Pe­ter Ray Blood

Liz "Rai­jn" Stein­berg de­scribes her­self as "a re­al south girl," though be­ing res­i­dent in the Unit­ed States since 18. "I was born in Quar­ry Vil­lage," she said. "Just af­ter Siparia, and be­fore San­ta Flo­ra. I grew up with sev­en sis­ters and two broth­ers and it was beau­ti­ful grow­ing up in the south." Stein­berg has had an "ad­ven­tur­ous and in­no­v­a­tive" life in the States, and to­day is the moth­er of three daugh­ters, has two uni­ver­si­ty de­grees, has her own re­cLiz "Rai­jn" Stein­berg de­scribes her­self as "a re­al south girl," though be­ing res­i­dent in the Unit­ed States since 18. "I was born in Quar­ry Vil­lage," she said. "Just af­ter Siparia, and be­fore San­ta Flo­ra.

I grew up with sev­en sis­ters and two broth­ers and it was beau­ti­ful grow­ing up in the south." Stein­berg has had an "ad­ven­tur­ous and in­no­v­a­tive" life in the States, and to­day is the moth­er of three daugh­ters, has two uni­ver­si­ty de­grees, has her own record la­bels and pro­duces short films and videos. "Ini­tial­ly I went to the States to fur­ther my stud­ies," re­vealed Stein­berg. "Pri­or to mi­grat­ing, I worked as a draughts­man with Trinidad Tesoro (now called Petrotrin), so I went there to be­come an ar­chi­tect. When I got there I stayed with an aunt in Philadel­phia. But, af­ter six months, she moved to Mi­a­mi, leav­ing me in an apart­ment all by my­self. I had to come up with ways to sur­vive in a strange coun­try. I cre­at­ed a day care in the apart­ment and be­gan do­ing hair. I was very suc­cess­ful at braid­ing, so much so I was mak­ing enough mon­ey to send back home to my fam­i­ly."

Hav­ing met her daugh­ters' fa­ther, Stein­berg moved to New York. She said: "My hus­band didn't want me to work but, af­ter I had my sec­ond daugh­ter, I de­cid­ed to get in­to the mu­sic busi­ness with my hus­band as we both loved mu­sic. Our first la­bel was Nat­ty Pro­duc­tions and we end­ed up pro­duc­ing al­most every con­scious lyri­cist in Ja­maica, in­clud­ing Fred­die Mc­Gre­gor, Co­coa Tea, and Hopeton Lin­don. "I opened a store in Queens, sell­ing stuff from Ja­maica and T&T. I al­so be­came the book­ing agent for top Ja­maican artistes like Lu­ciano, Fire Links, Bu­ju Ban­ton, and Su­per Cat. I al­so signed a one-al­bum deal with Greensleeves Records in Lon­don and did a cov­er of Whit­ney Hous­ton's I Will Al­ways Love You, on the "ac­tion rid­dim," in reg­gae. The sin­gle was dis­trib­uted by VP Records and went to the top of the reg­gae charts in New York. "Fol­low­ing this I be­gan Ex­it 20, a R&B la­bel, and pro­duced a quar­tet of girls who called them­selves Mara­jani. We were of­fered a deal by Sean P Did­dy Combs (Puff Dad­dy) but the girls didn't want to sign with him. I sub­se­quent­ly passed over my artistes to a friend and re­turned to my aca­d­e­mics.

I did film with the New York Film Acad­e­my and pur­sued my mas­ters at Suny Old West­bury in Long Is­land." By the time Stein­berg ac­quired her de­grees, her book­ing agency and store were "boom­ing." Un­for­tu­nate­ly, af­ter ten years, Stein­berg's mar­riage hit the rocks, and she as­sumed the role of a sin­gle moth­er. In 2005 she re­turned to Trinidad. "I came home in 1999 and when I saw what Trinidad had be­come I be­came home­sick. Then I thought the place was just beau­ti­ful. How­ev­er, when I re­turned home for good it was a case of cul­ture shock. I re­alised that the cul­ture of Trinidad wasn't re­al­ly what I thought it was when I vis­it­ed ear­li­er. Trinidad was no longer that beau­ti­ful place I'd left, which I'd loved so much; where peo­ple cared about each oth­er, where fam­i­ly life was good and peo­ple re­spect­ed each oth­er. Be­ing a south girl, who grew up with the fam­i­ly be­ing at the cen­tre, it was worse for me to ad­just to this "new" Trinidad. "So, here I was, heart­bro­ken and miss­ing my girls. I be­gan look­ing for a space that I'd be com­fort­able in.

Luck­i­ly I got a job al­most im­me­di­ate­ly up­on my re­turn. I re­turned to ar­chi­tec­ture, and was even in­volved in the con­struc­tion of Mil­ner Hall at UWI. In my first five years back home there was a lot of dra­ma in my life, per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly. In 2010, I de­cid­ed to get back in­to my mu­sic se­ri­ous­ly as it was my first love, with film be­ing my sec­ond. I de­cid­ed to in­cor­po­rate the two and, as they say, the rest if his­to­ry. "I cre­at­ed a band called Jah­ban­dis T&T, which was of­fered a tour to Africa, and re­sumed com­pos­ing and record­ing." Stein­berg re­leased a video of her com­po­si­tion Rai­jn: The World Needs More Love on April 4, fol­lowed by the CD. She said: "I in­tend do­ing a com­plete al­bum by June month end. So far, the sin­gle has been get­ting a lot of air­play and the video is on ro­ta­tion on Syn­er­gy TV, Tem­po and You Tube. "This is a re­birth of me, thus my stage name Rai­jn (pro­nounced Rain).

Rain is life and makes every­thing grow. It is al­so one of the el­e­ments of the Orisa de­ity Os­un. It's al­so about love. I want to be­come an epi­dem­ic to the world. The world needs a hel­lu­va lot more love and I plan to be­come the ve­hi­cle for spread­ing love world­wide through my mu­sic and films."ord la­bels and pro­duces short films and videos. "Ini­tial­ly I went to the States to fur­ther my stud­ies," re­vealed Stein­berg. "Pri­or to mi­grat­ing, I worked as a draughts­man with Trinidad Tesoro (now called Petrotrin), so I went there to be­come an ar­chi­tect. When I got there I stayed with an aunt in Philadel­phia. But, af­ter six months, she moved to Mi­a­mi, leav­ing me in an apart­ment all by my­self. I had to come up with ways to sur­vive in a strange coun­try. I cre­at­ed a day care in the apart­ment and be­gan do­ing hair. I was very suc­cess­ful at braid­ing, so much so I was mak­ing enough mon­ey to send back home to my fam­i­ly." Hav­ing met her daugh­ters' fa­ther, Stein­berg moved to New York. She said: "My hus­band didn't want me to work but, af­ter I had my sec­ond daugh­ter, I de­cid­ed to get in­to the mu­sic busi­ness with my hus­band as we both loved mu­sic.

Our first la­bel was Nat­ty Pro­duc­tions and we end­ed up pro­duc­ing al­most every con­scious lyri­cist in Ja­maica, in­clud­ing Fred­die Mc­Gre­gor, Co­coa Tea, and Hopeton Lin­don. "I opened a store in Queens, sell­ing stuff from Ja­maica and T&T. I al­so be­came the book­ing agent for top Ja­maican artistes like Lu­ciano, Fire Links, Bu­ju Ban­ton, and Su­per Cat. I al­so signed a one-al­bum deal with Greensleeves Records in Lon­don and did a cov­er of Whit­ney Hous­ton's I Will Al­ways Love You, on the "ac­tion rid­dim," in reg­gae. The sin­gle was dis­trib­uted by VP Records and went to the top of the reg­gae charts in New York. "Fol­low­ing this I be­gan Ex­it 20, a R&B la­bel, and pro­duced a quar­tet of girls who called them­selves Mara­jani. We were of­fered a deal by Sean P Did­dy Combs (Puff Dad­dy) but the girls didn't want to sign with him. I sub­se­quent­ly passed over my artistes to a friend and re­turned to my aca­d­e­mics. I did film with the New York Film Acad­e­my and pur­sued my mas­ters at Suny Old West­bury in Long Is­land."

By the time Stein­berg ac­quired her de­grees, her book­ing agency and store were "boom­ing." Un­for­tu­nate­ly, af­ter ten years, Stein­berg's mar­riage hit the rocks, and she as­sumed the role of a sin­gle moth­er. In 2005 she re­turned to Trinidad. "I came home in 1999 and when I saw what Trinidad had be­come I be­came home­sick. Then I thought the place was just beau­ti­ful. How­ev­er, when I re­turned home for good it was a case of cul­ture shock. I re­alised that the cul­ture of Trinidad wasn't re­al­ly what I thought it was when I vis­it­ed ear­li­er. Trinidad was no longer that beau­ti­ful place I'd left, which I'd loved so much; where peo­ple cared about each oth­er, where fam­i­ly life was good and peo­ple re­spect­ed each oth­er. Be­ing a south girl, who grew up with the fam­i­ly be­ing at the cen­tre, it was worse for me to ad­just to this "new" Trinidad. "So, here I was, heart­bro­ken and miss­ing my girls.

I be­gan look­ing for a space that I'd be com­fort­able in. Luck­i­ly I got a job al­most im­me­di­ate­ly up­on my re­turn. I re­turned to ar­chi­tec­ture, and was even in­volved in the con­struc­tion of Mil­ner Hall at UWI. In my first five years back home there was a lot of dra­ma in my life, per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly. In 2010, I de­cid­ed to get back in­to my mu­sic se­ri­ous­ly as it was my first love, with film be­ing my sec­ond. I de­cid­ed to in­cor­po­rate the two and, as they say, the rest if his­to­ry. "I cre­at­ed a band called Jah­ban­dis T&T, which was of­fered a tour to Africa, and re­sumed com­pos­ing and record­ing." Stein­berg re­leased a video of her com­po­si­tion Rai­jn: The World Needs More Love on April 4, fol­lowed by the CD. She said: "I in­tend do­ing a com­plete al­bum by June month end.

So far, the sin­gle has been get­ting a lot of air­play and the video is on ro­ta­tion on Syn­er­gy TV, Tem­po and You Tube. "This is a re­birth of me, thus my stage name Rai­jn (pro­nounced Rain). Rain is life and makes every­thing grow. It is al­so one of the el­e­ments of the Orisa de­ity Os­un. It's al­so about love. I want to be­come an epi­dem­ic to the world. The world needs a hel­lu­va lot more love and I plan to be­come the ve­hi­cle for spread­ing love world­wide through my mu­sic and films."