Ian Wason
Freelance Correspondent
Phillip “Black Sage” Murray won all his Extempo battles and the Extempo war on Tuesday night, defeating Brian London in the final round of the National Extempo Monarch Competition to claim his fourth overall title.
Black Sage, who won his last title in 2004, tore into London from the jump in the final at the Radisson Hotel, Port-of-Spain, blaming him for fellow competitor Winston “Gypsy” Peters’ vocal issues, after questioning why London had his arms around Gypsy’s shoulder during their semifinal showdown.
London struggled to recover, although he had some good moments as he claimed Black Sage was in association with American hip-hop mogul P Diddy.
Sage was unforgiving in the war, however, and poked fun at London’s clothes, saying it was fit for little girls in reference to the pink colour of the garb.
It was clear who the audience backed and they were simply waiting for the judges to formalise their choice.
An elated Murray later told the media how significant the win was.
“Brian London is so good. He beat Gypsy,” Murray said.
He explained that even if a calypsonian won the Extempo Monarch, beating Gypsy was the ultimate goal.
“You win nothing unless you beat Gypsy. Now, we all (Lingo, Brian London, Lady Africa) won, because we beat Gypsy in the final. He is the hallmark. He is the standard bearer,” the 2025 Extempo Monarch explained.
Murray also explained that in extempo, what is said is left on the stage and there were no hard feelings towards London.
Murray won the Extempo Monarch in 1995, 1999 and 2004 before waiting 21 years to claim his fourth title. Gypsy has the record with 11 wins, seven of them between 1991 and 2000.
During the earlier rounds, Gypsy skilfully incorporated his voice issues during his extempo. Hit by the flu, he was severely hoarse throughout the night and laboured through his set. Picking the topic Obeah in Calypso, Gypsy insinuated it was the use of obeah that was behind his vocal troubles.
Murray’s topic in the first round was Jamaican reggae artiste Beenie Man’s criticism of local dish, doubles. He sang that Trinidadians did not talk down on Jamaica’s ackee (part of Jamaica’s national dish of ackee and saltfish) despite the high level of toxins contained in the fruit.
London coasted through the first round with his topic—The State of West Indies Cricket. It was a relatively manageable topic, and London was smooth during the set in which he used the ‘Mary Ann’ melody and reminisced on the good days of the 80s when the West Indies were on top of the cricket world.
In the Freestyle segment of the show, Preedy captured the title from Squeezy Rankin when he defeated Orlando Octave in the final war.
Preedy, the losing finalist at the inaugural competition in 2023, when he was beaten by Calypso Nite, used his experience against Octave, who was in his debut appearance.
The pair threw punches at each other in a battle that was fit to be called a final and was more keenly contested and competitive than the extempo final.
Even before the music started, Preedy told Octave “ladies first,” to set the tone for what was to come.
Preedy, who left the venue twice in between performances to honour other engagements, took aim at Octave’s short dreadlocks and referred to them as a “struggling ras” and called him short.
Octave then responded, “Napoleon was a short man, Imbert is a short man and he destroyed the whole island (that brought loud cheers), don’t take short man just so.”
After the two exchanged lyrical blows, they embraced before they exited the stage.
Earlier in the Freestyle segment, Preedy threw his support behind Terri Lyons to win the National Calypso Monarch on Sunday. He told Yung Bredda that he had to first pay his dues before he could claim any title and told dethroned Freestyle Monarch Squeezy Rankin to do work on his voice “or the judges won’t pick you.”
The extempo monarch walked away with $200,000 while the freestyle champion pocketed $50,000.
