Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Sec­re­tary of Youth Em­pow­er­ment Keigon De­noon is urg­ing Trini­bad artistes to use their mu­sic to pro­mote pos­i­tive mes­sages.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, De­noon said the artistes are tremen­dous­ly tal­ent­ed, but he be­lieves their con­tent should be more up­lift­ing.

De­noon said he was in agree­ment with the re­cent de­ci­sion by the To­ba­go Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion to re­strict mu­sic with vi­o­lent lyrics from the up­com­ing To­ba­go Car­ni­val.

De­noon said while the Oc­to­ber fes­ti­val is not the ide­al plat­form for such mu­sic, spaces should be pro­vid­ed for the artistes to ex­press them­selves.

“I to­tal­ly sup­port the re­moval of it from the Car­ni­val pe­ri­od, but we must al­so ad­mit, we have some tal­ent­ed young per­sons in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Trini­bad has be­come very, very pop­u­lar and as dance­hall is played in Ja­maica, we would make space for that kind of mu­sic, es­pe­cial­ly those pro­mot­ing pos­i­tiv­i­ty.”

Giv­en the mur­der rate, De­noon said the im­pact of cer­tain types of con­tent must be con­sid­ered.

“We should en­cour­age our artistes to in­flu­ence our young peo­ple with pos­i­tive mes­sages be­cause, like it or not, mu­sic does have a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on your be­hav­iour. If you at­tend events, you can see, de­pend­ing on the mu­sic, the be­hav­iour of young peo­ple change.”

How­ev­er, some Trini­bad artistes be­lieve their mu­sic is be­ing used as a scape­goat for the so­ci­etal ills.

Singer, writer and pro­duc­er Rheon El­bourne has called for a poll to let the peo­ple de­cide whether they sup­port the re­stric­tion.

“The mu­sic that we make as artistes—whether Trini­bad, so­ca, dance­hall, chut­ney—it’s for the peo­ple.

“I think they should give the peo­ple a poll and ask if they mind the mu­sic be­ing played, and if the peo­ple say they don’t want it, then that’s fine,” he said.

El­bourne, known for hits such as Build My Dreams, with over four mil­lion hits on YouTube, be­lieves all lo­cal mu­sic should be cel­e­brat­ed.

He ques­tioned the ra­tio­nale for the de­ci­sion, not­ing Trini­bad artistes per­formed in the 2025 fes­ti­val with­out in­ci­dent.

“I don’t see the rev­ellers that come to a main­ly so­ca event hear­ing one or two dance­hall play­ing on the road and say­ing, ‘You know what, now is the time for us to kill.’ That is crazy. So­ca play­ing all the time, al­lyuh play a Trini­bad and now every­body fight­ing? That does not hap­pen.”

El­bourne ar­gued Trini­bad artistes are not en­cour­ag­ing vi­o­lence but rather hold­ing up a mir­ror to so­ci­ety.

“Change the coun­try, we go get dif­fer­ent things to sing about. Ease up the cor­rup­tion; ease up the crime; stop bring­ing in guns in the port; stop bring­ing in the drugs in the port; stop op­press­ing the poor peo­ple.

“Let the coun­try live nice, and then you go hear a dif­fer­ent voice from the artistes. But if the artistes and them fac­ing that life—what you ex­pect them to sing about?”

How­ev­er, Sadi­ki De Leon, co-founder of Nice Na­tions Records, has a dif­fer­ent view, say­ing vis­i­tors come to Car­ni­val pri­mar­i­ly to en­joy so­ca mu­sic. De Leon, who sings and writes dance­hall as well as so­ca, said, “Once you hear the key word—which is car­ni­val—I be­lieve it should be about so­ca mu­sic. When it comes to the cul­ture that is Car­ni­val, it should be about so­ca.”

De Leon ap­pealed to the pub­lic to ap­pre­ci­ate the lo­cal genre so that the mu­sic can achieve in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion.