She says her preferred brands are Gillette and Minora and she is well capable of grooming her “pastures and watering her garden” but she cannot say the same for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley who doesn’t at all seem capable of grooming T&T’s affairs. She wants to know what’s his tool for grooming T&T.
That’s about the best way to summarise calypsonian Tammico “SpiceY” Moore’s 2018 social commentary titled Muzzle ‘D’ Dog.
Moore, a contestant in Saturday’s National Calypso Monarch semifinal, strikes back at Rowley’s seemingly sexist and insensitive statement made last October which sought to liken women to a golf course implying the two made for similar grooming.
In her self-written composition she tells Rowley he has skewed priorities as his one concern should be to intelligently address the many social ills that are currently plaguing the twin island republic.
“After five whole years of the PP, look at ‘d’ state they leave this country, dem is d kind of statements I ‘cyant’ endorse. You need to choose your words wisely.
Imagine ‘meh’ surprise when ‘ah’ turn on ‘d’ TV, to hear you equating woman to a whole golf course,” Moore sings in her second verse.
She underscores with crime on a high and the detection rate like a lullaby, Rowley should seek to groom that.
“Guns crippling communities like sweet Enterprise, you ‘dey’ hurting ‘yuh’ head about how high some bush rise, groom ‘dat,’ muzzle ‘yuh dog, ‘yuh’ killing meh cyat,” her lyrics continues.
The Chaguanas resident advises further, Rowley should also put his shoulders to the wheel and groom political corruption, unemployment and underemployment, warring and underprivileged communities.
She did not forget to include the culture, calling for him to do some grooming to ensure some form of legislation is put in place for local artistes’ music to be played on the radio stations year-round as calypsonians and soca artistes should be able to depend on their talent and contributions to afford a decent living.
She said under the last regime, pan and calypso suffered and artistes are currently experiencing deja vu under the Rowley administration.
The mother of two and grandmother of one who is degreed—a music major, holding a bachelors of fine arts (BFA) from UTT, communicates to the T&T Guardian she watched a news clip over and over of Rowley during an interview with a reporter responding to the outrage by his statement; and after hearing his response she was so disappointed and displeased that she decided to put her concerns and views about his statement and response in song.
“The current state of affairs in Trinidad is cause for great concern.
We cannot have someone we are depending on to lead this nation to have their priorities mixed up.
If he is confused then what are we to expect of the rest of the nation,” Moore asks.
Moore on calypso tent struggles
Responding to our question on her views regarding the steady decline in public attendance to the traditional calypso tents, Moore, a Kaiso House calypso tent favourite who has been a performer of calypso for near two decades the loss in patronage doesn’t only affect her performance but it affects the entire art form.
“It affects calypso in Carnival and the future of this art form. We asn calypsonians are now faced with the challenge to save our art form.
But we cannot do this alone, we need support. Our culture should be treated as an industry and not as a past time or some seasonal cultural recreation,” says Moore She reiterates: “We need legislation put in place for 50 per cent airplay and we need to rethink the creativity of how we can get calypso music hired throughout the year.
“For instance, internationally artistes are able to do inner-city and state tours at hotels, clubs and resorts etcetera, that hires entertainment. That coupled with a fair amount of airplay, people will love kaiso again.”
The former teacher who is also now pursuing a Masters of Arts in Carnival Studies, argues ‘kaiso’, and carnival studies should be implemented in schools as part of the curriculum. She believes if this was done many years ago, today there would be a greater appreciation for the art form and young people would have a better understanding of calypso and its history and how it was born out of the need for people to voice their concerns and speak up and out about the governments of the day, national scandals and social ills. “It is more than music…it was and is education,” Moore says.
She continues: “We study a lot of Shakespeare and all these other European and English literature. Why not study some of our own Kaiso? We have a lot of philosophers in song that can be studied and in turn, we learn much more about our culture which will automatically instill a sense of pride in our citizens.”
Not withstanding, Moore was also very careful to include that calypsonians also needed to upgrade their style, music and delivery of calypsos to keep audiences intrigued.
In a previous interview with the Marabella native whose sobriquet SpiceY, was adopted from her peppery performances during her early days at the Kaiso Showcase tent in San Fernando, she was quoted as saying: “Calypso must also be entertaining. Listen to the patrons after a show, they don’t want no long boring song. They want action from start to finish.
With the right funding and rebranding we can be able to offer a well packaged cast of entertainment, a tight show and satisfied happy patrons.”
Moore, a former Chaguanas calypso monarch, is a finalist in both the National Calypso and Carapichaima Calypso Monarch 2018 competitions.
You can also catch her doing her thing at the Kaiso House tent now situated at the former Globe cinema, corner Park and St Vincent Streets, Port-of-Spain.
