Rihanna’s success as an international star has not only inspired artistes in her native Barbados but across the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, where two hip hop/pop singers hope to follow in her footsteps.
Margaret “Believe” Glynatsis and Chrystal “Skyy” Moncur, known together as NCity, have been testing the waters in the American market and are planning to move to Atlanta, where they want to promote their music and secure a recording deal.
Moncur spoke about their progress to date.
“We’ve made trips to Atlanta and Los Angeles, we performed and appeared on Hood Hard TV with DJ Aries from BET’s Rap City, as well as GREEN’s Teen Scene, and in LA we met with (producer) Terry Lewis. He gave us a little bit of input on how to get into the industry, he advised us to build a catalogue as songwriters and artistes and try both ways.
“We also performed at the Kanye West foundation in LA.”
Since there’s no music industry in the Bahamas, relocating is the best choice for Glynatsis and Moncur, especially since their kind of music was not accepted at home until recently.
“In the last year the radio stations have been pushing Bahamian artistes, but at first…if you weren’t doing authentic Bahamian music like Junkanoo, they didn’t play you. To get exposure was really, really hard. We had to put on our own events and create our own platforms to be heard,” said Glynatsis.
“A lot of groups coming up now are doing hip hop and reggae, [so] now it’s more trying to get the rest of the Caribbean and the world to take notice of us.”
When the duo initially joined forces it was to produce rather than perform. Former football teammates, they established a studio called Big Productions and focused on producing for local acts such as Lady Mill, TaDa, Cyeon, Meh Boy Dem and GG (from Trinidad).
Moncur, a rapper, started out as a solo act until the two collaborated on their first single, two years ago.
“From there we developed our own sound and got mainstream appeal,” said Glynatsis, who sings.
At the time of this interview, NCity, named after Bahamas’ capital Nassau, was trying to finish a self-titled debut album, to be released at the end of 2008. Two singles, Mood is Right, featuring Sketch, and Couldn’t Recognise, had already been released and were available on their MySpace page.
The album is expected to contain collaborations with fellow Bahamian acts MDeez and TaDa. NCity also worked with international producers who did music with Jamaican singers Brick and Lace, Wayne Beckford, a producer from Akon’s Konvict music label, and Cello from Atlanta, who worked with rap group D12.
NCity can also be heard on the soundtracks of two films: The Ball’s Alley, a Bahamian movie, and Daybreak, which is being screened at international film festivals.
For more information and to hear NCity’s music go to: http://www.myspace.com/ncitybahamas
