As a member of the buzz-generating DJ outfit Major Lazer, Trinidadian Chris Leacock interacts regularly with pop music stars. Usher, Rita Ora and Ezra Koenig, lead singer of the band Vampire Weekend, are just a few of the well-known artistes who have worked with the trio. But when asked to name the person he'd been most excited to meet in the four years he's been with the group, Leacock–aka Jillionaire–pointed to the comparatively obscure 61-year-old British radio DJ David Rodigan, who for decades has been helping to promote Jamaican music in that country. Rodigan was last year appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his work.
Rodigan's influence was one of the reasons a boy from Chaguanas wanted to work the turntables, persevering despite the hard times many DJs see, until he's now touring the world, selling out shows across Europe."His music and his style [are] timeless," Leacock said of Rodigan in an e-mail exchange. "And he continues to mash up the dance and introduce new audiences to reggae and dancehall."This is much like Major Lazer. The group's second album, Free the Universe, was released last month to a good reception by critics and audiences. Featuring a dizzying array of pop vocal talent, including Wyclef Jean, Shaggy, and Santigold, the record is a playful showcase of almost every modern musical style, with dancehall most prominent.
Their debut album Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do spawned the popular single Pon De Floor. With Vybz Kartel on vocals, the song was made into a video featuring eye-popping demonstrations of the erotic dance moves Jamaicans call "daggering" and later used to produce the Beyonce hit Run the World (Girls). Major Lazer was founded by DJs/producers Diplo (Wes Pentz) and Switch (Dave Taylor). Leacock met Switch when Switch visited Trinidad in 2006 to work on some tracks with British rapper MIA."We had some friends in common, and we hung out and worked on some things," said Leacock.
He later met Diplo and contributed work to Guns Don't Kill People that didn't make the final cut. When Switch and Diplo parted ways in 2011, Diplo asked Leacock and Jamaican DJ Walshy Fire (Leighton Walsh) to join the combo.Diplo, who was nominated for a Grammy this year for his work with Justin Bieber, No Doubt, Snoop Lion and others, played in Trinidad in 2011 at Show & Tell, an occasional arts and media talkshop hosted by the ad house AbovegroupOgilvy, at the Fernandes Compound, Laventille.
He and Leacock returned earlier this year for Carnival. The team worked on a remix of Bunji Garlin's Differentology, overlaying the soca hit with a hard, throbbing dance beat. They have been playing it and JW and Blaze's 2010 road march Palance at their live shows. (The latter, said Leacock, is "one of the biggest songs we do in terms of crowd reaction.")It's the Differentology remix that has garnered for Major Lazer the attention of listeners in T&T, where the electronic dance music scene is growing but still small."I never actually knew that Trinidad cared what we were up to till we put out that Differentology remix. And now the Internet won't leave me alone," said Leacock."Which is great!" he added. "Our agent says we get more requests from Trinidad now than anywhere else, including South Florida (where Diplo is from)."
Major Lazer has played Jamaica and a handful of other Caribbean islands but not yet T&T. That's going to change, said Leacock."We're working with a few friends down in Trinidad on putting our own show together so that we can get it just right," said Leacock. "This is something that we really want to do as soon as our touring schedule opens up a little bit."
In the meantime, other soca collaborations are in the works."We're working on two tracks with Machel Montano for our next EP. One is a 4/4 thing with Pharrell and the other is a power soca. We just did a remix for [US rapper and musician] Macklemore with [T&T producer] 1st Klase and Swappi. I'm working on something with Shurwayne. And we definitely wanna work with Kees and that whole crew."
Jillionaire, who now lives in Los Angeles, will be returning to T&T for a stint at the Zen nightclub on May 29. Co-conspirator Walshy Fire will play at O2 on June 1.Outside of Major Lazer, Leacock is working on an EP and his own record label, Feel Up Recordings. Major Lazer, meanwhile, is carrying the driving rhythm and sometimes-crazy euphoria of Caribbean music concerts to an international audience. On April 29, the group tweeted a photo of a fan in a wheelchair on stage in Utrecht, arms raised, surrounded by confetti and being given what looks like a lap dance by a scantily-clad woman. Smiling, sweat-drenched faces in the audience look on.
Leacock is matter-of-fact about the excitement Major Lazer is generating and the modest level of fame he has attained."I'm much more excited about being able to highlight my culture and the work of local artistes on a global stage," he said. "Trinidad will find something else to obsess over by the time this goes to print, but I'm just trying to do my little part to push soca music and our artistes into the limelight, as clich�d as that sounds."About the name Jillionaire, he said a friend "gave me that name as a kind of joke and it just stuck."Too late to change it now, I guess."