Young entertainer releases songs on situation in Guyana
By Chamanlall Naipaul
Guyana Chronicle
January 3, 2003

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A YOUNG Guyanese entertainer, Carlos Williams, in association with producer Burch Simon has released three songs reflecting some of his inner thoughts on the present situation in Guyana and around the world.

The compositions are ‘Gunshot a fire’, ‘Why de hell you want to dis Guyana’ and ‘Touch me’. They all have a ‘Ragga Soca’ beat, which Williams said, is a more modern and advanced form of the soca rhythm originating from Trinidad and Tobago.

Williams, in an interview with the Chronicle, related that ‘Gunshot a fire’ carries a message rejecting violence and promoting peace. He explained that he was inspired to do this piece because of the increasing tendency towards violence in Guyana and the world as a whole, observing that while his music is fundamentally composed for entertainment purposes, he nevertheless, also tries to send a positive message, because he is concerned about the decline of moral standards and increasing violence in the society.

The second piece, ‘Why de hell you want to dis Guyana’ chides Trinidadians for speaking in derogatory terms of Guyanese. Williams who has travelled regularly to the twin-island republic to perform, explained that on one particular occasion while he was in the capital, Port-of-Spain, he overheard Trinidadians describing Guyanese as "thieves, crooks and scamps". This affected him greatly, influencing him to compose the song which rejects that negative perception of Guyanese.

‘Touch me’, however, deviates from the social theme and delves more into the emotional workings of the human mind. Williams explained that during a recent trip to Trinidad, he saw a photo of a girl in the ‘Punch’ newspaper and was totally captivated and struck by her beauty. He shyly admits that he might even be in love with her. This, he said, inspired him to put together the composition expressing his inner feelings for the girl.

The unassuming Williams, is a quiet and soft-spoken young man, 21-years-old, and hails from a humble background. He was born and grew up in the quietudes of the farming community of Canal No. 1, West Bank Demerara, and aspires to move his music to the United States to popularise and make it more commercially viable.

He began his entertainment career as a disc jockey through which he discovered his talent for singing. He told the Chronicle that he has travelled to Barbados, Bahamas, Trinidad and Jamaica since 1998. But it was in 2001 while in Jamaica, that he was influenced more strongly into a singing career and has been fairly successful so far. He admits that he could have achieved much more in the entertainment field already, but he lacked the relevant knowledge of the business at the beginning of the venture into a musical career.

He has the distinction of performing alongside entertainers of international repute, including Kevin Lyttle of St. Vincent, Super P of Grenada and Iwa George of Trinidad.

Williams feels that local entertainers should be given greater respect and local businesses should provide more support and assistance to young and budding entertainers. He is of the opinion that businesses should invest more in the musical field and is hoping that a member of the business community would establish a recording studio, which would give local artistes greater impetus and opportunities to record their music as presently they have to do so in other countries, and this is very costly.

Last year, Williams also released two songs: ‘Police Santa Claus’ and ‘Shady tek dat’. The former was a criticism of persons giving bribes to the Police, thus encouraging corruption, while the latter was a reply to another song that was critical of him.

‘Reflecting through music’: Carlos Williams

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