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Brother Valentino: Life is a stage
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Staff Article
Interview Recorded: June 12, 2005
Posted: July 07, 2005
A good kaiso is a good kaiso
There are some lawyers who have the name and they would put pen to paper. They will give someone a song to sing, and you will find that they would gain more recognition than you because of the circles they might be in; they might know the judges and so on. It is a whole corrupted circle. When you compare that to the man who would compose his own thing and sing it as well, it is a real disadvantage. That is the kind of thing that is happening today. Most of the Calypsos you might hear that sounds good would more or less be written by one of those guys. That is where it has reached now. At the end of the day he is writing a song for 'Mighty X' and they have a contract, so at the end of the week, a certain percentage of your salary is theirs. If there are any competitions, they will have all their things worked out. They see a business in it too. So regardless if they are lawyers or whatever, everybody is taking a bite in the cherry, and they leave the real Calypsonians who eat, sleep and drink the thing, at a disadvantage. Those guys are mercenaries.
Some guys write for a lot of different artistes. There is this Pan competition, and you might find a guy will write about four or five pan tunes for different artistes. I do not know if they pay for airspace, but they are entitled to that airplay, and that airplay is royalty. If you write different songs for five people, at the end of the day, you are the one who will be collecting the mechanical rights because you are the one who is writing the songs. The singer only gets performing rights. The mechanical rights are where the big pay comes in. All these guys and them are doing that now, and collecting big money. Also, the artistes who they write for, if they do any live performances or any competitions they will get from it as well. I am man enough to accept that a good Calypso is a good Calypso. If they come up with a good Calypso, I will appreciate it and I will applaud it. In any language in Trinidad and Tobago, a good kaiso is a good kaiso. I had a song about how Calypso competition should be restricted to people who write and sing. I sang it in the tent and certain Calypsonians who really depend on writers, didn't take too kindly to it. I tried to really define that and tried to put forward an argument even to the judges, but they didn't like it. They have to start to reorganize, change the rules, and level the playing field. Right now the playing field is not level.
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