IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

PIRATES' HITS
Published on: 6/15/05.

by ROY R. MORRIS



CALYPSONIANS hoping for bumper sales this Crop-Over season are being robbed by pirates yet again.

Their music is turning up on an Internet website, in most instances within hours of being launched, but in a handful of cases even before being released to local consumers. And new songs are being added daily.

Yesterday, every calypsonian contacted denied giving permission to reproduce their music to the operators of the site.

The website, which provides no information about its operators and nothing on how to contact those connected, has the latest music from "A" [Alison Hinds – Roll] to "Y" [Your Furry Red Friend – Wiggle Wiggle] of Crop-Over 2005, and by just signing up free of cost anyone surfing the site can download the music.

The discovery has left artistes stumped. Li'l Rick, who released three songs on Saturday afternoon and got rave reviews for one called Do Fuh Do, was speechless when told that same song was available on the Internet the same evening.

"That can't be right," Rick told the DAILY NATION. "Just three people had that song after I released it . . . . Not even Peter Coppin who produced it had a copy because he handed me the master and went straight to Trinidad."

Producer Deepu Panjwani, of Music N' Echo, was just as shocked when he discovered Lesir, an uptempo number by Kimberly Inniss, was available on the website. It had not even been released in Barbados yet, he said, even though the artiste recently took it to St Vincent.

He said the song would have cost the artiste about $2 500 to produce and it was most unfortunate that someone else could come along and benefit from it, before the people who invested in it.

One of the most popular local artistes so far this season has been Peter Ram with Fire Controller, Dance Instructions and Don't Be Sheep – which was released only last Friday. All three were available on the website by Saturday morning.

"People were calling me from New York telling me how hot de song [Sheep] was and I couldn't understand why. Now I understand. . . but I don't hurt my head wid dem things; people gine always find a way," he said.

Even when the CD was not available to the public, he said, and the radio DJs talked through a portion of the song, the pirates only needed one clean verse and a chorus and they then cut and spliced to produce a mix that people would buy.

"All I can say is poor people will find a way to survive," Ram said.

Another song available on the site was Injection by Alfred De Doc Sparman, who said he was not even aware of the website. Even worse, he said, was that his work was not available on CD.

"A number of people asked me about putting it on their CDs but I figured I would just let it run for a little while on the radio and then decide. I never gave it to anyone, so I don't understand how any website could have it," Sparman said.

Another popular 2005 Crop-Over track that had only been made available to local radio stations was Captain Sawyer's Big, Fat 'n' Thick, which was to be released on MADD's album. Yesterday, Madd's Peter Boyce had no immediate idea how they would respond.

Sawyer, real name Stephen Grant, was equally disturbed, noting he had spent more than $2 000 on the song.

"How do we fight this? I really don't know right now," Boyce said.

Also available on the site up to yesterday evening were: Bashment Menz's Packing, Blood's Just Bring It, Contone's Fire In De Hole, Jabae's Wopatie [remake of Romeo's Brother Fuzzy] and We Dey Oh, Linskee's You Payin Fuh Me, Mayja Shackie's Tulips, Cocky Attitude and Wuh Bout U, Mikey's Dat Time Again
, Mr Dale's One Hand, Natahlee's Colours, Popsicle's Caribbean Queen, Party Time and It's Crop-Over, Rameses Browne's Lean Back featuring Malcolm X and Styles P, Square Roots' Numero Uno and The Key, The Outpatients' Pooch Back and Get Wuk, and Edwin Yearwood's Weekend.


roymorris@nationnews.com

Haaww haaw, you think they mean island mix?

http://www.nationnews.com/life/284900855937423.php

dats what i was thinkin, but Rummys a good girl, she hook us up right and PROPER, no pirate ting bout here

You can't download off Imix.

__________________
t-shirts & more: www.cafepress.com/n00ntime | www.wiculture.spreadshirt.com

Apparently yes you can, if you know what you are doing…….

And this is probably the site.

I remember noting in a post that I was surprised when some songs dat release de moorning on hott was up in here by de evening.

i'm not a dj or sound engineer, but if they r referring to this site or toronto-lime, the sound quality of the music is pretty poor since most of the music is in the wma/asf format recorded at a 20 kbps/16khz level. not a good quality sound 2 really burn on a mix cd and go selling in the streets even if it were cleaned up. a 128kpbs or higher w/ a 44.1khz would definitely be a problem....even at a rate of 96kbps. just 1 aspect of the big picture, but i guess the audio engineers on imix could input more.

salty

Certain artistes have given me their music to put up, as well as producers & managers. I was asked by one how did I get it & explained it was from the artiste friend. I said I would take the song down if he wanted, but that was not an issue after explaining. Since people do not seem to realise the site does not leave them at even close to cd-quality(like Salty said), which is the reason why many people ASK for the music to be put up, then I will take down some of the songs.

If this is the site the contact information for the administration is readily available. Anyone that knows what they are doing to the extent that they are capable of downloading anything from this site (songs are not readily downloadable) would also know that as lordsalt mentioned the quality is very poor and not suitable for reproduction.

we in de news again

Yeah...this time for the opposite thing.

the sad thing is.... alot of these artists dont understand how much P.R. dem get off of imix. imix gains nothing from dis shite... dem ain selling shite. but yuh know wuh .. i'll add some clarifying comments later

Even if you know what you're doing the quaility of sound from this site and torontolime if downloaded, is only good enough for review/preview purposes.

It is my opinion that artist should be thankful that there are sites like these to expose the music to not only persons outside of the Caribbean, but locals as well, seeing that only the FODs (Friends Of Dejays) music get good rotation on the airwaves.

Now persons coming in from NY and Canada are more familiar with the music when they get here for the festival.

this is what i was saying... and actually if you ask me the article is borerline defamatory... calling imix pirates. Anyway many of the artiste who are in the a/v room would only get expose outside of barbados on forums such as islandmix. No one on here is selling their music, no one is downloading it to go play in a fete, actually i think people who are not going cropover may be even more encouraged to either buy the music or go cropover itself by hearing the music and reading the post bigging up the music.

Again journalist does really facking piss me off... any idiot can find out who a website is registered to. I wondered if Mr. Morris did his home work before writing his rubbish.

From the phone call I just received that is the opinion of some of the very artistes mentioned in the article...

They just looking to complain. That is all.

I think one advantage that Trini artistes have other Bajan or others is that they are willing to get their music out there to be heard. What is the sense of holding on to it until a week or two before Kadooment? A lot of the US based DJs I know don't play tunes before CO because they don't have them nor any exposure to them. Oh well.

i cyan tell you the about of emails , im's and phone calls i get asking wuh de people feel bout dem tunes... bajans boy always looking fah shite...