The Road March bacchanal continues.
Soca artist Machel Montano has responded to Iwer George’s ‘Road March Bacchanal 2’ with his latest release ‘Dr. Mashup’. The song premiered yesterday evening on local radio stations and was uploaded to YouTube by several users. The initial uploads, however, were soon removed as many awaited an upload from Montano’s official YouTube channel. It was officially released around 9 PM.
How it began
The song was done in response to lyrics in Iwer’s song ‘Road March Bacchanal 2’ released in December 2018. Iwer’s track is a summary of the 2018 Road March competition which Machel won. It contains lyrics directed at Machel such as:
“… just when we thought that the race was done, that is when the whole of the Kingdom come,” in reference to Montano’s winning song – Soca Kingdom.
“… hesay unity is a wonderful thing, three days later he block Sunny Bling.”
This was in reference to a controversy that occurred during Iwer’s performance at Machel Monday. Local comedian Sunny Bling was allegedly prevented from joining Iwer on stage to perform his popular remix to ‘Savannah’.
“… The DJs and them playing Savannah, but when the mafia come, they switching from Savannah to Kingdom. They join forces to win the big fight… “
Machel’s response
In this response, Machel comically refers to himself as Dr. Mashup, with the cover art being a photo taken on the day he was awarded his Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). The track was produced by Wetty Beatz Production and contained background vocals from Nikita Browne.
He begins by saying “If is bacchanal they want, bacchanal they going get.” He continued, “They want to talk ’bout mash up. I am the monk, I am the king.” This was a direct reference to the chorus of ‘Road March Bacchanal 2’ – “…the whole place mash up, Savannah mash up the place…”
Some other direct lines were:
“We
nah sing ’bout man fi no Road March,” “Time to show them now who is the real boss,” and “Music is bigger than me, music is bigger than you, I don’t have time to compete.”
Comments left under the video ranged from “Iwer has left the chat” to “Iwer probably crying in a corner somewhere.”
It was Machel’s final verse that seemed to have attracted the most attention on social media. In this verse, he says Iwer sings about the same thing every year and that he should stop complaining about losing and accept defeat, or as he puts it, “take yuh licks like a man.”
At the end he reassures Iwer and everyone else that he’s just joking around.
“… but still. Yuh mash up.”
Radio station manager Anthony Chow Lin On (Chinese Laundry) later uploaded a photo to Instagram of him standing next to Machel with the caption, “Goodnight George, how
Iwer responded in the comments saying “Blessed and highly
Many fans on social media say they are hoping that Iwer responds to the track.
Listen to the song below:
