Konshens wants more love for soca locally

Dancehall artiste Konshens has "successfully" crossed over to the soca market with a smooth transitional flow, attracting local and international fans to his new sound.

After making his mark on the soca scene 12 years ago with Boost Her Up, Konshens has resurfaced with three other soca hits - Flirty, Bumpers in the Air, and Rum Buss.

"I basically sing about what I see when I go out. I try to write soundtracks to people's lives or my own life regardless of what genre I'm doing, and I think that's why when I get a hit it stays relevant for years, because it's real. All three of these songs are direct recaps of actual events," Konshens laughed. However, he noted that his first musical exposure in the soca market was his dancehall song Gal Dem a Talk (Stink a Road).

"Soca audience want soca and dancehall audience want dancehall. You can blend it, but a soca crowd is accustomed to a certain presentation and level of care and energy. I think once you put your ego to the side and forget that you are a big, bad, mighty dancehall star and just focus on entertaining and appreciating the culture, you will be fine," Konshens told THE STAR.

Richard 'Richie Ras' Spence, who is part of the management team that's marketing the soca side of Konshens' career, shared that the artiste is always up for any challenge.

"He's always very passionate about music and he likes to experiment with different sounds, and as a DJ, I've never put a remix to him or an idea that he has run from; he is always very eager to experiment with different sounds. So when he started to explore soca and the market started to embrace him, it was so natural and progressed in a very organic way," said Spence.

Though the artiste said he will not be in Jamaica for this year's carnival, he underscored that, he loves the experience here and wants Jamaica "to also embrace me as a soca artiste so we can help build the culture". Konshens also urged locals to show more support to Jamaican artistes doing soca.

"I think it just needs a serious movement to highlight the fact that Jamaican soca songs are not just a one-off but an actual thing. We need deejays, promoters and more artistes to be a part of the movement and take it to higher levels," he said. In agreement, Spence underlined that Jamaica can do more in representing soca on a larger scale.

"It is a very wide community that goes across the world, but it's really about embracing Caribbean culture. It's important for us in Jamaica, being a part of the Caribbean, to have that representation on that world stage," he shared with THE STAR.

"Even though we have dancehall and reggae music, as it relates to soca, which the rest of the Caribbean identifies with, we are kinda on the side and we have one of the largest size carnivals in the Caribbean. Suh it's almost like a no-brainer. It's just we as Jamaicans need to find a way how to get more involved and encourage the artistes and the creatives to do so, whether it's on the writing, performing or producing side. That is a necessary step now we need to mek," he opined. Spence said the impact would be far reaching.

"It is a great tourism product. It's one that has had a very large turnout for our island as a single event that spans over a week; that's a major earner for tourism," he said while advising that a 'soca/carnival versus dancehall' mentally should be cut out.

"It is something that is meant to be inclusive, irrespective a whether yuh uptown, downtown or from di countryside. But until we as Jamaicans get more involved in that creative process, we're gonna always have dat kinda 'us versus dem' mentally. So the whole thought process is for us to give it our own spin, our own sound and contribution, so that we can have another sub-genre; and another creative way to bring our people together," Spence reasoned.

Despite dabbling in the soca arena, Konshens is still fully in tuned with his dancehall roots and plans to release a new dancehall album this summer.

"All I can say about this new album is it's gonna be what we need. I love where dancehall is heading with the release of our locked up icons and icons getting back visas and the big vibe we are in right now. I'm charged up and excited to come play my part to send dancehall to its highest level ever," Konshens shared.