ROYALTY NYC 2013: Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons & More in Brooklyn
Memorial Weekend 2013 brought some of that year’s hottest Soca music to Brooklyn when ROYALTY Anti-Stush took over Pulse 48 on Friday, May 24.
The night brought Bunji Garlin and Fay-Ann Lyons together with emerging Trinidad artist K Rich and Brooklyn’s own Request Band, connecting the music of Trinidad Carnival 2013 with New York’s year-round Caribbean scene. Pulse 48, at 1020 East 48th Street, had become a familiar home for Caribbean concerts and parties in Brooklyn.
Watch ROYALTY Anti-Stush 2013
The main Julianspromos highlights capture Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons and the atmosphere inside Pulse 48 during the Memorial Weekend event.
The footage was hosted by Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson, shot and edited by Julian C. Hackett, and uploaded on May 26, 2013.
Bunji Garlin in the Year of “Differentology”
Looking back, the timing of Bunji Garlin’s appearance may be the most significant part of the night.
By May 2013, “Differentology” was already one of the standout records from the Trinidad Carnival season. Earlier that year, contemporary coverage described crowds singing the song word for word and identified it as Bunji’s major 2013 hit.
But the song’s biggest international achievements were still ahead.
As 2013 continued, “Differentology” moved far beyond the traditional Carnival market. It eventually earned Bunji a Soul Train Award for Best International Performance, won HOT 97’s Battle of the Beats and shared MTV Iggy’s Song of the Year honor. A Major Lazer remix helped carry the record even further internationally.
That makes ROYALTY particularly interesting today. Bunji wasn’t performing “Differentology” years after it had become a recognized Soca classic.
The song was in the middle of its rise.
New York audiences were seeing him during the year when a Carnival record was beginning to open doors well outside Soca’s usual boundaries.
Fay-Ann Lyons Was Already Soca Royalty
Fay-Ann Lyons entered 2013 from a very different position.
By then, she had already established herself as one of Soca’s most accomplished female performers. Her extraordinary 2009 season had made her the first woman to win the International Soca Monarch title while also taking the Groovy Soca Monarch crown, adding to her Road March success.
She remained firmly connected to the current season in 2013.
During Trinidad Carnival that year, Fay-Ann was performing new songs including “Eff,” “De Stage Open” and “We Doing This Owah” alongside established favorites such as “Heavy T Bumpa” and “Miss Behave.” Contemporary reports show those songs were part of her active Carnival set only a few months before ROYALTY.
So Bunji and Fay-Ann arrived in Brooklyn as more than a famous Soca couple.
Bunji was carrying a record whose international story was rapidly expanding, while Fay-Ann arrived with the status of a proven Carnival champion and her own current 2013 material.
Together they represented two of Trinidad and Tobago’s most recognizable Soca figures at that moment.
K Rich Brings “Wine Back” to Brooklyn
Kenneth “K Rich” Richards represented a newer name in the 2013 Soca landscape.
His song “Wine Back” had been released by Precision Productions as the production team’s first release heading into Trinidad Carnival 2013. Precision described K Rich at the time as one of Trinidad and Tobago’s newer talented artists, with the record designed specifically for the coming Carnival season.
By the time he reached Pulse 48, “Wine Back” had already introduced him to a wider Soca audience.
Vivaa spoke with K Rich during the event, while the video also captures his performance. The recording was uploaded on May 26, 2013.
What makes this footage useful today is the timing.
K Rich is being seen while “Wine Back” was still connected directly to the 2013 Carnival season, before there was any distance between the artist and the record.
Request Band Represents Brooklyn’s Live Soca Scene
ROYALTY also put New York’s own Caribbean musicians into the same room as the visiting Trinidad artists.
Request Band, based in Brooklyn, represented the live-band infrastructure that helped keep Soca and Caribbean music active in New York between the major Carnival weekends.
Their sound drew from Soca and Calypso while incorporating Reggae, Dancehall and other Caribbean influences, allowing the group to work within a New York scene where artists and audiences regularly crossed island and genre boundaries.
Vivaa also spoke with Request Band during the night. The video was uploaded on May 26, 2013.
Their presence gives ROYALTY an important New York dimension.
The Caribbean music scene in Brooklyn was never built exclusively around stars arriving from Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica or elsewhere. Local bands, DJs, promoters and musicians helped maintain that culture throughout the year and provided a live foundation for events such as this one.
From Trinidad Carnival to New York
ROYALTY happened only a few months after Trinidad Carnival, at a point when that season’s music was moving into the wider international Carnival circuit.
Bunji was traveling with “Differentology.”
Fay-Ann was carrying her current 2013 repertoire.
K Rich was performing “Wine Back.”
And Request Band represented the Brooklyn musicians helping keep that music alive locally.
For the audience inside Pulse 48, these weren't yet songs from an old Carnival year.
They were current Soca records.
That is what gives ROYALTY Anti-Stush a different feeling when revisited today: the footage catches the music while the 2013 season was still unfolding.
From the Julianspromos Archives
ROYALTY Anti-Stush also came during a period when Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson’s role in Julianspromos event coverage was becoming increasingly established.
Vivaa hosted the coverage and conducted the interviews with K Rich and Request Band, while Julian C. Hackett shot and edited all three videos. The finished videos were uploaded on May 26, 2013, two days after the event.
Rather than producing only a general recap, the assignment allowed Julianspromos to capture several sides of the same night: major Trinidad Soca performers, an emerging artist carrying a current Carnival record and a Brooklyn band representing New York’s own live Caribbean scene.
But the strongest reason to revisit the footage is what was happening in front of the camera.
On May 24, 2013, Bunji Garlin was still in the breakout year of “Differentology.” Fay-Ann Lyons remained one of Soca’s proven Carnival champions. K Rich was pushing “Wine Back” beyond Trinidad, and Request Band was part of the community keeping live Soca active in Brooklyn.
ROYALTY Anti-Stush puts all of those stories under one roof during Memorial Weekend 2013.
