The genre-less King Thayo

Thayo “King Thayo” Ovid's music is not to be put in a box nor wrapped tightly in labels. In fact, he sees himself as "genre-less." The US-born, TT-raised artiste recently released an EP and album. He grew up in St Augustine and Santa Rosa Heights, Arima.

The EP Bad Mind was released on September 25 and the album Afro Meets King was released on October 30.

Music has always been a part of King Thayo’s life. His father, Ainsworth Ovid, was a jazz musician and played in a few bands, he said. His father was a keyboardist and an arranger.

But his introduction to the music industry came when he began deejaying with his cousins, Maurice and Azi Hoyte in 1997.

At 20, he left TT and went to the US on a football scholarship at New Jersey City University.

His website said while playing collegiate football, he was injured and was off the field for some time. He was injured in his first seven games, was sidelined and lost the scholarship.

He then went to his grandmother in California and spent a year there where, “the music really hit.”

Following his musical dream, he enrolled at Full Sail University, Orlando, Florida, where he studied recording arts.

Growing up, he listened to a lot of different genres of music and he’d often hear musicians like Patti La Belle and Nat King Cole.

Bob Marley, Sizzla and particularly, Tupac Shakur are his musical heroes. He particularly admired Shakur’s love for his culture and people which later played a major role in his life.

He returned to TT in 2007, after a heartbreak and collaborated with Studio 53 headed by Kwasi Robinson. He then worked on riddims with artistes like King David, Isasha and the late Million Voice among others.

Throughout his career he has shared the same stage with Queen Omega, Pato Banton Mighty Diamonds, Eek A Mouse, Kymani Marley, Ras Attitude, Queen Ifrica, Anthony B, Messenjah Selah, Rootz Underground, Twista, Rick Ross, Kirko Bangz, The Rangers, New Boyz and late rapper, Nipsey Hussle.

He also opened for American rapper and songwriter, Macklemore at Us Cellular Celebrates 30 Years In Medford, Oregon, The Macklemore Concert. This later led to him being booked for a performance on popular US reality TV series, Dancing With the Stars.

His website said he performed at last year’s Portland Hip Hop Festival, a two-part unplugged series at the Belle Fiore Winery.

Although when King Thayo first returned to TT it was a problem to have his music played on the radio, he is happy to see the growth of other genres of music in TT.

King Thayo was in Portland and people would come up to him at a show and ask him if he is from TT, saying they heard this guy called Trini Bad Music.

“We are finally getting somewhere and I am happy to see guys like Jahllano doing mighty, mighty things out here,” he added.

From 2018 to now, he has possibly recorded over 200 tracks, he said. Some of which appear on Bad Mind.

“Last year we were looking to push out project after project. I am a spiritual person and I deal with energy and we decided to push it back…

“It was my first EP. I released a bunch of singles before but it was my first body of work,” he said.

It has seven songs and speaks to freeing one’s self from “bad-mindedness.” He described it as being dark but also enlightening, with one of his favourite tracks, Passionate talking about being passionate about life and music.

“I describe word for word what I am going through. What I see people going through in Passionate. In the last verse, I manifest my future and exactly where I am going to be in the music in the business.”

The EP’s Boat to Babylon was applicable to the Black Lives Matter movement and picked up by the movement in Portland. He was then booked for gigs on Juneteenth, June 19. Juneteenth is known as the US’ Freedom Day or Emancipation Day and celebrates the emancipation of the enslaved in the US.

His album Afro Meets King meets is “basically a zumba class” and has “good, good, good vibes.” The album has 13 tracks on it.

Songs like African Cutie celebrate the melanin in people.

While Life is Good is a “song to heal the world.”

“When I watch what is going on the whole world is tense from covid19 to voting to racial matters,” he said.

In the future, he sees himself as a multiple Grammy-winning artiste and leaving a legacy where, “my family and generations after me would be comfortable on the earth.”

Thayo and his team of Leonardo Castro and Jeron Wilson from TT are pushing forward with that.

“We know that we have the music, we have the image and we are working on the marketing,” he said.