Freelance Correspondent
Veteran calypsonian Weston “Cro Cro” Rawlins says he is prepared to pay damages as ordered by a judge to businessman Inshan Ishmael. He also says he will now be singing “jump and wave” songs to avoid controversy.
On Monday, the High Court found Rawlins defamed Ishmael in a 2023 song titled Another Sat is Outside Again. He was ordered to pay $250,000 in damages.
But on Thursday night, Rawlins poked fun at the legal predicament and even had a message for Ishmael when he performed at Point Fortin’s Come Back Home Carnival launch at the Victor Chin Kit Promenade.
His repertoire of songs included Lick Bottom African and Respect for the Fourth King.
However, in his usual way, Rawlins veered off course and continued to entertain the crowd with freestyle lyrics.
He sang: “Bunji pass me voosh in ah Lexus,
Ah say Cro Cro behave, time to sing some jump and wave,
Yuh cyah stay on the crown, let Ishmael hull he stinking… (leaving the rest for the audience to complete the lines) You singing longer than me,
You could hardly check my money,
So my fans ah telling yuh plain, me eh singing no politics again,
Ah singing jump up, jump up, whine up, whine…”
Leaving the audience hyped-up and begging for more, Cro Cro completed his set.
Backstage, Rawlins told Guardian Media his attorney told him not to say anything about the matter and he would not comment on the ruling.
However, he said, “But let me hear yuh, no comments, no comments! I would pay. The big man is the big man. I have to accept what happened dey, so ah go deal with it. Ah cyah make no jail. Ah go pay man!”
Rawlins said he was also carefully considering attending Calypso Fiesta at Skinner Park, San Fernando, today, but he felt he would get himself into trouble again.
Rawlins won the Calypso Monarch four times in 1988, 1990, 1996 and 2007.
