FOLLOWING UP ON DOWNSOUND & STING..REVIEW

Downsound’s Review & STING’s Comeback

With manager Joe Bagdanovich and Skatta Burrell in toe Downsound Artist, Motion, Toddler, Toya and Specialist, after many rehearsals it is only to give a briefing of their performances at the shows they performed.

GT Taylor’s Christmas Extravaganza held on Sunday December 25, 2011 at Independence Park in Black River St Elizabeth had over forty acts, Toya, the first from the Downsound Force to grace the stage. Dressed in a white romper and gold accessories, she reeled out a total of five songs:-Hot Like A Fire, Boss Lady, Tek A Gal Man, You A Life and Thank You Jah.  Her voice pitched high and low in order to catch up with the band; she finally recovered her performance and pulled it off.

Sting was a warm surprise as Toya did not disappoint. With the show being two hours behind, Toya sang a total of three songs: -Boss Lady, Tek A Gyal Man and You A Life. Contrary to what many expected, her performance went well, Thunda a guy who was dressed in a black suit and hat and was instructed by ”The Boss Lady” to give out the Christmas bonus that was missing from many Jamaicans this year, people could be seeing diving and stretching out their hands for the flowing cash, while the host called her Ms. Flippa Mafia .Her presence was commanding. Even I was totally caught off guard. She was not off key, not high or low pitched she called G Warren onstage, paying homage to Bounty and the fact that he brought many Artists into the business. G Warren performed well and Toya’s performance was good, all the eyes and ears that were waiting to see a terrible performance were left saying a very shy ”good work ”while people who watched Toya grow, applauded her whole heartedly as her performance was one of the strongest of the females at STING.

Toddler came onstage at the Extravaganza nice and easy, pretty comfortable onstage, a natural entertainer. He started off with ”Thank you Jah” went into it easy however when switching into his song ”God Give Me Strength” there was a well noticed stutter before he went into the song completely. The band had missed his rhythm and that seemed to have thrown him off. He gracefully ended his song, got quite a few horns tooting as this seems to be the new trend in ”forwarding” nowadays.  Even at sting the same band did not perform but the band there even forgot Landmine’s rhythm, the fact that one band has to play over twenty sets, may explain why artists are put at a disadvantage having to have to play catch up with the failed music of the band.

Specialist was last to perform from the Downsound Force at the Extravaganza and at sting

Specialist came onstage at the Extravaganza and commanded the attention of the band. His performance was” hard”. Singing, Gallist Anthem, Street Hustle and Phone Card. Sting brought out the real Specialist; let’s call him ”Hittist”. He came out fully dressed for war, fireworks in motion lyrics under his belt. For a fairly young performer he was not short on what it took to demolish the opponent Hurricane who had no lyrics to counteract.  What was also disappointing was also the fact that Hurricane looked as if he came from a day’s hard labor in a garage. The clash literally had me on the edge of my bed as ”Pretty Boy Floyd” had to get in the middle because it appeared a little too serious but remained a lyrical war.  His opponent was not a contender. Specialist has it locked. Excellent performance

The ability to literally see all the performers and single out a common denominator amongst all of them is disheartening, saddening but would be a quick fix considering… All of the artists seemed to have rehearsed to an extent but it was clear that their management /lack of management was lacking. Specialist’s outfit was obviously thought about down to the T even a coffin was bought to be a part of his costume The lack of provisions for artists plays on their self- esteem as many of them seemingly felt out of place, looking out on a crowd that were attired much better than they were. It would suffice to separate stage attire apart from regular attire and also remember that each time your audience is addressed it is somewhat of a formal affair, stage- wise. Management should be a prepared business and not one to venture in without the capital to start because it makes or breaks an artist if their presentations are poor. STING made a come-back this year and it truly shows that dancehall does not revolve around merely a few artists it is a movement that continues to evolve.

*For those who will read and comment…dis is mi likkle P.R work as unno gwine seh, will have a spot for JMG promo soon *