St George’s ‘skanked sweet’ by Chronixx

Music and the arts are a big part of life as a Georgian. No more was this more evident than when Jamaican reggae singer Jamar “Chronixx” McNaughton visited St George’s College, Tenth Street, Barataria, the day before his One Heart concert at Skinner Park, San Fernando.

The students backed up the popular singer, singing along with him to three of his tracks, among them Skankin’ Sweet.

Newsday live-streamed the event through our Facebook page.

Chronixx urged the students to be a part of the wider human community, saying, “We are the only hope for humanity right now. The single thing that would happen without us is that life would cease to exist.

“There are so many great people in the world even amongst us today in Trinidad...We have to become more than just students of St George’s College and we have to be more than just children of our parents, and we have to be more than just members of our clubs. We have to become great human beings, which means we strive primarily to nurture humanity.”

His words drew loud cheers and applause from the eager school population. The students who were allowed to perform with him ended up in tears.

Before Chronixx arrived at around 11.30 am, students rehearsed Bruno Mars’ Treasure, to which some of their peers danced and sang.

James Sammy, the school’s principal, told Newsday music and the arts were important to the school because, through getting its students involved in the arts, it has no disciplinary problems.

Sammy credits the school having won in every category in Sanfest to its strong emphasis on the music and the creative arts.

“We are the only school that offers A-level music continuously for the last ten years. We have students who graduated from our music programme and have careers in music,” Sammy said. Aaron “Voice” St Louis, Erphaan Alves, Heather Headley and Osei David are among its alumni.

Sammy himself appeared in a Chronixx video playing the saxophone.

Chronixx will perform tonight at Skinner Park, San Fernando. The concert will also feature Freetown Collective, Marlon Asher, Prophet Benjamin and Walshy Fire of Major Lazer.