self and have peo­ple around you who sup­port you." With big dreams for his bur­geon­ing ca­reer, in­clud­ing win­ning a Gram­my and per­form­ing on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage, the 21-year-old is do­ing his thing and putting in all the nec­es­sary work need­ed to achieve his dreams, con­fi­dent that his time to shine is on the hori­zon.