Words by LargeUp Crew
Cover Photo by Varun Baker
It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta predict the future of Caribbean music.
In each of the last four years, we’ve endeavored to do just that with our annual Artists to Watch list. Chronixx, OMI and Kabaka Pyramid are a few of the artists who got some of their earliest looks in the feature, well before they became the widely known stars of today. Sometimes, we’ve been too ahead of the game for our own good: Breakout soca star Olatunji and U.K. deejay Randy Valentine might seem like good candidates for this year’s list, but we already had them covered back in 2014 and 2015, respectively. (We had OMI on the list back in 2013, two years before “Cheerleader” became a hit.)
This year, we wanted to go a bit deeper, and get to know each featured artist a little better, so we sent them all a list of identical questions. (Yes, that explains why we’re just getting around to sharing these picks as we head into February).
Read on, get familiar, and tell us which Caribbean artists you’re watching in 2016.
Special thanks to Joan Webley and Nanook.