by Kobie Broomes
What started off as a ‘gaff’ on Twitter has blossomed into a song that has taken over the airwaves not only locally and regionally but in the United States.
The song ‘Brawlin’ by Phillip King known as ‘Father Phillis’ has garnered over 1.5 million views on YouTube and has topped the music charts on iTunes in both Barbados and Trinidad in just two months.
The 24-year-old singer recounted his journey from making jokes on social media to now having bookings to perform overseas.
“I’ve been releasing music on Twitter, particularly on to Bajan Twitter, and Brawlin is one of those songs.
We kind of release something every week, something very social commentary-focused, and Brawlin was just kind of a switch from that. It was around Carnival time and I wanted to try my hand at creating a Bashment song,” he told Barbados TODAY.
King explained he did not expect the song to “blow up” in the way in which it did.
“Once I realised people liked the voice note, I wanted to make a Twitter voice or Tik Tok audio that people could reuse and get the video going around a bit more. But it wasn’t really planned to blow up like that.”
However, the turning point that would shift this situation into something serious was when the singer’s song was reposted by megastar Rihanna and her best friend Melissa.
“I would say that we kept it very well. We really weren’t taking it too seriously until we had seen that Rihanna, Melissa shared it on their IG [Instagram] story… You know Rihanna doesn’t just post people songs; you know.” he said.
After the initial recording King said it went mainstream and was on the Stan Home Party hosted by the state-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation.
King is also a digital marketer by profession and owns and operates a platform called Bim vibes, he told Barbados TODAY his knowledge of marketing played a part in the song’s success.
“I definitely think digital marketing played a big role in it, this is my first song.
This is the first time they’ve heard about me, but it’s not the first time that I’ve been working on things…aside from the digital marketing we have that relationship with all of the artistes for almost four to six years of collaborating.”
When asked if this will just be a one-hit-wonder or if he will be bringing out more music, King said:
“I like the opinions and the discussion, so I’m gonna come in and possibly prove the men wrong, but very soon we will be releasing something else, so I’m not worried about the comments or concerns you know. Just look out for some more content and tell me if you like it.”
Recently a debate ensued on social media as to where the song that has over a million hits on YouTube ‘blew up’. King said though he was extremely happy for all the attention, home drums had to be beat first.
“Trinidad is a lot of miles away from Barbados and the song was made here, so for it to have reached Trinidad it would have needed to blow up here, so I will always say that the song blew up here and Trinidadians, you know they loved it, they ate it up and they pushed it further,” he said.
He noted that the first country outside of Barbados to push the song was the twin-island republic “So I’m not going to jump my home ship and say Trinidad blew up my song.
It’s a Bajan song, I dropped it here and Bajans are the ones that made it go everywhere else I did and of course, I love Trinidadians and I am a Trini at heart too but they definitely gave me a big boost to the world.”
King is set to leave for the United States on Saturday to perform at a series of events.
kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb
