The-Shadow
Ego Sum Vox Manus Deus
ill o.g.
So, for those that don't know...only the largest Caribbean festival in North America rolled through Toronto's streets about two weeks ago. It was wicked this year. The past couple of years were tame after the whole SARS incident, but this year it was full fyah again just like in old times.
I thought it would be cool for who were in the Dot that weekend to share a little bit about what they did that weekend.
The way I do it, I leave my house on Friday nite and I don't reach home til' Monday morning.
WHERE I ENDED UP...
FRIDAY NITE - Yonge Street (I haven't done that in years and I don't plan on doing that again, I'm not much for walking up and down Yonge Street and leaning up against walls peeping girls. I prefer to be in a hardcore soca fete wining on dem instead.) and then we headed tp to J'Ouvert at Sound Emporium to open up the weekend. Left J'ouvert at 6:30, went back to the Marriott and partied in some Americans' hotel rooms, crashed at 9:00 AM.
SATURDAY NITE - Totally missed the parade. It's nice for tourists to go to when they come and for us permanent residents to go to once in a while. I've been going to them since I was a yout' so it was okay to skip on it, sleep was priority. Up at 6PM, linked up with some gyuls who came down from Miami, there were three doors down.
I ask dem "Where all yuh going tonite?"
Dem said "We're going to Roc de Caribana, Jay-Z and Kanye is gonna be there."
I say "Jay who? How much is it to get in there tonite?"
They said "Eighty bones."
I'm like "80 dollars boi, all yuh crazy or what? I like Jay just as much as the next guy but this is not Rocabana weekend, this is Caribana weekend. Hip Hop is on holidays this weekend, he coming back next week. Come with us to Wild Water Kingdom, dat is de jam tonite, only 30 dollars with 50 left fuh drinks. Kyan't go wrong."
So after some campaigning and extolling the virtues of what Caribana is, and kind of music runs the weekend, we all ended up going to Wild Water Kingdom...along with 7000 other people for the biggest soca party of the weekend. Maximus Dan, KMC, Hitman, Rikki Jai + fit Miami girls and booze. Oh my word! Then we went back to the hotel at like 7 AM and partied some more til morning come. At least I know where I'll be staying when I'm down in Miami for their Carnival in October. A couple of my boyz did actually go to Roc De Caribana and paid their 80 bucks. As good as the show was, they said they would have preferred to be jumping up as opposed to bobbing their heads.
That's becoming a new trend in the past four to five years with Caribana. Since BET filmed that fassyhole Caribana special and they started sponsoring jams up here during the weekend, a lot of these big cats like Diddy and Shaq (twizmfest) started throwing Hip Hop oriented jams with lackluster results.
This year from what I heard, D-Block is here along with Big Tigger. J.r. writer was here too. Why they were here I don't know. With Jay's signing Rihanna who is Bajan, I could somewhat understand why they came. My view is that a lot of americans are getting deprived of the real Caribana experience by going to their own american jams instead of going to soca jams...they sometimes forget that there is more than the parade, but that for another thread and debate. At least Teresa and her cousins from MIA learned something new that night.
SUNDAY NITE - Serious daytime recuperation, headed over to Palazzo's Soca Rave for a minute and then headed up to Fire Fete at Kool Haus, it was a wicked fete. A little expensive for my taste, $55, but it was an okay jam. There were plenty of g's present, a nice vibe overall. Rolled a 4 paper to share with a next set of girls from Virginia Beach, then hit up a late night italian restaurant for some polo pesto (crazy pasta) then booked it back to the hotel for one last night of drinking with the crew. Some people would be going to the last lap jam at markham fairgrounds, some like me who had early work on tuesday wasn't going to be hitting up that jam.
Overall it was a wicked Caribana. Can't wait to do it in full force again next year. I partied hard and I learned a lot, especially from my American friends.
So the questions are: were you here for Caribana, what did you do while you were here, did you enjoy yourself and would you come back again.
Peace.
I thought it would be cool for who were in the Dot that weekend to share a little bit about what they did that weekend.
The way I do it, I leave my house on Friday nite and I don't reach home til' Monday morning.
WHERE I ENDED UP...
FRIDAY NITE - Yonge Street (I haven't done that in years and I don't plan on doing that again, I'm not much for walking up and down Yonge Street and leaning up against walls peeping girls. I prefer to be in a hardcore soca fete wining on dem instead.) and then we headed tp to J'Ouvert at Sound Emporium to open up the weekend. Left J'ouvert at 6:30, went back to the Marriott and partied in some Americans' hotel rooms, crashed at 9:00 AM.
SATURDAY NITE - Totally missed the parade. It's nice for tourists to go to when they come and for us permanent residents to go to once in a while. I've been going to them since I was a yout' so it was okay to skip on it, sleep was priority. Up at 6PM, linked up with some gyuls who came down from Miami, there were three doors down.
I ask dem "Where all yuh going tonite?"
Dem said "We're going to Roc de Caribana, Jay-Z and Kanye is gonna be there."
I say "Jay who? How much is it to get in there tonite?"
They said "Eighty bones."
I'm like "80 dollars boi, all yuh crazy or what? I like Jay just as much as the next guy but this is not Rocabana weekend, this is Caribana weekend. Hip Hop is on holidays this weekend, he coming back next week. Come with us to Wild Water Kingdom, dat is de jam tonite, only 30 dollars with 50 left fuh drinks. Kyan't go wrong."
So after some campaigning and extolling the virtues of what Caribana is, and kind of music runs the weekend, we all ended up going to Wild Water Kingdom...along with 7000 other people for the biggest soca party of the weekend. Maximus Dan, KMC, Hitman, Rikki Jai + fit Miami girls and booze. Oh my word! Then we went back to the hotel at like 7 AM and partied some more til morning come. At least I know where I'll be staying when I'm down in Miami for their Carnival in October. A couple of my boyz did actually go to Roc De Caribana and paid their 80 bucks. As good as the show was, they said they would have preferred to be jumping up as opposed to bobbing their heads.
That's becoming a new trend in the past four to five years with Caribana. Since BET filmed that fassyhole Caribana special and they started sponsoring jams up here during the weekend, a lot of these big cats like Diddy and Shaq (twizmfest) started throwing Hip Hop oriented jams with lackluster results.
This year from what I heard, D-Block is here along with Big Tigger. J.r. writer was here too. Why they were here I don't know. With Jay's signing Rihanna who is Bajan, I could somewhat understand why they came. My view is that a lot of americans are getting deprived of the real Caribana experience by going to their own american jams instead of going to soca jams...they sometimes forget that there is more than the parade, but that for another thread and debate. At least Teresa and her cousins from MIA learned something new that night.
SUNDAY NITE - Serious daytime recuperation, headed over to Palazzo's Soca Rave for a minute and then headed up to Fire Fete at Kool Haus, it was a wicked fete. A little expensive for my taste, $55, but it was an okay jam. There were plenty of g's present, a nice vibe overall. Rolled a 4 paper to share with a next set of girls from Virginia Beach, then hit up a late night italian restaurant for some polo pesto (crazy pasta) then booked it back to the hotel for one last night of drinking with the crew. Some people would be going to the last lap jam at markham fairgrounds, some like me who had early work on tuesday wasn't going to be hitting up that jam.
Overall it was a wicked Caribana. Can't wait to do it in full force again next year. I partied hard and I learned a lot, especially from my American friends.
So the questions are: were you here for Caribana, what did you do while you were here, did you enjoy yourself and would you come back again.
Peace.
