The Soca Dynamik

For years, some artistes have blamed a “soca mafia” for their lack of success, saying that the mafia determined what would be a hit by controlling what songs would play on the airwaves, favouring certain artistes.

However, John, who has been part of the entertainment circle for about a decade, said he did not believe the rumour of a soca mafia was true. “If you are truly talented, it would be very hard to hide that. If you are really talented and the crowd is for you, there is no way to really hide that. In terms of airplay, that could be controlled to an extent but I wouldn’t call it a mafia.” He added that an artiste could not have a mediocre song and expect it to become popular or played on radio. “The artiste has to come good. They need to be serious about their craft. That’s the only way to guarantee success but there is no one formula to that success,” he said.

Therefore, John explained that, while he tries to get his clients in major shows. He also books them for smaller ones, including appearances at bars and boat rides in order to get people familiar with the songs. If people know the music and like it, he said, then requests by promoters and audiences would lead to bigger shows.

At the moment, John manages soca artistes K Rich (Kenneth Richards) and Jahmoun (Mendoza), as well as DJs Jo Jo The Don, and Selector Caleb.

However, Dynamik Regime also does event promotions, and social media marketing for small businesses, events, and artists including performers, photographers, and videographers.

John started in the entertainment industry with his party and event promotion company, “Dynamik... the Next Level,” then became a radio show cohost.

He began managing his co-worker, DJ Akil Borneo who later became soca artiste 5Star Akil. However, after several years he took a break and about two years ago, returned to the business to manage Borneo.

“People were seeing my creativity in his transition, how he was building as an artiste. It was very hard to make the transition from DJ to soca artiste and be taken seriously. When people saw that transition, I was approached by other artistes to work with them. However, I made a calculated decision not to do so until last year when I strategically selected who I wanted to work with,” he said.

And so, with new clients and the new social media aspect, John re-branded the company about six months ago. He said he saw the need for social media assistance since artistes’ schedules were very hectic and personally keeping up with their social media presence would be difficult.

Also, he noticed that many advertisers were focussing on social media so he felt that an active online presence was important.

Despite these efforts, John admitted that the Carnival season started off “tough” as promoters cut back due to the recession.

Therefore, instead of having a variety of artistes performing at an event, promoters seem to prefer DJs and one or two artistes with this year’s more popular songs. Fortunately, however, he said as Carnival Monday and Tuesday draws closer, things were picking up for other entertainers, including his clients