NARIS­SA FRAS­ER

Af­ter dom­i­nat­ing Spice­mas in 2025, sev­er­al Grena­di­an so­ca hits are tak­ing over Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions. So it’s no sur­prise the artistes flew over to give au­di­ences a di­rect taste of their coun­try’s Jab en­er­gy.

Some top tunes in­clude Jab De­ci­sions by V’ghn and Ter­ra D Gov­er­nor, Pay­roll by Mud­dy—which won Grena­da’s So­ca Monarch—and Lil Ker­ry’s Road March-win­ning banger, Bury All.

Now-icon­ic lines like “Put d Jab Jab on a pay­roll,” “Ar­gu­ment that done now,” and “From Ju­ly reach, I in Grena­da” con­tin­ue to ring out at fetes.

The singers ex­pressed both amaze­ment and hu­mil­i­ty. V’ghn told Guardian Me­dia he knew the song had a “spe­cial en­er­gy” but the pub­lic’s re­ac­tion ce­ment­ed it, for which he is grate­ful. It fol­lows a drunk mas­quer­ad­er mak­ing some ques­tion­able de­ci­sions–and T&T au­di­ences are re­lat­ing heav­i­ly.

“Trinidad so far has been amaz­ing… It’s a place I hold dear to my heart,” he said. “I al­ways en­joy com­ing back here to con­nect with my fans and make new ones.”

Mud­dy shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments. As he pro­claims on Pay­roll, the “stars aligned” for him. Sport­ing dif­fer­ent bags as he sings the catchy line, “Ah have meh back­pack and ah ready,” he’s been greet­ed by roar­ing crowds in T&T. He re­called Spice­mas be­ing “noth­ing short of amaz­ing,” which led to this mo­ment.

“We are em­braced by the peo­ple of T&T and they’re lov­ing the Jab en­er­gy. It’s in­fec­tious.”

Pay­roll sits at 85 on Rolling Stones’ 100 Best Songs of 2025. High­light­ing this, he said the ex­tent of its suc­cess left him in awe. He added that it’s “an ex­trav­a­gant, ex­cit­ing feel­ing” shar­ing stages with fel­low Grena­di­ans and see­ing them ex­cel. “We shine as one big, bright 473 star.”

An in­tense pow­er track, Bury All by Lil Ker­ry urges feters to “build the vibes” and “mash it up till it over.” Its lo­cal suc­cess showed him “how pow­er­ful the con­nec­tion was be­tween the mu­sic and the cul­ture.” So learn­ing it did well across Cari­com was an­oth­er pleas­ant sur­prise and he is grate­ful.

“I al­ways aim for (my mu­sic) to con­nect be­yond bor­ders… The en­er­gy in T&T has been amaz­ing from the mo­ment I ar­rived,” he said. “The love for so­ca here is un­matched, and the crowds, the fetes, and the over­all Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence have been in­cred­i­ble.”

He is al­so proud of the oth­er artistes, who con­tin­ue to “el­e­vate the cul­ture and sup­port each oth­er.”

Grease It by Dred Li­on and Do For Do by Tall­pree and Smok­ie are al­so do­ing well here. The for­mer went vi­ral due to its com­i­cal lyrics, “I feel like a callaloo/dasheen leaf in the rain,” along with the singer’s on-stage an­tics of danc­ing with dasheen bush while wear­ing box­ers, boots, a jack­et and tie.

“For it to do this well, I was very elat­ed. It was a kind of un­re­al ex­cite­ment. I wasn’t ex­pect­ing any of it.” It’s his first vis­it and he’s soak­ing it all in. “A lot of peo­ple are shocked be­cause of the cos­tume,” he said, laugh­ing­ly. “But it’s amaz­ing to be part of his­to­ry in re­al time.”

So­ca vet­er­an Tall­pree said it’s al­ways good to see the suc­cess of Jab mu­sic.

“I feel like we built a bridge from Grena­da to T&T years ago.”

Do For Do is about giv­ing oth­ers the same en­er­gy they give you. He said so­cial me­dia played a role in it cross­ing bor­ders as not every­thing makes it to the ra­dio. He al­so re­called urg­ing the younger artistes to vis­it T&T in Oc­to­ber.

“That way, you can see how things are pro­gress­ing in the mec­ca and show the peo­ple what you have to of­fer.” He said the crowd re­sponse has been “crazy” and they’re get­ting a lot of love. “As one of the old­er ones, it just feels good to see every­one do well.”

Pro­duc­ers equal­ly grate­ful

Jab De­ci­sions pro­duc­er Kay Frass is still mind-blown. “Lord, the so­cial me­dia was go­ing wild,” he re­called. “When they per­formed it to­geth­er and I saw how crazy peo­ple were, I was like, ‘Look at the kind of be­hav­iour I opened up.’” He said a friend from St Vin­cent called him say­ing, “Frass, boy, that song is the an­them up here!” It was then he knew the song “was long gone.” He added, “Hap­py to know I can give to the so­ca are­na such good mu­sic with longevi­ty.”

While Pay­roll pro­duc­er Ja­son James’ cat­a­logue in­cludes many hits, this holds a “dif­fer­ent place” in his heart.

“It was meant to be of­fi­cial­ly re­leased the year Hur­ri­cane Beryl near­ly de­stroyed my lit­tle is­land, Car­ri­a­cou, and be­cause of that, the song had to be held back.” He said it has been hum­bling and a re­minder that God’s tim­ing is best. “Deep down, I al­ways knew it was spe­cial.”

For Shaun­dy Col­lis, pro­duc­er of Bury All, the re­al­i­ty he cre­at­ed a hit kicked in on his way home from So­ca Monarch. The song placed third. “(I was) hear­ing it be­ing played in cars, shops–any­where a sound sys­tem was set up.” He added that the song cross­ing bor­ders is every pro­duc­er’s dream. “It’s a great feel­ing to see peo­ple en­joy­ing some­thing you cre­at­ed. It gives va­lid­i­ty to time spent work­ing on your craft.”

Grease It pro­duc­er Ohmic was shocked but grate­ful as it was one of his first re­leas­es as a pro­duc­er. “Last year was my first year putting out stuff and work­ing with peo­ple and mak­ing an at­tempt at mak­ing it a pro­fes­sion­al thing. I don’t think I can ask for any­thing more.”

And Do For Do co-pro­duc­er Im­pulse is thank­ful for the re­gion­al suc­cess, call­ing it “a good look.” “A lot of our pro­duc­tions are re­lat­able… Mu­sic is ex­pres­sion and it came across raw, bold and au­then­tic be­cause it has a sto­ry­line, and I be­lieve the artistes did ex­cep­tion­al­ly well,”

The pub­lic can hear these songs and more at the Jab De­ci­sions show on Feb­ru­ary 10 at Li­ons Cul­tur­al Cen­tre, Port-of-Spain.