An I-Octane performance

By Richard Johnson

OVER the past five weeks, the quality of performances at the live music series, Behind the Screens at Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records, has steadily increased.

Tessanne Chin, Tifa and Christopher Martin have put their stamp on the series. This week, it was up to conscious crusader I-Octane to bring his mettle and that he did.

By the end of his one-hour set, he had ostensibly purged all forms of ‘bad-mind’ with his firebrand lyrics and showed off his global gyalis” persona.

With such a wide range of topics to choose from, I-Octane gave those gathered real treat.

With his distinctive husky, gravel tone booming through the venue, he reeled off a steady flow of hits, and by the time he chanted opening lines to each, the audience took it and made it their own.

My Life, Nuh Love Inna Dem, Nuh Ramp Wid We, LOVE, Love the Vibes, Study Yuh Friends, Badda Dan Dem, and Come Up Inna Dis had the packed house in a frenzy. With salutes and sounds mimicking gunshots, they paid tribute to the Clarendon-born singjay.

I-Octane turned up the heat just after midnight when, out of the audience appeared deejay Bounty Killer.

His presence stoked the already blazing vibe and when they paired on the popular Badmind Dem a Pree, the temperature rose.

The ‘seven-star general’ would drop one other track, Look Into My Eyes, before departing.

I-Octane closed his set with the somber Lose a Friend, as if to calm the frenzy he had created.

It was a set sans the pyrotechnics and props he normally uses when performing outdoors. He too recognised this, noting: “Mi nuh haffi jump up and lick clappers fi get forward.”

The series continues next week with popular singjay Konshens.

Source: Jamaica observer