Ri­car­do Drue’s fo­cus was to dom­i­nate mu­si­cal spaces both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly un­der the brand Drue World Or­der (DWO).

In Au­gust 2023 he ac­com­plished a per­son­al feat win­ning the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Road March ti­tle for the first time in a three-way tie. His plan was to con­tin­ue the mo­men­tum in 2024.

Sad­ly, his hopes for next year were cut short yes­ter­day af­ter he was found un­re­spon­sive in An­tigua.

Me­dia re­ports com­ing out of the is­land stat­ed that the so­ca artiste was rushed to the Sir Lester Bird Med­ical Cen­tre. He died while re­ceiv­ing treat­ment around noon. He was 38.

Drue is the son of for­mer tele­vi­sion per­son­al­i­ty Nico­la Bar­riteau.

He be­gan his ca­reer in his home­land of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da where he was a lead vo­cal­ist in an all-boy band, which is now de­funct.

Here in T&T, Drue was one of the front­line singers of the pop­u­lar band A Team. He al­so per­formed with Im­ij and Co and D’All Starz bands and was well known for his So­ca hits Vagabond, ID (Stamp Yuh Name) and Pro­fes­sion­al.

“At this point I don’t know what to say. The A Team band is in de­pressed mode. Ri­car­do would be missed,” said a shocked Zarin Mare­an, A Team man­ag­er.

“His last per­for­mance with us was on Sat­ur­day night at Cen­tral Bank. He was his nor­mal, en­er­getic self.”

The singer was in Car­ni­val 2024 mode with the re­leas­es of Ah Live It Here, All Night with Ova­dose and Birth­day Suit fea­tur­ing Kevon X and Psy­cho.

Just yes­ter­day morn­ing, Drue’s fi­ancée Patrice Roberts spoke on SLAM 100.5 FM, where she said that Drue was so sup­port­ive, lov­ing and car­ing. They have a daugh­ter named Lily.

“It’s been dif­fi­cult, re­la­tion­ships have its strug­gles. We are work­ing on the big day. The re­la­tion­ship is amaz­ing. It’s like watch­ing my­self in the mir­ror and see­ing two groupie in­di­vid­u­als in one space. He is a great artiste. Phe­nom­e­nal dad. Big up to Ri­car­do Drue.”

Mere hours af­ter her in­ter­view, Roberts took to In­sta­gram where she shared a video of her and Drue to­geth­er, cap­tioned with the heart-wrench­ing post: “I do any­thing to hear your voice, wake up!!”

Trib­utes pour in

Con­do­lences soon start­ed pour­ing in from thou­sands who com­ment­ed on the post in­clud­ing King of So­ca Machel Mon­tano who said, “Gosh Pat­sy my heart is feel­ing for you and the en­tire fam­i­ly! This is hard but please know that we are all here for you. My con­do­lences to you and Ri­car­do’s fam­i­ly, friends and fans.”

Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller added, “Prayers, love and light and deep­est con­do­lences to you and the fam­i­ly.”

Fay Ann Lyons said, “Con­do­lences to you and your daugh­ter. May God give you strength.”

Denise Bel­fon added, “My eyes burn­ing me ... this is so. Sis I pray for you to re­ceive the strength you need at this time, May God rap you and Lily in his lov­ing arms.”

Olatun­ji Year­wood wrote, “RIP Ri­car­do Drue, your pas­sion for so­ca mu­sic and your vi­brant spir­it touched so many lives. Your lega­cy will con­tin­ue to in­spire us all. My deep­est con­do­lences to your fam­i­ly, your fi­ancée Patrice Roberts and your chil­dren. May you rest in peace.”

Ba­jan artiste Ru­pee com­ment­ed, “Love, light, prayers of strength, un­der­stand­ing and guid­ance to you, your lit­tle princess, fam­i­ly and friends...Dex...Cham...Cu­pid...the whole team...can’t be­lieve this...so sor­ry to hear this ... love you guys!”

Ac­tor Robert Ri­ley wrote: “God bless my sis­ter. You and your fam­i­ly.”

Be­y­once’s hair­styl­ist Neal Fari­nah said, “My deep­est con­do­lences sis.”

Vin­cent­ian en­ter­tain­er Skin­ny Fab­u­lous shared his shock on his In­sta­gram page.

“The last thing I ex­pect­ed to hear on that phone this morn­ing was your pass­ing bro, you were one of the re­al­ist peo­ple I knew, swear to God. I’ll nev­er for­get the ran­dom calls you made to me ask­ing if I was okay sim­ply be­cause you felt an en­er­gy that com­pelled you to make sure I was good and let me know that you were there if I need­ed any­thing. You were kind and sin­cere bro,” he said.

“I ap­pre­ci­at­ed your help on Uber, the dai­ly knock on my door to bring meds or wa­ter or just make sure I good. How are you not here to­day bro? How? I miss you. I pray for strength for your fam­i­ly and your kids. Patrice Roberts, I am so sor­ry for your loss and please know that we are here in any way to sup­port,” he added.

Nailah Black­man al­so took to her In­sta­gram, writ­ing, “I’m ut­ter­ly con­fused and I don’t know how it’s pos­si­ble. What a great soul, pos­i­tiv­i­ty and light. I send my deep­est con­do­lences and prayers to your fam­i­ly Patrice Roberts on­ly God know why and he has a plan. May he Rest in Peace.”

Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell al­so ex­tend­ed his deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and friends of Ri­car­do Drue.

Mitchell af­firmed Drue’s con­tri­bu­tion to the lo­cal, re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al cul­tur­al sec­tors.

He said, “The so­ca fra­ter­ni­ty and in­deed the Car­ni­val com­mu­ni­ty have suf­fered a great loss with his pass­ing. His years of work as an en­ter­tain­er have un­doubt­ed­ly helped to spread the so­ca genre across the world and brought hap­pi­ness to many. He cer­tain­ly will not be for­got­ten.

“The Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts sym­pa­this­es with the fam­i­ly, friends and loved ones of Ri­car­do Drue dur­ing this time. May his soul rest in peace.”