Kiskadee Kaiso Karavan, a musical movement led by businessman Robert Amar in the 1990s, gave rise to a new crop of rapso and soca artistes like Kindred, Homefront and General Grant.
It even led to General Grant reaching the Billboard charts with his Shot Call.
Amar hopes a new form of the Kiskadee Karavan could bring Trinidad and Tobago its first Grammy.
In a phone interview, he said the caravan was one of the most successful movements in the 1990s, when his business took a very frontal position in trying to find “the future of the entertainment industry.”
Through Caribbean Sound Basin Ltd, then a very modern recording studio at Long Circular Road, Maraval, international celebrities came to TT. But the team was not prepared for that type of business.
There was a relaunch in 2018, but the second opportunity did not see the return of the “qualitative artistes” the team was looking for, so it was shelved, Amar said.
The caravan’s return this year aims to achieve several objectives: win a Grammy, produce more music, locally and to promote the UN’s sustainable development goal of reduced inequalities (SDG ten).
The success of local artistes like Voice, Mical Teja and others of coming generations signalled to Amar that a new era in TT’s music industry was evolving, and he wanted to help bring the experience of the past to that.
One of the parallels between the past and new caravan is the aim of unearthing new talent. Amar hopes to accomplish this through an open call on his radio station, 104.7 fm.
The search for new talent will begin with Tik Tok preliminaries, then progress to live auditions from April 21-June 23, the More Music Festival and a World Soca Festival happening in Trinidad in 2024 and then moving to Tobago in 2025.
The live editions will take place in east, west, north, south Trinidad and Tobago. The first will be held on April 21 at New Luna Sports Bar and Lounge, Arouca.
The first soca festival will take place on Republic Day (September 24) this year.
Its truest aim, however, is the globalisation of soca, to draw a more diverse audience to the genre.
While this year’s soca festival will include the 24 selected locals, come 2025, Amar hopes to have soca artistes from every part of the world participate.
He said it is not going to be a competition, as competitions do not enrich the artform.
“The idea is to enrich our art and in the next few years have a category in the Grammy.”
He also hopes the festivals will encourage producers and artistes to issue monthly releases.
“Over the last number of years there are some people who have been working behind the scenes and have been able to get the Grammys to introduce a category for world (music). That thing happened about two years ago and has been swarmed by the African-continent artistes, who are now putting in quite a lot, because they are producing music much more regularly than us,” Amar said, addressing his main reason for the movement’s return.
He said although – during Carnival – TT artistes produce between 800 and 1,5
