Hip hop artists Krazy Kurtastrophy, Keno Nocturn, Jsmoke Da Warnin and Joe Black collaborated earlier this year on the reggae/hip hop single Chosen Few. It was produced by Rishi “Mo'Times Productions” Ramlagan, with a music video directed by Kirt Carmona for Central Nervous System Productions.
The collaborating artistes shared the history and message of the song in an interview. The team has already been featured on television interviews, as well as radio talk segments locally in promotion of the single. One of the target audiences for Chosen Few is youth who may be afraid to follow careers and life paths that are considered against the norm.
"The message of the song is to follow your dream and don't ever let anyone tell you what you can or cannot achieve in life," said Krazy Kurtastrophy (real name Kirt Carmona).
"We are here to let them know that it is okay to express themselves through art, music or whatever form of entertainment you choose," he said.
The collaboration was a long time in the making.
"We all knew each other for some time now and Rishi pulled it all together," said Nocturn.
"We all came together for Chosen Few as leaders in our respective teams to make this happen; we've all known each other a few years."
Jsmoke Da Warnin—real name Jelani Nedd—was responsible for the hook and also brought the fourth collaborator and his Cloud9TT Studios colleague, Joe Black into the collaboration.
"I wrote and recorded the hook, Black laid down his verse, Keno recorded his verse at another studio and sent the files to Rishi, along with what we had done and the song was created. Rishi got the song mixed and mastered and, seeing that Krazy K was already an aspiring videographer, we all thought it fitting for him to shoot the music video."
Joe Black, the catalyst behind Chosen Few's concept and featured in verse two, defined his role as one intended to bring a "dramatic and picturesque" hype to the song.
"When I was writing this verse, I decided that since we were the realest, more established artistes in the T&T hip hop game, I would give that street scripture to give knowledge of who is who, and who does what and why we are the Chosen Few. We worked through the blood, sweat, tears and years to gain the respect for what we do in our different lyrical styles."
The collaborators all agreed that the message behind Chosen Few is one meant to both empower others as well as a declaration of their own hard work and success to date. They sought to represent their different hip hop factions, the chosen few who have dedicated their work to the hip hop music genre both at home and abroad.
"We have been here, working, grinding, losing, winning and our contribution to the music and potential market cannot and will not be ignored. We are a chosen generation in more aspects than one and should be recognised as such. Rebels in our own right but not anarchists in d least," said Nedd.
After the music video's strong debut on social media and Synergy TV, the group is hoping to push the song and the music video through the radio circuit, more television stations and also through performances.