Looking to expand

Romario SK Cave is not only the youngest International Bashment Soca Monarch, but he is also the writer behind last year’s winning song Ben It by Lil Rick.

In 2018, Lil Rick snagged the inaugural Yello International Bashment Soca Monarch title with the widely popular song, Ben It penned by SK himself. His writing credits don’t end there. He also wrote Hover It for Lil Rick, King Bubba and Lil Rick’s verses in Tek Off Yuh Clothes, Niqo Vybz’s If Yuh Able and Wukup De Worst.

The 24-year-old has been making the rounds in the local entertainment scene for nearly a decade, starting from his Alexandra Secondary school days when he was creating songs with his computer microphone and sending them on MSN messenger. However, he wasn’t known as SK the soca artiste, but he was known for his gift of gab and also as a Barbadian dancehall artiste – a genre which he still holds dear.

His story might be a bit typical. Growing up, he was interested in theatre arts, dance, and music. He was raised in a household that was always filled with music and dancehall as his uncle was a deejay. He could often be found dropping freestyles at schools which later led to him touring schools around the island to showcase his lyrical skills.

Dancehall music was his first passion. He saw longevity in the genre and was enticed by the glamorous lives of the artistes.

“The laying of dancehall music can be more beneficial for artistes because dancehall artistes, to me, look like they are living a lot better than most of the soca artistes that you see. It looks more exciting and like it can pay off,” he explained.

“All over the world, soca plays all year round but in Barbados, when you do a dancehall song or two you can rally right through the year in your performances. Soca comes up three months and then goes back off and then you have to pray to get a soca hit that lasts,” SK further added.

He shared that he grew up surrounded by local artistes like Leadpipe, Saddis, LRG and more who noted his talent and gave him endless encouragement.

“If I had to say my inspiration to continue doing music… is the love I received from the older artistes that I grew up seeing do music, who would tell me ‘SK, you hard, you good, you could make it.’ It just helped me to keep on striving for more,” he noted.

SK started experimenting with the soca genre and realized he had a knack for it. Speaking to Bajan Vibes, he revealed that he never thought he would be singing sweet soca or power soca. The sky’s the limit for SK as he noted that if he produced a social commentary single, it would be unlike any other on the scene.

Commenting on the fact that some believed that bashment soca should be solely for Barbadians, SK argued that music was universal and excluding the other territories would be to the detriment of the development of the Barbadian bashment soca genre.

“We all do music, all genres of music. The more people that are involved in the genre, the better chance it has of staying at the top and growing to another pinnacle all the time. You got good songs that come from other countries and it is bashment; it is just that they sound a little different than us,” he emphasized.

“We also need the outsiders to be part of it for it to grow if not, it is going to stay here. It isn’t going to go anywhere else,” he continued.

Given that he made history on July 6 as the youngest competitor and for his unique arrangement of his song, SK said he was making music for his fans and even those fans disguised as haters.

“I love the fact that people out there appreciate every genre of music I do. Anything I put out there, at least one person likes it and that is good enough for me.” (KK)