In an exertion to proceed offering prospects and a platform for rising artistes to be observed and heard, Magnum Tonic Wine, unofficially labelled “the drink of dancehall”, in 2021 staged their to start with ‘Magnum Prime Performa’, a lyrical deal with-off competition.
Sixteen artistes clashed towards every single other each individual Thursday above 15 weeks, freestyling to ‘16 bars’ on rhythms played by a host DJ. The clearly show experienced 3 rounds, the preliminaries, semi-finals, and the finals, which observed the crowning of the Top Performa.
Soon after three months of rigorous lyrical battles and imaginative performances, King Calie, who hails from Crimson Hills, St Andrew, was topped the winner in the course of the are living show on Television Jamaica past December. “My journey has been mountainous and tests, but similarly as gratifying with the know-how and expertise it has offered. At any time considering that I made the decision audio was it, I achieved up on opposition. Mother needed me to be a lawyer, so she fought audio in the beginning,” the entertainer reported.
He had praise for the rough mentorship of ace producer and songwriter, Mikey Bennett, as very well as the recommendations from Sir Phillip Clarke all through his outstanding journey.
King Calie walked absent with a great million dollars, a tunes movie, and a tune that will be created by Romeich Entertainment.
5 Concerns With recently had a swift sit-down with the recently minted millionaire who admitted candidly that, “It took a few weeks for me to system it for it to begin to really feel true.”
1. How does it truly feel to be the 1st winner of Magnum’s Top Performa?
Very first of all, leaders lead. I am the to start with at several factors. I was a portion of the initially cohort [of the] Master’s In Home programme by Mikey Bennett up by the College of Technologies (UTech) and also the very first cohort of legislation students to at any time established foot on UTech. I have been the guinea pig so lots of moments in existence that I can’t even depend. Being Magnum’s initial Major Performa is almost nothing small of a desire. You put in the operate, and you get an prospect to showcase stated do the job, and it just functions out, and everything comes together. I am the self-proclaimed King of the proscenium – so yea, it is a good experience. I like it.
2. Why did you start off building new music?
I was striving to evade tunes for a long time. I have generally noticed myself as a footballer like Bibi Gardner and Walter Boyd and dem. But, is a large amount of things that induced me to want to do songs. My brother Dane loves to sing, but he was shy, so I would always be the just one who would be like, ‘Yea man, occur wi dweet, guy.’ So you discover that I developed a passion for the stage just by accompanying him. My older brother applied to be a part of this point known as Men In Black, where they go all around the Corporate Region to church buildings and do signal language in like black lights. I utilised to vacation with them and go from demonstrate to display. Huge up Craig McNally, he was the brain driving that whole movement. On the other hand, it was just interesting to see how men and women digested their art and the responses that they got, so that was one more nudge in the appropriate course.
3. How did you get the identify King Calie?
I was going by Shalom Calie right before. When I acquired to law faculty, I clicked up with a handful of like-minded men and women. Just one these types of human being was Jason Alliman, and when he learnt that I was accomplishing music as properly, he was usually adamant about hearing my things. At the time, I didn’t have something that was professionally recorded, but I did have a couple demos, so I permit him listen to some things, and immediately after listening to them, he was like – mi really feel like yuh fi change Shalom to King and just operate wid King Calie. He considered King Calie would have marketed what I am undertaking additional than Shalom Calie, and it rings better, suh from there I just adopted that name.
4. What was it like remaining a contestant on the Magnum Prime Performa exhibit?
Nerve-racking, really enlightening … it held me on my toes the complete time. Large up the Jussbuss group, the Magnum crew and Romeich Amusement since the degree of talent pool that they selected is indicative of the all round underground place. Magnum Top rated Performa gave me a superior location to strike the floor jogging. General it was a great working experience. I felt like an artiste in the room. From day a person, everyone is just working with you like you are that artiste. All in all, it was a good option and working experience.
5. How did it really feel to stand for your local community in that way?
My group is pricey to me. Being capable to stand for the neighborhood on that amount and remaining ready to shout from the top of the mountain, ‘Red City no pity’ and just know seh yow, individuals a hear dat it was the finest sensation for me. I consider they respect the truth that the vision is to create the community from scratch, and they showed me that they appreciated that by stepping up to the plate. I did not have to personally do a lot to start off the wheels turning on a neighborhood level.
BRAWTA
You dabble in visible arts. Notify us about this passion.
Electronic manipulation is additional my point. I take standard shots and morph them into something that would seem additional like wonderful artwork. I use typical photograph apps that can digitally manipulate a image or a video. I’ll use six or seven various apps to get a person piece performed. But when it comes out, it just about normally appears to be like good artwork to me, a thing that you would see another person paint or a little something that you would see another person sketch or a photo of one thing that is just pretty summary.