KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

“Ah sure ah out­side with

meh girls dis sum­mer

Yuh doh have a ring then

yuh doh have a mis­ter

Hands up, leh me see yuh fin­ger

Up up, leh me see yuh fin­ger.”

La­dy La­va’s provoca­tive lyrics have be­come an an­them for women. A mes­sage de­liv­ered through a non-tra­di­tion­al for­mat with the cat­a­lyst be­ing the grow­ing genre of zess mu­sic with its raw, un­apolo­getic en­er­gy.

It’s a dance­hall genre cre­at­ed in the ghet­tos of T&T that car­ries a free-up-your­self vibe. A genre that has re­ceived both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive feed­back lo­cal­ly, re­gion­al­ly, and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.

“I be­lieve that mu­sic is a form of ex­pres­sion and every­one is en­ti­tled to their opin­ion,” she said. “For me, I do not have any time to fo­cus on any­thing that is neg­a­tive. I am fo­cused on growth and de­vel­op­ment, and my con­tri­bu­tion to the genre is an in­di­ca­tion of that.”

The hum­ble, out­go­ing en­ter­tain­er whose re­al name is Ke­sha Re­bec­ca Har­ris start­ed per­form­ing in 2011. She ac­tu­al­ly broke in­to the spot­light in 2017 with the re­leas­es “If You Beat It Keep It A Se­cret” and “Tail Light”, but it was her 2024 Sum­mer re­lease, “Ring Fin­ger” that keeps on buzzing.

“Fol­low­ing the re­lease of the song, the feed­back has been great. I am hap­py that the song res­onates with so many peo­ple,” she said. Peo­ple like Amer­i­can rap­per Car­di B shared a sto­ry singing “Ring Fin­ger” and promised to show up at La­dy La­va’s per­for­mance.

Car­di B stayed true to her word and not on­ly at­tend­ed but al­so took the stage with La­dy La­va at the event held in Brook­lyn, New York. “She was ex­treme­ly sweet and sin­cere, and that ex­pe­ri­ence is some­thing I hold close to my heart,” La­dy La­va said.

“We had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to chat and feed off each oth­er’s en­er­gy, which will for­ev­er be mem­o­rable. One thing I must recog­nise is that Car­di came to my show to show me love; she showed up at an event that had noth­ing to do with her, and I know for a fact that the costs for some­one like her to leave her house are high. Her show­ing up means a lot to me, and I love and re­spect her even more.”

For the Cunu­pia moth­er of one, it has been a jour­ney, one that in­cludes be­ing a pop­u­lar ven­dor on the streets of Ch­agua­nas. “Every­thing that I have been able to achieve is through hard work and ded­i­ca­tion,” she said.

“I am nev­er fo­cused on the naysay­ers. There were peo­ple who saw me sell­ing in Ch­agua­nas and thought that it was be­neath them and al­so felt that I could have done bet­ter. Lit­tle did they know I was do­ing bet­ter; ac­tu­al­ly, I was do­ing great for my­self. I left what many would con­sid­er a sta­ble job to ‘hus­tle’, and it was some­thing that I en­joyed do­ing. I was and still am a great sales­per­son and mar­keter—it can be heard in my mu­sic. Work­ing for my­self al­so gave me the flex­i­bil­i­ty to fo­cus on oth­er in­ter­ests, par­tic­u­lar­ly my mu­sic,” she added.

“Of course, it kept me ground­ed, and it as­sist­ed me tremen­dous­ly in my growth as an adult and busi­ness­woman.”

For Car­ni­val 2025, La­dy La­va is ven­tur­ing in­to the world of so­ca with sev­er­al re­leas­es and has al­ready dropped “No Stand­ing Up”, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Ja­maican dance­hall artiste Spice.

“I am al­ways cre­at­ing mu­sic; there are a few oth­er songs that are out, which are “Ms Lucy”, “Flow­ers” with Viking Ding Dong, “Heavy Rollers”, “Make It Clap” with Nes­sa Prep­py, and “Nasty” with Azarayah,” she added.

“I am a lyri­cist, and those who are fa­mil­iar with me and my mu­sic are al­ready aware of this, but I al­so fo­cus on mak­ing sure that my lyrics are un­der­stood. When I am per­form­ing, I love in­ter­act­ing with the au­di­ence and show­cas­ing my ver­sa­til­i­ty. I want au­di­ences who are un­fa­mil­iar with me to recog­nise that my per­for­mance is an ex­pe­ri­ence.”

La­dy La­va is full of grat­i­tude and hap­py to say that she is booked and busy through­out 2025.

“Out­side of T&T’s Car­ni­val, I would al­so be trav­el­ling through­out the Caribbean, USA, and Eu­rope. Her ad­vice to oth­er fe­male artistes out there: “Be your­self, live in your truth, and every­thing else will fol­low.”