Ian Wa­son

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Black Star and Or­lan­do Oc­tave are among the sev­en con­tes­tants who will op­pose reign­ing cham­pi­on Squeezy Rankin for the Freestyle Monarch ti­tle at next Tues­day’s Kaiso­ra­ma at the Radis­son Ho­tel.

They were among dozens of con­tes­tants vy­ing for 14 spots (sev­en for ex­tem­po and sev­en for freestyle) at the Kaiso Hub, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Mon­day night.

The third in­stal­ment of the Freestyle com­pe­ti­tion will see stiff op­po­si­tion for Squeezy, who, dur­ing last year’s win­ning per­for­mance, called out Oc­tave and oth­er artistes in­clud­ing Bun­ji Gar­lin and Dawg E Slaugh­ter as he thought his op­po­nents last year were too easy.

This year’s com­pe­ti­tion will see stiffer com­pe­ti­tion as Black Star, who al­so made it among the sev­en, said once he came up against Squeezy, they would do what they were ac­cus­tomed to do­ing. “We will be do­ing what we are ac­cus­tomed do­ing in front of (a named fast food store) in Ari­ma,” he said.

Black Star said he grew up freestyling with Bun­ji Gar­lin and oth­er artistes.

He praised ca­lyp­so’s gov­ern­ing body Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) for in­clud­ing Freestyle at Kaiso­ra­ma in ad­di­tion to the ex­tem­po com­pe­ti­tion.

“It is a great ini­tia­tive for the men who don’t have the op­por­tu­ni­ty for ra­dio play and we may not have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to get a show on the ground, this is a re­al good look for the up­com­ing artistes.”

On the Ex­tem­po Monarch side, for­mer cham­pi­ons Ca­lyp­so Nite, for­mer­ly known as The In­cred­i­ble My­ron B, Bri­an Lon­don and Black Sage will be among the sev­en cho­sen to go for­ward to op­pose reign­ing cham­pi­on Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters.

Bri­an Lon­don over­came a mi­nor hic­cup as he did not get his pre­ferred MaryAnn melody played for his first round of­fer­ing, but did well enough to re­turn for the sec­ond round when he met Ca­lyp­so Nite. The for­mer mon­archs saved noth­ing for next Thurs­day when they ex­changed punch­es as Lon­don ac­cused Nite of be­ing one of the St Ann’s Hos­pi­tal es­capees. Nite hit back say­ing that one of the es­capees broke out to be with Lon­don.

Ex­tem­po Fi­nal­ists: Preedy, Bri­an Lon­don, La­dy Syn­tax, Snakey, Hezeki­ah Joseph, Ca­lyp­so Nite, Black Sage, Gyp­sy.

Freestyle Fi­nal­ists: Preedy, Black Starr, Ju­by, Ca­lyp­so Nite, Ny­ol Man­swell, Or­lan­do Oc­tave, Ro­mano Ra­goonaths­ingh, Squeezy Rankin