It shares a universal message of how some people deal with relationships and it is told under the musical canopy of bouyon.
The Dominican genre developed in the late 80s and is stitched together with some of the country’s traditional sounds of cadence-lypso, zouk, jing ping and bele among others.
The hit Dominican single, Someone Else sung by Quan (Quan Denis), Litleboy and Trilla G is projected to dominate Trinidad and Tobago Carnival spaces next year.
It is already in heavy rotation at social events and other carnivals.
Newsday spoke with Gael Jno “Trilla G” Baptiste, 25, from Goodwill, Dominica and Foster Larnel “Litleboy” Marcel Xavier, 28, from Le Lamentin, Martinique.
Trilla G has been in music for about six years and is Dominica’s 2023 Calypso King.
He was always “artistic with words” and fascinated by English with its metaphors, similes and other literary devices.
“I used to make remixes of famous songs in my own way, in my Dominican dialect, in the bouyon style. There was a time, in 2017, when I was attending the Dominica State College and we were doing rap battles.
“I was the champion, I remain undefeated to this day.”
He was encouraged to “make a song” by his friends. He made his first song in 2017 and there has been no “looking back since.”
Litleboy’s entry to music came from his father, Foster Xavier Snr.
His father is a singer and he played the drums with him.
[caption id="attachment_1124091" align="alignnone" width="683"] Trilla G has been in music for about six years and is Dominica’s 2023 Calypso King. - Photo by Ayanna Kinsale[/caption]
“I was always around him. I wanted to sing a little bit but I started off doing beats,” he said.
He began producing beats in 2012, using his father’s keyboard and guitar.
But three years ago, he decided to record a song in French and it did well in France.
In 2023, he had created “a beat” for another Dominican band. The beat stayed on his computer for an entire year and then fellow artiste, Quan visited his studio.
“Quan is my boy so he pass and check me in the studio. I made him listen to it, he liked it. Then he came with Trilla G and Trilla G liked it too. All of us put a verse on it.
“I knew it would have been a nice song because when I made it for the band, they said it was a nice song.”
He, however, was surprised at TT’s response to it and believes its universal message is driving its popularity.
“The chorus talking about something everybody can relate to,” Litleboy said.
He added that everyone has had a relationship.
Trilla G credited social media for the song’s ever-growing popularity.
He realised that the song could be “big” in this country from its performance at Miami’s carnival.
“At Miami carnival it was all over the place. Then I realised after Miami carnival, the next big carnival is TT’s. There were so many Trinidadian DJs and people there, I decided well, ‘Okay, if the DJs and them love the song so much, I feel like, you know, they would bring it down to TT.’
“So said, so done. I remember seeing a
