Skinny Fabulous credits dancehall for his soca sound

Paying homage to dancehall, St Vincent soca star Skinny Fabulous credits the Jamaican genre for his brand of soca.

Speaking with THE STAR at the inaugural staging of Wi Fete at Sabina Park in Kingston on Saturday, he said his years in Jamaica truly shaped his sound into what it is now.

"I started out in dancehall. I started out wanting to be like a Bounty Killer; so my approach, my aggression and the roughness to my delivery is of, and solely of, a dancehall background," he said.

The deep, gritty voice of the Famalay artiste, whose given name is Gamal Doyle, reverberated through the venue as he delivered hit after hit, even partnering with friend and collaborator Nailah Blackman for their hit song, Come Home.

Grateful for the now widespread embrace of soca music in Jamaica, he told THE STAR, "I have a different appreciation for the culture, obviously, spending like four or five years here. And I was able to watch the evolution of the soca music reception. So for me, I think my growth here is almost parallel with the growth of the soca community here as well. So as they grow, I grow, and we growing together."

He continued, "The beauty about soca music, there is no central base or central headquarters for it. So all islands play their little integral role in what is the soca platform, and so it's a very, very unique genre. It's a little different from dancehall, where every single, legitimate, genuine dancehall [sound], it is assumed that it needs to come from Jamaica. For soca music, I'm from St Vincent, some of the other stars are from Barbados, Grenada, you know what I'm saying? And we make up that body of music that we call soca. So it's an experience like no other, I find."