ENTERTAINMENT
DJ Steezy. Audiomack Caribbean
Caribbean Life, January 15-21, 2021 29
By Nelson A. King
Streaming wonderkind Audiomack
on Jan. 7 invaded Haiti during its
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm Audiomack Hour,
partnering with Radio Tele Eclair,
DJ Steezy and DJ Stakz, in featuring
local artists and music producers.
Marie Driven, the Brooklyn-based,
Haitian-American entertainment
guru, said Audiomack was in her
French-speaking Caribbean homeland
“that bred diverse musical talents
all over the world, such as Wyclef
Jean, Future, 21 Savage, Jennaske,
Kodak Black, 21 Savage, Michel Martelly,
Martha Jean Claude, and many
more music artists.”
Driven, managing partner of the
entertainment company, Playbook-
MG, said Tanya Lawson, the director
of reggae and Afrobeats at Audiomack,
has “made it a priority to
ensure that Haiti and the rest of the
islands have the awareness needed to
continue to produce quality talent.”
Driven noted that sub-Creole communities
in other countries, particularly
in New Orleans and New
York City in the United States, have
pushed “the presence and success of
artists in the Haitian music industry
to the mainstream.
“They help give presence to popular
Haitian music genres, such as
Kompa, Gouyad, Rasin, Mini Jazz
and Zouk-Love, to new fans of different
cultures,” she said. “Kompa,
in particular, is the number one pop
style and often the most played genre
in the country. It’s often sung in
Haitian Creole and played in a slow
Continued on Page 30
Haitian artist, Regine Romain. Pavan
Carter
By Nelson A. King
A Brooklyn-based, Haitian-American
artist, educator, visual anthropologist
and racial equity coach has produced a
mixed-media art project embracing the
active living spiral of Black identity and
culture through “Vodou Roots.”
Régine Romain said “Vodou Roots”
also remembers “who we were and are
as people of African descent living in
the Americas.
“This racial justice work is an act of
resistance, memory, cultural recovery
Continued on Page 30
By Nelson A. King
Grenada’s pre-eminent calypsonian,
King Ajamu, is urging nationals to
show compassion amid the COVID-19
pandemic.
In a recently-released video, “Let
Compassion Reign,” Ajamu, a former
perennial Grenadian calypso monarch,
collaborated with 25 other Grenadian
artists in a masterful production that
has received rave reviews and is being
featured as a promotional video for Grenada’s
independence.
“I think this project is the most
significant project of my entire career,
because of the situation the world is
facing right now, with this global pandemic,
and the collective effort from all
the players to get this video done even
when our country was on mandatory
Continued on Page 30
FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT, GO TO CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM/ENTERTAINMENT
‘Vodou Roots’
King Ajamu lets
‘Compassion Reign’
HOT AT
HAITI!
Audiomack Hour brings the buzz
/ENTERTAINMENT
