Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The com­mu­ni­ty of Sea Lots has of­ten been la­belled a “hot spot,” and just the men­tion of its name brings up many neg­a­tive im­ages of its youth in the minds of much of the gen­er­al pub­lic.

How­ev­er, the com­mu­ni­ty is now stand­ing strong in sup­port of one of their own, who is on the road to break­ing that stereo­type.

Akhen­aton Lewis, known as Yung Bred­da, a res­i­dent of the area, is now a fi­nal­ist in the Ca­lyp­so Monarch Fi­nals on Sun­day, where he will per­form his na­tion-build­ing ca­lyp­so ti­tled We Rise.

Yung Bred­da start­ed his mu­si­cal jour­ney in the “zess” genre but has since ex­pand­ed in­to so­ca and ca­lyp­so.

This evo­lu­tion has earned him wide­spread recog­ni­tion for his ver­sa­til­i­ty and en­er­getic per­for­mances.

Yes­ter­day, Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the com­mu­ni­ty, which was elat­ed at Yung Bred­da’s suc­cess.

Leroy Lawrence, the fa­ther of Yung Bred­da’s DJ, DJ Hot­tie, said the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty was proud and that Yung Bred­da’s growth was hav­ing a pos­i­tive im­pact on the youth in the area.

“The vibes you’re giv­ing are en­cour­ag­ing a lot of the youth on the block now. In­stead of sky­lark­ing and hold­ing a firearm in their hands, they’re turn­ing to mu­sic. Mu­sic is every­thing—it’s the voice of the peo­ple. They’re man­ag­ing them­selves and tak­ing in the en­cour­age­ment. No­body is push­ing us, but we’re do­ing it on our own, and those fel­las are do­ing good for the vil­lage too,” he ex­plained.

Lawrence added, “The whole com­mu­ni­ty feels proud of him. I just say, ‘Young man, you have what it takes.’ They call our com­mu­ni­ty a ‘hot spot,’ you know, but what do you want—to just jump in­to any­thing? There are some re­al­ly good singers here, and some boys in the com­mu­ni­ty just need that push.”

Through the lanes of Sea Lots, many were beam­ing with joy, sens­ing that great things were ahead as the com­mu­ni­ty held yet an­oth­er bea­con.

Res­i­dent Bri­an De Fre­itas, who knew Yung Bred­da as a child, said, “It is a great achieve­ment for him and the com­mu­ni­ty. I am very glad for him, and I hope he reach­es even fur­ther with it. He makes Sea Lots peo­ple feel very proud and hap­py to know that we can still achieve some­thing from the vil­lage.”

In De­cem­ber last year, Yung Bred­da’s so­ca track, The Great­est Bend Over, achieved sig­nif­i­cant ac­claim, reach­ing the num­ber one spot on Ap­ple Mu­sic’s top songs chart in T&T.

Quill­beh Mar­cus not­ed that Sea Lots had al­ways pro­duced up­stand­ing cit­i­zens, high­light­ing that he could name sev­er­al in­di­vid­u­als from the com­mu­ni­ty who had achieved suc­cess.

“We have great icons in my com­mu­ni­ty. We have great ath­letes and many with good school­ing. I’ve lived in this com­mu­ni­ty for over 40 years, and I love to see the youths do the right thing,” he ex­plained.

With the ca­lyp­so fi­nals card­ed for Car­ni­val Sun­day night at the Di­manche Gras Show, the Sea Lots com­mu­ni­ty ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pates that the crown could come home through Yung Bred­da.

Don­na Sher­ry, Yung Bred­da’s neigh­bour, said, “I feel good in my heart, to be hon­est. I’m feel­ing good. I’m hap­py for him. You see, for some­one so young to start off and al­ready be reach­ing his goals, it’s im­pres­sive. Well, he hasn’t reached his goal just yet, but he’s on his way. I’m proud of him, and he’s a very re­spectable guy. Hon­est­ly, that’s what I can say about him.”

She added that he has had a very pos­i­tive im­pact on the youths in the com­mu­ni­ty and of­ten speaks to them. “He’s a pos­i­tive guy, a very pos­i­tive guy.”

She, too, is ex­cit­ed and hope­ful that he can take the crown in 2025.

“Oh Lord, I can’t even ex­press how I would feel. There would be so much joy in my heart. I would feel so hap­py, and I pray to God that he takes that throne. I’m ask­ing God to bless him and give him that bless­ing. He has al­ready come so far, but I’m ask­ing God to open that door for him. I’d be so hap­py in my heart, to be hon­est,” she stat­ed.

Yung Bred­da still lives in the Sea Lots com­mu­ni­ty with his fam­i­ly and re­mains very ac­tive, con­tin­u­ing to in­spire those around him through his mu­sic and pos­i­tive in­flu­ence.