Review Chalkdust (real name: Hollis
Liverpool, Ph.D.) and Black Stalin (real name: Leroy Calliste, no
Ph.D. except in the University of Black Man Music) are currently
tied at five Calypso Monarch crowns each. No one has ever won more.
Of course Chalkie would be the undisputed champ if he’d won the 2002
Dimanche Gras show — which he should have won, and would
have won, if not for Sugar Aloes. This gets a little complicated:
Sugar might have nailed at least one, and maybe two Monarch
victories during the UNC era, if not for his relentless teasing of
PM Basdeo Panday and his wife Oma. This year, with Sugar’s beloved
PNM party (sort of) back in power, it was a given that he would win,
even though his tunes this year were not his best. In any case,
Chalkie came with two classic calypsos: From Naipaul With Shame
and Ah Lost Roy. Both can be found on this excellent
collection, which is Chalkie’s best in years. Kaiso! [MG - Caribbean
Beat] |