Inside the Caribbean Music Awards in Brooklyn

The Caribbean Music Awards was held in the heart of the Caribbean diaspora, Flatbush Brooklyn aka Little Caribbean. This pulsating event, coinciding with the New York Carnival weekend, was a spectacular display of unity, pride, and the rich Caribbean culture. We dish out the unique experiences of the artists, the nomination process, and the sheer vibrancy of this cultural evening. This episode is a tribute to the exhilarating Caribbean vibes that have left an indelible mark in the music industry.

I discuss  the highlights and provide feedback about the award show. From Beres Hammond's Male Artist of The Year Award*  to Machel Montano's Lifetime Achievement Award*, every moment was a testament to the Caribbean spirit and talent. The camaraderie among the artists, the positive energy, and the phenomenal performances - everything about this event was electric.  We also discuss the challenges with Caribbean Music Award show's production, execution for online and in-person viewing experiences  to further celebrate its potential influence.

*Awards were incorrectly noted in the podcast, corrected in the show notes. 

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:41

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Style and Vibes podcast with yours truly Mikaela. If you're new here, welcome family. If you are returning, welcome back family. In today's episode we are talking about none other than the Carribean Music Awards that recently happened in New York, brooklyn to be exact. It happened right as the New York Carnival weekend kind of kicked off. It usually happens during Labor Day leading up to the West Indian Day parade happening on Labor Day. The awards were presented by Caribbean Elite Magazine, among other sponsors, honoring Caribbean artists from reggae, dance, house, soca, kompa and a variety of music genres. The event was live streamed on YouTube, so if you were able to watch the live stream, if you couldn't attend in person, it also should be available on the TV network tempo and was hosted by Haitian hip hop artist Y Clefchaun. Now, if you remember, we previously discussed Caribbean award shows and the need for them kind of after the Grammys happened. So this is really coming as a full circle moment. I did mention that this award show was happening later in the year and really talked about the importance of us recognizing our own. So if you haven't listened to that episode, I think you should listen to that one. I'll link it in the show notes. But in this episode we're really just going to do a deep dive and of course, I want to share all my opinions about the events, successes and opportunities for the future. They have already announced that the next one is going to happen at the same time next year. So if you're planning to attend, make sure you get your tickets and your outfit ready, and I'll empty things there. If not, I'm sure they'll probably have it streaming or on TV as well, so make sure you mark your calendars. So before we get into the show, I think we really have to talk about why Brooklyn and why at that time.

Speaker 2: 2:45

As I mentioned, the West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn and all the festivities kind of leading up to that weekend like New York, and especially in the Northeast, is a really great time to celebrate Caribbean culture, because you can be outside and outdoors and this kind of really ends the year per save, and then it kind of starts with all of the different carnivals in the islands later on in the year, going into the new year. Miami Carnival again is in October, but this is really a good melting pot. I think Brooklyn in particular is really a mecca of all of the different Caribbean cultures, because there are so many different people from different islands and different backgrounds and age ranges that really dig deep in celebrating Caribbean culture. So I think it was a really good location and it was a really good idea to tack on to all of the festivities around the West Indian Day parade, because it has all of the varieties of music. The artists are already in town, so it makes it easier for them to prioritize prior to getting into their performances that they have that they're booked for. So I thought it was a really great time. The location is perfect. I think the King's Theater is in the heart of what is known as Little Caribbean, so I think it's a perfect location. It lends itself well to the timeframe and I think booking it ahead from now and letting people know is also a good thing too.

Speaker 2: 4:31

So next let's dive into the nomination process. I believe the nominations were announced earlier this year. Originally, I think the award show was supposed to take place in June during Caribbean American Heritage Month, but they moved it to this timeframe, which I think is a better timeframe, as I just mentioned. But the nominations came out pretty early this year and consumers really had the time to vote on their website. So they were promoting it on Instagram primarily. I think they might have sent a few emails, but I can't remember. But they looked at what seems to be the last few years in terms of catalog and body of work, because some of the nominations and awardees in some of the more contemporary categories were recent works, but not immediately over the last year or so. So I think that kind of came into question a little bit. But I think it's okay. Especially coming out of COVID, a lot of work was either released during that time that didn't really get to be recognized and since this was their first awards, I think it was a good thing that they kind of kicked off the way that they did and recognize the artists that they did in this manner. So if they're planning to which they are, they're already planning to extend to next year and hopefully keep it going, I think there'll be time to kind of really recognize all of the artists that definitely deserve it from the different genres of music.

Speaker 2: 6:12

What I really enjoyed is all of the artists support and even in the speeches as artists were being awarded or even came on stage to really present. For a lot of artists this was their first award show of this magnitude. So bringing together all these recognized artists into one space from one region has it happened in a really long time? I know that they kind of put out that this was the first. It definitely wasn't the first, because there have been other awards that have done some of the work. There was even a Caribbean Music Awards. There was a clip that actually resurfaced with Cecilie Tyson after this happened to kind of dispel the myth around this being the first, and it was held in Harlem at the Apollo Theater. But I think it's important to recognize that for many of these artists it is their first version of this type of experience and it was completely transparent. Dexter Daps received his first award ever, which I found it so hard to believe, which made it really that much more special for a lot of the people who attended who had not attended something like this in a really long time or they had never experienced it, especially for some of the younger artists, like Skeng and Dexter and maybe even like Atonian Singh and even some of the other artists as well, they hadn't really experienced this. So I think it's good to recognize that it's their first, as well as just recognize how they came out and support one another in the experience.

Speaker 2: 8:08

You had Spice, you had Jada Kingdom, michelle Montana, tempa. You had just so many different artists from different walks of life really coming together. Their star power was really in the building. And it was just the first one. So I really enjoyed the camaraderie among the artists. I could tell that they really enjoyed being at the award show. They were excited to be there. They were excited for everyone in the room and I'm so glad that the award ceremony itself got the support that it did from the artists. From the very beginning you saw social clips and interviews that were happening leading up to you saw them promoting it, you saw them talking about it. So I think that that was really exciting to see and it also kind of created this FOMO, I'm sure, for other artists, like how did I know about this? Why was an idea, and XYZ. So I'm sure you know the next year is going to be even more star-studded, or at least we hope so. So I really enjoyed that.

Speaker 2: 9:20

So an award show is a big, huge undertaking. There are so many different logistics that have to happen in order for it to work and move together. So there were a lot of logistical things and opportunities for them to improve. Trying to do a live stream and record for network television is really challenging because there is a sense of audio that is needed for the experience online, and then there is the experience for those who are in the audience. I've attended live taping things before and quite a few people in the crowd had also various comments as well. So I think there's an opportunity there from a production standpoint to really step up.

Speaker 2: 10:15

There were a lot of breaks in between each segment. Wyclef did an amazing job hosting, but even he was trying to buy time. There were a lot of missed cues which really made the award show much longer than it need to be. There were a lot of missed cues. You couldn't hear some of the speakers, some of the announcements didn't really happen, so the flow of it when you were there kind of felt a little disjointed. I rewatched some of the live stream. It felt a little bit better there, but I'm sure the experience live wasn't the best either and with all the breaks that they had you probably lost a few people and they were planning to go back. So I think there's a lot of opportunity from a production standpoint to get that right.

Speaker 2: 11:12

I don't know how much pre-work really went into the staging and experience, but it clearly looked like they needed a little bit more practice. The artists weren't where they were supposed to be, they couldn't read the teleprompter quite right, and I know sometimes like these things happen. It's the first year, it's the first production, so we have to give grace. However, people are really going to be looking for an improvement from a production standpoint in the next award show. A huge opportunity to improve from a creative standpoint was adding a band.

Speaker 2: 11:51

They really just had a DJ, and even the DJ could have been good, but there was just a disconnect between the music and the audience. I think that was playing so an awardee would win and their song wouldn't play, would play something from a completely different genre. So you had a Soka Award winner coming up to a reggae rhythm and vice versa, and they only had limited catalogs because they kept playing the same songs in the same rhythms in the background and that really might have to do with licensing because they were streaming it on YouTube. It might have been a licensing issue where they could only play these few songs, but for the audience there was so much time in between that we kind of got a bit disconnected from the content and there were such large gaps. So I think on the live stream they kind of paused and went to like a screen where it just showcased the Curry being a music award artwork with some music in the background. But for us there live we were just kind of sitting and kind of wondering what was happening next. So really time and management of the segments really kind of took a damper on the experience in person. I definitely would have loved to hear and see more music genres from other parts of the Caribbean. One young lady she mentioned Boo Young music. But even like having a compa band there would have been exciting and I think that they have the opportunity to expand within some of the other genres. But again, it's the first year so I think we can give them grace in that respect.

Speaker 2: 13:43

I think that the awardees for like the big awards were on point. So Barris Hammond got a Lifetime Achievement Award. Michelle got an Impact Award. I think the awards and the tributes were really good. Barris' tribute was amazing. I think that that was probably one of the stand-in ovation moments, along with Michelle Montano finally really receiving the recognition that he deserved on this platform. I love that he brought his family with him to kind of really celebrate. I think that those moments are really good for us to see as the audience members and really highlight and award people for the great work in the catalog, because we're the only ones who are really going to do that and for them it felt special to be recognized by their own.

Speaker 2: 14:40

I also really enjoyed the performances. The performances were really on point. I think that they had a lot of really good energy in the building and even on the stream, because every time someone performed, everybody was on their feet, kind of dancing, swinging and enjoying the moment. So when the performances did happen, it really ignited the crowd in an electrifying way, and to see that come to life was just so beautiful. It really looked like a sea of moving people dancing. It was so heartwarming to see all of those people really enjoying each other, and the artists were there enjoying themselves too. So I think that that's always exciting to see as well. Oh, my gosh, gang had so much energy. It looked like I looked a spring, a spring up on stage everywhere and, like Fim got that boss because he was just jumping up and down, up and down, up and down, so you can tell that all the artists were really excited to be there. So I think that that was exciting for us to see as audience members.

Speaker 2: 15:54

I also enjoyed that they brought in artists like Maya and Duggy Fresh were there to really kind of extend the family a bit Like they're not there of hip hop and R&B genres, but they have a connection to the Caribbean culture. So I would love to see more of that, like more artists who are lovers of the culture, enjoy the culture, really be engrossed in this space, because we're always kind of one or a few in their spaces. So I think it would be good to kind of even add more to that. And I think it felt really genuine. Duggy Fresh performed with Lickavishas and I thought that that was pretty exciting. I hadn't seen them do that combination in a while and it was exciting for the audience to see as well, especially because hip hop is celebrating their 50th anniversary. So those small moments actually really added to the experience as well.

Speaker 2: 16:59

All in all, I think it was a really great execution. I think, again because of the timeframe, it really worked well. When the execution was good, it was great and people enjoyed it, but when it was not, it kind of put a damper on all of the many moments that we had just experienced. But I'm really glad that all of the artists came out to support before, during and even after. They're still sharing all of their awards that they have won.

Speaker 2: 17:32

The team has done a really good job of putting together social clips to keep the extension of the excitement for the awards show going. So I think it's important to kind of keep that same energy when you're coming in next year and hopefully you know we'll start to see it grow and do more Again. Ycliffe was an amazing host. Everyone that presented was very excited to be there and excited to see it, so we just have to keep it going. So great job to the entire team. Definitely some opportunities to improve, so hopefully they do that for next year, but all in all, I think it's a really great initiative we are awarding ourselves, recognizing the great work that we've done, and I'm hoping that it will continue to expand into other genres as well. So until next time. That is it for me, lia, to my peeps.

Speaker 1: 18:30

Thanks for listening to the latest episode of the Style and Vibes podcast. If you like what you hear and I know you do share it with your friends and family. If you want more, make sure you visit stylingvibescom and follow us on our social channels, twitter and Instagram. At Styling Vibes. Until next time, lia, to my peeps.