Dole’s brother sings out against drug-running

CONVICTED drug-dealer Roopnarine “Yogi” Boodram, 44, younger brother of hanged drug king-pin Dole Chadee, is so remorseful about his past drug dealings that after 15 years in jail, Boodram wants to send a message through music to others not to enter the illegal drug business. And on Saturday, Boodram gets his big chance to impress a national audience since he will be featured as one of the entertainers in the Massive Gosine Roving Chutney/Calypso Tent. Boodram, singing under the sobriquet the “Mighty Yogi,” is slated to perform two songs —“Doh do dat” and “Wet Meh Down” — at the Tent’s launching at Centre Pointe Mall, Chaguanas.

In an interview with Newsday yesterday, Boodram said he became musically inclined while in prison studying the calypso art form. His calypsoes, Boodram said, were “redemption songs.” “These redemption calypsoes allow me to have a positive and grasping effect on the minds of people, making them realise that God is the only one in control of life and that doing evil should be totally out of the question. There is no profit in it,” Boodram said. Boodram described himself as a former “million dollar man” but is now today a calypsonian who has been rendered penniless. Sitting-in during Newsday’s interview was Massive Gosine himself who expressed the view that having Boodram in his tent would bring positive vibes to the chutney/calypso form of the art. “I want to tell them that a life of crime does not pay,” Boodram said.