Words by Erin MacLeod
As promised, we bring you part few in our Caribana Queens series, looking at the leading lights of Canada’s most famous Caribbean culture festival–which descended on Toronto this past weekend. Read Part 1 with soca specialist Nurse Karen here.
A few years ago I wrote in FADER about a woman with an appetite for destruction: Tasha Rozez, selector of her own one-gal Gunz n’ Rozez soundsystem. I’ve since seen her rope in the forwards as one of the rare female voices in soundclash, releasing strong mixes and unleashing witty commentary on the mic. Her dub box is deep, her drive deeper, and seeing the “Queen of Soundclash” on the cover of the Caribana issue of Toronto’s Now Magazine, it’s clear that there’s no stopping this woman who can go toe-to-toe with the boys. As a proud Torontonian, Ms. Rozez spoke to Large Up about her experience with Caribana, the space for women in Carnival, and why T.O. needs to step into the spotlight.
LU: What’s your experience with Caribana?
TR: I just remember going with my mom or my family, people knowing how much fun Caribana is, especially being of Jamaican heritage and West Indian culture it’s something that you look forward to. It’s funny though because in West Indian culture, carnival is a bit of a Trinidadian thing with the carnival and soca and calypso. Jamaicans don’t traditionally have this type of Carnival like in Trinidad, however we go to Caribana because it is still a West Indian event and everybody is doing something in the culture at that time. I’ve never played mas, and this year I wanted to! I’ve went to the parade with my mom as a kid, until I’d get tired and we’d go home. When I started to get older, I’d go with friends, from ages 15 to 18 I went every year because it was a great party. Because you’re part of West Indian culture it’s a little bit of back home, whether you’re Trinidadian or Jamaican, Guyanese, Antiguan, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it doesn’t matter, because it’s like a home party. We don’t care if we’re not Trinidadian. A Bajan doesn’t care if it’s more soca-oriented…myself, sometimes I find it too loud! But still, it’s a fun time because you’re having a good time, you’re eating and drinking—there’s the food, the culture, everything to remind you of home. And now, it’s evolved from being a fun time to a working time because of the industry that I’m in!
Q: What events were you involved in this year?
A: There was an event hosted by DJ Scarry. His birthday falls around Caribana time, so it’s a good time for him to do it! That was on Saturday. On Sunday, I played at a party with DJ Kenny from Jamaica and the dancer Color Color. And like any other holiday, the promoters use the opportunity to hold an event since everything is happening in the city as a whole as well. I performed with Shalli, who’s an upcoming Toronto artist and she performed with me alongside Gyptian at a free show at Queen’s Park. Also at Harbourfront I was on a panel discussion about women in dancehall and a screening of Queens of Sound: A Herstory of Reggae and Dancehall, a movie that features Queen Ifrica and other women in the industry. Caribana is really a time for Caribbean culture to shine and to show the different avenues and angles on what’s happening in our culture.
Q: Do you think Caribana is a good time to place focus on women?
A: It is. Any time is a time to spotlight anybody. Honestly. That may sound stupid, but I believe it, I really do. Sometimes it’s better sometimes to spotlight people when you don’t expect to. And Caribana is definitely a good time to bring attention to yourself because if you are working in this industry and this culture, definitely Caribana is a time when you want to shine and draw attention to yourself because people that are familiar with your culture will already be in it because it is Caribana time. And then it is kind of easy for other people to understand what you do because other people are in your culture for about four days!
So it is a good time if you are a woman in this business or in this industry in general since different people are coming from different places. I’m doing my nails right now and a lady from a totally different race than me is asking me about a party on the weekend. So it’s a time when people are getting together…it’s definitely a good time for women to get out there or for women to be spotlighted for sure, whether it’s cooking, music, design, anything. It’s a colorful time. People come to Toronto just for Caribana.
Q: Lots of people have heard of other carnivals: the Notting Hill Carnival in London, Carnival in Flatbush, etc. but there is less of an awareness of Caribana.
A: Mmm hmm.
Q:What do you think prevents Toronto from getting the shine that it really deserves in terms of all kinds of West Indian music?
A: I have this opinion because I’ve traveled to other countries and seen how they are. We’re just not a very patriotic country. We have a big event here and we don’t even push it the way we should. We leave it to other people to push it for us. People are coming up from the states, telling us that they are coming up specifically for Caribana, saying “you should be doing more!” I don’t know why it’s like that. I don’t think I’m like that! I try to milk everything out of what I can! I don’t know what’s the problem. I don’t know if we’re not bringing the right people over at Caribana time or if it’s because it’s always focused around that Caribbean thing and seen as only a Caribbean thing for people who are only interested in Caribbean music. Maybe we need to make it more of a mixed event…And I don’t mean changing it. It’s always going to be Caribana so it’s always going to be a Carib thing, but there are a lot of ways to broaden the horizons because, like you said, it is almost as big as Notting Hill Carnival. I haven’t played Notting Hill, but I remember the days when I was in England and I know there are so many different things happening on all the different days. It’s really a festive time for many types of music. I don’t know what we could do. It’s a really good question! I think it might just have to do with the nature of our culture and how we deal with our own thing. We’re so humble. Maybe we’re so used to it, we don’t see how much of a benefit it could be to the rest of the world and so we don’t market it properly.
Q: But Caribana is a place to feature big artists.
A: It’s good for artists like Busy Signal, Demarco, Gyptian, Queen Ifrica to see how Canada really gets down at this festival time. Which is again, back to what you said before in the other question, a way to spread the word about Caribana in Toronto because these artists are going to go back to Jamaica and do that.
Q: I’m someone who is always trying to tell people that Toronto is a much bigger deal than most people think it is! And I think that Caribana is an excellent time to do that!
A: [Sighs.] It’s so stupid. People in Toronto, we only jump on things and promote things after we should have. And by then fifty other places have jumped on it and we look like we’re copying, when we’ve really been doing it for the past fifty years!
Q: So who are some people in Toronto to look out for?
A: There are so many. The thing about the Toronto reggae scene is that there are so many different artists bubbling in so many different scenes and areas. You have some singers like Shalli: she’s not only a dancehall reggae artist, but she also does a lot of things on R&B and pop as well. But she is someone to definitely look out for. Of course, you have to be on the lookout for people like Lindo P, Eyesus and Exco Levi. Those guys are always doing stuff and they always know what’s happening in Jamaica. Because they are so close to that they know what to bring out of the dancehall scene that’s fresh and know what to bring to Toronto and let people know about that. There are a lot of singers—I have a friend Mel Dubé and she is finishing her demo and getting things done and she has won Honey Jam already, I believe it was in 2006. So she’s trying to get things together. But those are some of the artists that I’m working with that I know of that are doing really good music not necessarily just in dancehall but in reggae as a whole.
Tasha’s Taste of Toronto
Shalli “All About Love”
Lindo P “Let’s Get Married”
Eyesus “Skip to Ma Lou” England Town Riddim
Exco Levi “If Yuh Tink Yuh Bad”
And though she doesn’t big up her singing, Tasha doesn’t just select. ‘Member that:
Wio K featuring Tasha Rozez “Footloose”