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11th
Carnival In New York
Date: Sunday 13th August 2006
Location: Lincoln Center, New York
Promotions: Caribbean Cultural Center
Click on thumbnails to see the big
picture/entire gallery
It's only because we run into Rupee and Juice down in BIM for Crop Over'06 that we found out about the 11th Carnival in New York taking place at Lincoln Center in Manhattan with the Atlantic Recording artist himself, along with the legendary Mighty Sparrow carded to perform. And guess what? It's all for FREE!!! You know what that meant? Get the kiddies ready and throw the lawn chairs in the SUV... Sunday outing in NYC!
The event was promoted by The Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute, commonly known as the Caribbean Cultural Center as part of the Lincoln Center "Out of Doors" series in tribute to the Cultural Icon Cheryl Byron. This year's theme... "Celebrating Carnivals of the World." Now our inside sources told us that Rupee performing at 7pm and the Mighty Sparrow at 8pm sharp, so we aimed to arrive for 6pm, but reach around 7-ish. No worries, Caribbean event equals Caribbean time! Rupee didn't grace the stage until 8-ish, so we managed to catch the tail end of the Carnival celebrations on stage. The final act performed a dance to Destra and Machel's 2003 hit "Carnival" in full Carnival costumes. This definitely got the crowd all pumped up, and when asked if they knew who was performing next, they quickly shouted, "Ruuuuuuuuupppppppeeeeee!"
With no time to waste, DJ Fuzz started the big intro for Rupee, who ran out and started his set with ah teaser of his Barbados Road March hit for 2000 "Jump". Then he buss all his big hits from the past 5 years... tunes like "Thanks", "Insomnia" and "Tempted to Touch". He got about 3 standing ovations to come back on stage, and didn't disappoint the fans on his every return, singing "Jump", "Hands" and finally wrapped things up with crowd's favorite, "What Happens In De Party". Speaking of which, did you hear the 2006 "What Happens In De Party (Remix)" with Doug E Fresh and Nina Sky? Thank us later. We were hoping for Rupee to end his performance with his 2006 Crop Over hit "Frenzy", but we guess NYC wasn't ready.
Immediately following Rupee was none other than, the calypso king of the world... the Mighty Sparrow. We couldn't keep up with all de big tunes de man buss yes... but do remember singing along with everyone else to "Jean & Dinah". And before we could say boo, we hearing, "De lizard run up de skirt and disappear..." Somebody saaaayyyy bomb ah drop. Man, TJJ grow up listening to this stuff (please don't try and guess how ole we is nah... hehe)!! Sparrow not only showed the filled out venue that his voice jus as sweet as 10, 20, 30 years back, but that he still can wine down to the floor... and more important, BACK UP!! Haha. We love him!
We managed to catch up with both the Mighty Sparrow and Rupee backstage for exclusive TJJ Interviews, so we tellin' ya from now to check our Interviews page soon. If you're new to the site, it's under the "We Entertainment" or "Downloads" menu. Special thanks to Caribbean Cultural Center, not only for the hospitality, but for putting on this event 11 years running. Keep up the great work guys. Shout out to the Soca Passion crew... the V.I.P was de damn ting self! You can check out Soca Passion in Manhattan every 2nd Saturday each month, visit www.socapassion.com. And we got to big up Xolani and Machiyo of Coskel University, who are doing big tings with blending the fusion of the Fashion cosmos with the flavor of the Caribbean to produce a wicked clothing line. You should see de exclusive design they did for Sparrow (we waiting for our Trini Jungle Juice version **wink wink**). Folks, be sure to check out www.coskeluniversity.com.
TJJ signing out from the BIG apple.