REJECTOR SELECTED

President of the Brooklyn-based Dynamite Calypso Tent Carlos “Rejector” Providence says he will “Use The Anthem” when he competes this Sunday night in the Grand Finale of the Calypso Monarch Competition in Vincy Mas, the national carnival, at Victoria Park in Kingstown, the Vincentian capital.

Rejector, a former National Calypso Monarch in Vincy Mas, is among 11 calypsonians who will compete for the calypso crown Sunday night.

The president of the Dynamite Calypso Tent, the lone Vincentian calypso tent in North America, was selected among four calypsonians who competed in the preliminary judging for Vincy Mas 2023, on June 10, at Palace Hall on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. The others were Delahanty Isles, Dennis Bowman and Jose Juan, with De Man Age, a former National Calypso King, as reserve.

Rejector is the only calypsonian from the Dynamite Calypso Tent to be selected for the Grand Finale Sunday night. Dennis Bowman (“Do Something”) was named as a reserve.

The others selected are: Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd (“The Price of Neglect”); Shaunelle McKenzie (“Who to Blame”); Shena Collis (“Beat Yo Bad with Calypso”); Phylicia “Nubian Empress” Alexander (“Reckless Driving”); Gosnel “GC” Cupid (“Crisis”);

Robert “Patches” Knight (“Do the Right Thing”); Bernard “Reality” White (“I am Calypso”); Omani Cupid (“My Time”); Glenroy “Sulle” Caesar (“We Outside”); and Cleo “Cleopatra” Hendrickson (“Gun Violence”).

In the preliminary and semifinal rounds of the Calypso Monarch Competition in Viny Mas 2023, Rejector urged his compatriots to “Use The Anthem”, stating that “we’re descending into a state of crime somehow.

“We embracing negatives/increasing despair,” he sang. “Seems no one or nothing’s left to turn to/to uplift Hairouna (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). But I say we have the perfect panacea.

“I suggest, use the anthem/there’s no other song more inspiring/play the anthem more/for a people in need of uplifting,” added Rejector in the chorus. “Use the Anthem/it’s designed to help us through anguishing. Hope’s steadily fading/everything’s failing. My country, the time is due/to try something new/and our faith will see us through.”

Immediately after performing in the preliminary round at The Palace, co-Master of Ceremonies Bennett Straker remarked: “We cannot reject the Rejector tonight.

“We may have to have a GoFundMe, because a lot of them going down (to compete in the semi-final round in the National Calypso Competition in Vincy Mas),” added Straker, also a calypsonian and comedian, and former elementary school teacher in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who shared the Master of Ceremonies duties with Hercules, a Grenadian calypsonian and comedian as well.

Rejector told Caribbean Life Monday night that performing in the Grand Finale is not new to him.

“I intend to make it my biggest and best performance ever, for it is the opinion of many persons and myself that this (‘Use The Anthem’) is the most original and powerful I have written and heard throughout the Caribbean in a long time,” he said.

Rejector is the younger brother of former Road March and Calypso Monarch in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the late Lloyd “Caribbean Hawke” Providence.

Rejector said he began singing at 11 as a student at the Kingstown Anglican School, an elementary school.

At 13, he said he was crowned Primary School Calypso Monarch, and has been “writing and performing calypsos ever since.”

Rejector said he performed with the Calypso Theatre in Kingstown, headed by the Vibrating Scakes for three years before co-founding the Calypso Classroom in 1980 with I reality, Lord Have Mercy and the late Duster.

That same year, Rejector placed 4th in the Vincy Calypso Monarch Competition.

In 1981, he formed the On Tour Calypso Tent, along with Claudius “Samaritan Singer” Morgan, Cornelius “Poorsah” Williams and Cauldric “Seedy” Straker.

Rejector was crowned Calypso Monarch and Independence Monarch in 1992 and 1996, respectively, in Vincy Mas; was a semi-finalist and finalist on numerous occasions; and placed third in 2009 in Vincy Mas.

After migrating to New York in 2000, Rejector said he co-founded the Dynamite Calypso Tent.

In the interim, he said he was crowned Calypso Monarch in Washington, D.C in 2003 and 2005, and in Baltimore in 2005, placing third the next year.

In 2004, Rejector said he placed 2nd and won the People’s Choice Award in Miami Carnival.

Among Rejector’s memorable hits are “Drug Menace,” My Banana Is It,” “Invitation to Columbia,” “Upgrade the Satellite Dish,” “Unethical Doctor,” “Hairouna” and “Vagrant Life.”