“D’Termine Nation”, a Vincentian independent label, is attempting to open doors for talented local artistes who are not confined to one genre of music.
The label is headed by Carlson “D’Termine” Hannaway, of Barrouallie, who is on a mission, along with his collaborator “Genna Gen”.
On the heels of his “Better Way” album, D’Termine is trying to do to create just that for other local artistes, make a better way by spreading their wings locally and overseas.
“We are all about music,” D’Termine said, adding that his label has attracted artistes such as “101 Stunna” (of Bone in the Turkey parang fame), “Moonskull”, Keith Currency and Akene “Prez” Keizer.
D’Termine said that in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), there are talented artistes that can sing all genres of music, so much so that one artiste released soca, hip-hop and dancehall tracks.
He said this shows creativity but there is a problem in that the local disc jockeys and radio stations do not support local, except during Carnival and that needs to change.
“The problem here is to get the DJs them playing local music and push it in the ear of people. They not pushing the local music in the ear of people so people not really recognising their own except for carnival but there are other artistes, big talents here so the DJs need to play the local music because the quality is good and if you play local, people will rate you because you support your own,” D’Termine said.
He added: “Good things are happening, and we are trying to link up Vincy to the whole of the Caribbean.
“We are trying to put Vincy music out there and do collaborations with the wider world and other artistes and trying to achieve bigger that what happen before.”
D’Termine said most local artistes started off with the dancehall genre but had to transition to soca to get recognition.
And while there are big artistes Vincentian artistes who have made an impact internationally, SVG is still behind in relation to national festivals, he said.
He said that the local festivals are not big enough, compared to other countries, although SVG has the facilities and can put off good shows.
“We have a lot of artistes like Skinny and other young talents like L Pank, Small Circle so we need that opportunity to push.
“We have the international airport and people travel for festivals and people travel long distances and hours on a plane just to get to Jamaica or Barbados for Crop Over or Reggae on the Hill and the international airport will be in use if we start to have some big festivals here,” D’Termine said.
He said that through collaboration with an entity called “Vincy Link Up” he is hoping that a Vincy festival with links to other festival in other countries can be achieved.
“There is a festival in St. Maarten linked to a festival in St. Lucia and St. Lucia can link to Vincy,” D’Termine noted.
“I would encourage all artistes to keep on doing your things no matter how hard or what people may say. Once you have a talent, stick to it … my label recognises talent so if you come and we see your talent is there we will definitely help,” he said while revealing that he is in the process of securing equipment to open a studio and is also hoping to establish some international links.
“Vincentians can break into any genre. People jumped to soca to get their music out there, but a lot of genres have talent. Look at Abuza, Dynamite, Yafatu, Skinny, Sergeant Bread, Icon…” D’Termine stressed.
He is based in Villa and has links with Mark Cyrus of Masteroom Studios, Barbadian Peter Coppin and the Jamaican entities DZL Records and Rickman Warren at Jamplified and other persons in the industry.
D’Termine’s songs include “Ghetto Girls”, “Don’t Wanna Let You Go” and “Summer Fling” and his album encompasses all genres, soca, dancehall and reggae.
D’Termine’s songs can be heard and viewed on YouTube and bought on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes and Google Play.
Most were recorded in Jamaica and he noted that he is working on collaborations with “101 Stunna”, “Moonskull” and Keith Currency along with artistes in Jamaica and Barbados. He has website
He has an official website and can be found on Facebook at “D’Termine”, on YouTube at “D’termine Official” and “dtermineofficial” on Instagram.