Trinidad Jame$ Shows Off His Island
By Nigel Telesford
Story Created: Apr 7, 2013 at 1:10 AM ECT <![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/076eXb3Xx5c" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/076eXb3Xx5c</a>]]>Trinidad-born, Atlanta-based rapper, Trinidad Jame$ (Nicholaus Williams) continues to showcase “the beauty” of his homeland with the release of his latest video, Females Welcomed last week.
Filmed in and around Port of Spain during Carnival 2013 by acclaimed photographer and director, Jonathan Mannion, the video features cameo appearances from Soca Monarch Machel Montano, Miss World Trinidad and Tobago 2012 Athaliah Samuel and HD Family Princess Patrice Roberts, as well as an explosive cast of blue devils and fire blowers. Speaking to the Express, Williams thanked the residents of Nelson Street — where several of the major scenes were shot and said he wanted to show Trinidad as no one else had done before.
“Whether you accept me as a Trini or not, I’m proud to be a Trinidadian. I wanna give an extra blessing to the island and show its real culture and not just the glitz and glam.”
“Females Welcomed” is the third single to be released from Jame$’ groundbreaking mixtape, Don’t Be SAFE. Following an MTV Rap Fix Live World Premiere, the new video was uploaded to various web and social media sites on March 27 and has since attracted more than 400,000 views on Vevo (up to press time).
Mannion describes himself as an “honourary Trini” having visited our shores for Carnival religiously over the past nine years.
“I’d been working in Jamaica for about 15 years doing album covers for Capleton and Buju, Beenie Man, Jah Cure and everybody along the way,” he recalled. “Rupee brought me down in 2005 and I didn’t know anything then, but once I arrived, within 20 minutes I was like: oooh! I get it! This is incredible! It was quite a moment to experience it for the first time and my eyes were wide open for the whole trip — beautiful people, amazing food, the spirit in the air was unbelievable and I think I drank all the rum I could find on the island that first time and I’ve been coming back every year since.”
Approached by Jame$ last year prior to his record deal with Def Jam, Mannion said they agreed to return to Trinidad “when the time was right” and capture the authentic energy of the island and the culture.
“My agenda walking into this video was to almost create a volume switch so there’s a growth from start to finish,” Mannion explained. “Just as the Carnival season builds, cause typically I would come down from like the Wednesday before to the Tuesday and there’s a constant build — so that whenever you think it can’t get better, it does… So it starts off like you would wake up, you have a Stag, you holla at some cute girls and Athaliah was great in it and totally gave of herself freely — and we wanted to create the story of a side-girl and a main girl, but not being obvious about it, nobody was being dissed and in a way: it’s sort of what Carnival culture is about cause you can have some fun with one girl and say, see you later babes and then move on to the next one and honestly, I feel like it was in the positive spirit of all that Carnival really is; that freedom and that ability to share a moment in the spirit of Carnival, to ‘tief ah wine’ as you say and have a good laugh or two…
“So that’s the start of it — a calmer, daytime vibe and certainly, with the transition of the song, we wanted to slow everything down and let the images really sink, while the volume builds and it became more of a frenzy and we add the fire and it builds and builds. The last 20 seconds, I actually asked the engineer to add that bit of music because I had some visuals I wasn’t willing to sacrifice, so we created it just for the video. It was the way for me to take up one more notch — just when you thought it was over, he excites people to go to that next level and embraces the culture symbolically with the Trini flag and face-painting.”
Mannion kick-started his career in 1996, when he photographed the album cover of rapper, Sean “Jay Z” Carter’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Since then, he has photographed most of the top hip-hop and dancehall artistes and directed approximately 15 music videos, including: One Blood with The Game and Junior Reid, J Holiday’s hit Bed and Jasmine Sullivan’s Need U Bad. Athaliah Samuel stars in Jame$’ 4-minute clip and describes the experience as “priceless, professional and a lot of fun”.
“Working on this video was really a blast!” She enthused. “It’s my first international video and the fact that they were able to do all our scenes in one day made me feel really proud to be a part of the production. Jonathan Mannion was in charge on set and like Jame$, he was very gracious and polite and professional, while still communicating exactly what he wanted from us models and dancers. I think my scenes were very tastefully done and even though this video is for the rap/hip-hop market, I think they showcased Trinidad and our culture very well and made a very classy video in the end. I am the reigning Ms T&T and I’m embracing all my experiences as I stay focused and walk the path that God leads me on to. I hope that everyone will support Trinidad Jame$ and the video because he’s really very passionate about showcasing and embracing his homeland and he’s taking us along for the ride as he opens doors and breaks down barriers for the red, white and black.”
Aside from thanking all the crews, cast members and extras who contributed to the production, Mannion and Jame$ also gave kudos to Soca Monarch Machel Montano for facilitating the trip and lending his advice.
“I must give a special extra shout out,” said Mannion, “to Kara Barnett, Devaughn Hughson, John “Stevie” White, Tom Marvel, Princess and Machel Montano!”
“I gotta salute Nelson Street and give much respect to the owners of that bar on Nelson also,” said Jame$. “Thank you to the Montanos for believing, accepting and embracing me from the beginning — they really paved the way for all of this to happen and gave of their time and energy and resources without asking for a thing in return. Much love to my family at home of course — I hope they feeling the video and once again, big ups to T&T and all the islands man. We winning!”
