Muhammad Abu Bakr Speaks on Mas'

Mr. Bakr's Mas' Camp

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The first step in building Mas'

Staff Article
Interview Recorded: April 24, 2005
Posted: April 30, 2005

Music alone is sixty-five thousand dollars to play on the road and what about if you have two bands, and it will not even be a professional band. A DJ wants thirty five thousand dollars. So before you even think about it, you must have about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars put down for music. If you want the best, you cannot use a DJ who will breakdown, you have to avoid that. Sponsors will tell you they will sponsor you but you cannot use any other sponsor. I remember there was a time when a sponsor told me they would sponsor my band. When I met with them they told me they would sponsor twenty five thousand dollars. When the time came, it reached to five thousand. I had to go Boston to try and raise the money. What they are doing right now is stifling the culture and creating a monster. If you see five bands pass on stage, you cannot tell the difference. Showcase played Casino. From the time I say Casino it was crazy, because the amount of things I could think about in a Casino that would look good on the streets is unbelievable. It could look like the great designer Wayne Berkley put it on the road. When I looked at the Mas' it was nothing like that. They do not realize when you try to follow Poison, the people and them will go over to Poison, because you are doing the same thing that they are doing, but if you do something more creative people will stay with you. You just have to keep your culture in Mas'.

The first step in building Mas' is you have to come up with the idea. Let us go back to the same Casino. If the idea to do a Casino comes to you, you must know what it has inside of a casino. You have the gambling tables, the dancers, the cocktails and you start from there. Then you start putting together your colour scheme and your drawings and so on. Something we have changed a lot from doing is the drawings/sketches. Most people use photo types now. Sometimes you would go to an artist and you would tell him your idea and what you want, but when he starts to draw, sometimes the colours and the material he would use, you cannot get it, so it is best to let them know the particular costume you are building and the colours you want. It is better for me to build the Mas' and then get somebody to model it. People used to complain about what they saw in the drawings compare to the actual costume. When you build the Mas', you will know what you need. People are so funny sometimes; you would make a costume and might leave out a yellow and black piece, and they will tell you the same piece you left out, is the piece they liked and it is for that reason they choose to play that particular Mas'. You have to be so very careful.

I do not like what they are giving men to play Mas' in. They give you a little short satin pants, a little piece of thing, a hat with two feathers and that costs nine hundred dollars. I saw one for fourteen hundred dollars this year. I know value and I could estimate a Mas' because my thing is costume and clothing, I could make anything except stockings. Outside of making costumes I could sew anything. I sew for females, design gowns for brides, sew for grooms anything. I could tell you how much material you use to make whatever. When I estimated the costume and I saw fourteen hundred, my question was; what are you paying fourteen hundred dollars for? I always feel that if you are putting on a costume, you are supposed to have on something good. Yet a man will be glad to play in the satin shorts and straw hat because he want to be in a particular band. If we are not careful, the culture is going to die.

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