Chromatics inside calypso with Outside Man

LIFE imitates art far more than art imitates life. Be that as it may, Richard Raj-Kumar, better known as Chromatics, was once the outside man.

Was this the motivation for his calypso? He said yes and no, but life was more the inspiration. Sunday Newsday sat down with Raj-Kumar, 37, at a Maraval restaurant to discuss his switch from being a hip-hop artiste to a calypsonian.

“I have been both. I get horn and give horn, many times,” he laughed adding that he got more than he gave.

“At the end of the day, I am telling a story, I made sure when I was writing it to tell a story. In the beginning it sounds like she is complaining, and he is not treating her right. In the end, I flip it. These things are real. I left it open for interpretation. The reason why people gravitating to the song because it is real. It happens, especially in Trinidad and especially around Carnival, people get loose.”

If you have never heard the song Outside Man, go to YouTube and enjoy the next five minutes. Now that that you are caught up, Chromatics, the only child to his mother and one of two sons to his father, said he grew up in a musical family.

The song was inspired by true events and from what he heard. There was one line that was factual which spoke of having to hide his infidelity.

Raj-Kumar said he began delving into calypso and soca seriously four years ago. He even owns a studio in El Socorro.

“I was just really experimenting with my sound trying to incorporate my style into our culture and doing calypso. First year, I wrote a song called Mapepire and another with Bunji Garlin called Verses. Very experimental songs. The year after that I found the formula with a song called Woi.”

Raj-Kumar said the formula of taking his style of hip-hop and fusing it with the rhythm of the country resulted in him evolving into a calypsonian.

“I kind of coined it new age rapso and within that you can go anywhere with the music, soca or calypso. Rapso gets a bad reputation, it is not cool when it comes to the youth, it is a powerful genre of our culture.”

He recalled his first tent experience last year when he sang Lie Down and was welcomed by the elders of the genre. Last Carnival, he auditioned and for Kaiso House and was selected. He was welcomed by those he called his peers such as Mis­tah Shak (Selvon Noel) and Sharlan Bailey and the elders like Singing Sandra (Sandra des Vignes-Millington), Brother Mudada (Alan Fortune) and Explainer (Winston Henry).

For him, moving from hip-hop to calypso was a “natural progression”.

“It was a challenge to do something new yet inherently Trinbagonian. This is not me ‘ketching a vaps.’ It is the path that I am following. If you listen to Outside Man, it is a story being told."

He recalled being told that he was a calypsonian when he sang a song called Puppet years ago. He does not want to be pigeon-holed but has always been in love with the storytelling of calypso. After he was not selected for the Calypso Monarch semifinal this year, a second consecutive time, he gave himself 24 hours to sulk and then got up and moved on.

Asked if his switch was based on financial progress, Chromatics laughed saying he made way more money in hip-hop than calypso and soca. To emphasise his point, he said he performed at 40-odd shows in one year for free just to get his music heard.

He advised younger artistes to sing music out of love. “Don’t do dated music. So music that may be considered Carnival music, I will not do that and that is why I gravitated towards calypso more than soca because it is more about life and not seasonal although now it seems to be mundane with politics.”

He added that for the music to grow, the one producing it should make music that they love and not dated music. “Just create from a place of love. Love what you do. Make music that you love.”