00:00They vexed at me, I must apologize. Apologize for what?
00:03Dr. Hollis Chalkdust Liverpool says he will not be apologizing for upholding the standard
00:09of calypso. He notes, calypso has a unique structure, one that sets it apart from other
00:16genres of music. And he says, any deviation from that structure would mean the music is
00:22simply not calypso music.
00:25You can't have 15 notes in one line, 12 in the next, 5 in the next, 3, 1, 4, because
00:30you're not measured. The calypso is a measured thing, that's all I'm saying.
00:36Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. It can't be, na, na, na,
00:44na, na, na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, it can't
00:50be that. Because you're going off the template. And once you go off the template, you're wrong.
00:57You take away points from you.
00:59What about evolution? Because people are saying, well, you seem to be stuck in the past, and
01:03what about new age?
01:04I seem to be stuck in the past, but I'm following a tradition. If you want to make it that,
01:10you can make it that, but don't call it calypso. You see, because the calypso has a measurement,
01:17the gospel has a measurement, the blues have their own measurement, the jazz have their
01:23own measurement.
01:24As the holder of the most calypso monarch titles, and an all-round decorated veteran
01:29and academic calypso-nian, Choke, thus, is urging everyone in the industry to bring the
01:34art back to the art form.
01:35It must make sense, and it must have measurement, and it must have what they call rhyming. It
01:41is the rhyme that gives us the rhythm. And if it doesn't have rhyme, it is not calypso.
01:48And that's the art in calypso. You have to find a word to rhyme and make sense.
01:54The whole population of our little nation is not a lot, but oh, what a mixture of races
02:01and culture. That's what we have got. You see the rhyming? You see rhyming in and out.
02:08You hear anybody rhyming like that in calypso conversation? They can't. So, don't blame
02:13the calypso-nians. Blame the judges.
02:16And so, Choke thus laments, the issues run deep. As he says, from where he sits, many
02:23do not know what calypso truly is.
02:27People who should be judging the calypso are the persons who come from the Academy of Arts
02:32and Culture, because we train them. Our people are tops right now in Trinidad. In every area
02:40of Carnival, people who graduate from the Academy of Arts and Culture are there. Somerville,
02:48Hill and Francis, our graduates, Marshall, our graduates, musicians, all the pan-men,
02:54all the outstanding pan-men. Where did they come from? It's by who they come from. All
02:59of them. Tukudu, do look at them. Tukudu, all the body plays.
03:05Choke thus is inviting all calypso-nians to sign up for the Carnival Studies program.
03:10Last month, Choke thus was conferred the prestigious title of Professor Emeritus from
03:14the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
03:40I was in town when baptism come, couldn't be seen on the morning ground. When beef was
03:47twenty-five cents a pound, I was in town.
03:53Renassa Cutting, TV6 News.
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