The Top 100 Soca Songs of the 2010s
by January 2, 2020Intro
The 2010s in a lot of ways has been a period of significant growth for the soca artform, elevating it from a regional phenomenon to the cusp of international status. It’s no coincidence that within this decade megastars like Drake and Justin Bieber took a short drop on the soca train to arrive at huge billboard success. By contrast, the 2000s was all about burying the umbilical cord of calypso. If you listen to soca from the late 90s, a lot of it sounds like calypso after a few expresso shots.
In the 2000s, soca became a teenager with new found freedom – taking any and all influences from genres such as dancehall, RnB and Pop and stumbling giddily, knocking over past expectations and pissing-off elders. During that period, Soca ingested the chanting lyricism of early Bunji and Treason (3 Suns?) and sipped on the sweet RnB vibes from Destra that also came laced with the sweetest wine. Not satisfied, it ate some frisky flying fish courtesy the Bajan invasion featuring Alison Hinds and co. and snacked on foreign deserts courtesy Machel with his endless collaborations ranging from Red Rat to Doug E. Fresh. This set soca on a new path and sounded the death knell on calypso as a mainstream product.
But then came the 2010s. The most immediate feature of this decade has definitely been the unmistakable sheen and polish on the music productions. From a raw engineering standpoint, the music just sounds better. Of course it is expected that things continuously improve, but when you compare soca to other genres, the uptick in sound engineering quality over this same period is stark. Listening to the entire top 100 list on Apple Music, it’s amazing that even within this decade how much soca productions have improved year on year. A decade ago, the difference in quality between a soca production and a billboard pop production was night and day. We are now at the point where a soca song doesn’t sound softer, feature muddier vocals or have a less banging bass than any song on the billboard 100. To quote Machel, we ready to bring “Soca to the universe. Now on to the list.
100) Uncle Ellis – I Doh Mind
For the real bubblers, this song is certified…when you loose like goose 6 am in the Jouvert and you hear “They say Iz a mad man…” is all over. Most importantly, this song has also blessed us with an iconic and trending dance, I watched Ellis perfect it for years right on Broadway. People laughed at his initial lack of coordination but when he turned the slight off timing into a feature, they gathered round to watch. From homelessness to my top 100 list. You can’t get better than that.
99) Subance and Uncle Ellis – Back Bend Remix
Subance is one of the early flagship holders of the St Lucian Bashment/Dennery segment style. The icing on this cake is really Uncle Ellis’ voice. Like an elite NBA role player, Ellis emerges from the bench like Lou Williams and shuts down the track – “Hand pon your knees and Bend! Bend! Bend! Bend! Bend! Bend!”. What else allyuh want from Ellis?
97) Blaxx – Gyal Owner
The concept for this song is an interesting one. On the surface it’s a female empowerment song but the most memorable line in the song is “Somebody go touch it for you”. What?!? And as these things tend to go, it quickly morphed into becoming a hornerman anthem. But it’s the best hornerman anthem.
96) Bunji Garlin – Truck On D Road
This is one of the hardest soca beats ever created and the second best soca song about trucks. After Differentology, Bunji was on the clock for a followup. Truck On D Road didn’t quite live up but we still got a song that won Jouvert Road March in 2014. What is that you ask? Something that should exist. Credit me when it becomes a thing.
95) Turner – She Bad
What if Bob Marley sang soca? This seemed like an odd thought before 2017 when Turner burst onto the soca scene. The way he puts his soul into singing about this “bad” girl makes you think every man should stop looking for wife-material and find a bad ting instead.
94) GBM Nutron – Practice
If Issa Snack didn’t exist, Practice would have been the best wining song of 2019. Ladies, GBM wants you to know on behalf of all men that the hard work you put into practicing your wine is appreciated.
93) Kes – Thief a Wine
This song is the anthem for the men who know how to thief a wine smooth smooth like Jergens provide sponsorship. It features some of the best vocals from Kes and that’s saying plenty. When you thief a wine like this, it’s like inception – the girl thinks the approach was her idea. When you thief a wine like this, as soon as the song done, the girl asking you what you drinking.
92) Kimba Sorzano – Over You
Kimba has been MIA the last few years despite having an underrated song in 2019 with Day Time Party. With his good looks and smooth voice it has been somewhat confusing he hasn’t progressed more career-wise but with this song in 2012 everything connected. The girls were feeling the chune and the fellas wasn’t vex either. It was the perfect combination of what we wanted from a good groovy soca; RnB type feels without interrupting the wine. After all, the best way to get over one gyal is to buss a wine on a next one right?
91) Lil Rick – Go Dung
Lil Rick is a big artist in Barbados and is often considered the Machel of BIM. After all, he won several Road March titles and built his reputation as a winer boy. In Trinidad, before 2010 we wasn’t really checking for him like that. This chune was the turning point. Chune was so bad, the monk himself had to jump on the remix.
90) Machel Montano x Bunji Garlin – Busshead
Some people found this song to be a disappointment – “Big artist like that and is not even Road March?” Those people were missing the point. This is one of finest jouvert songs ever, it’s one that extracts the best synergy between two very different artists. Also, we got one of the best soca verses of all time from the Viking…how you go vex with that?
89) Iwer George – Come To Meh
First thing you should know about this song; it was supposed to win the Soca Monarch crown in 2011. As a Machel fan I telling you, he get thief. Second thing, it gave “Advantage” a good run for its money for Road March. Put some respek on this chune.
88) Angela Hunte – Mon Bon Ami
This is one of the sweetest set of melodies you will ever hear in soca sparkling on a beat of pure confectionery perfection. This chune could give you diabetes. A wine when this chune playing does make you forget your bills, your problems and your ride home. With this chune, no one can ever call Angela Hunte a one hit wonder – not on my watch.
87) Swappi – Bucket
Swappi has found a great niche, teaming up with the Ultimate Rejects to dust off and apply updates and patches to ancient calypso classics. His re-brand has been successful as a new-school, lothario, calypso sagaboy. However, in 2012, after his Kartel-imitation phase, he hit his stride and a nice balance was found. In that year he dropped the underrated “Bubble on a deejay” and then quickly followed it up with “Bucket”, momentarily convincing people with no history of mental illness to abandon coolers and carry drinks in a bucket – it was subsequently abandoned for practical reasons. Either way, it’s still his best work.
86) Machel Montano – Illegal
In 2011, Machel was still dominant enough that his throwaways were still better than other artiste’s best treasures. This is the kinda chune to give you a stitch if you waist eh oil down properly. Inspiration for all top winers – “You could get charge, for wining like that.” Send me straight to jail.
85) Kes – Where Yuh From
Prior to “Wotless”, Machel passed the torch to Kes by accompanying him on the Electro Lights riddim. And in repayment, Kes blew his chune out the water.
84) Machel Montano – Showtime
Around 2017, Motto and the Dennery Segment/Bashment were low-key running soca. Shal was on the wave early doing his best Machel impression on “Dip“, which is a fine song in its own right, just missing this top 100. “Showtime” is Machel performing an OS upgrade on “Dip”, the rare kind that improves your phone speed from dead bolt to Usain Bolt. It also features one of the all time best opening Soca lines – “You! you gyal over there, time to make a movie.”
83) Voice x Wuss Ways x Travis World
This song is probably ranked too low but only because it’s still early – it was released one year ago. I preeing the scene in some fetes and boat rides recently and I have a sneaking suspicion it will be regarded at least 30 spots higher in time. The beat from Travis is pure epicness, skirting the EDM line as usual but still dropping in some iron for the downtown flex while Thunda’s voice booms triumphantly. It’s a huge encouragement seeing what Voice can achieve outside of his comfort zone, I hope he does more like this.
82) Machel Montano – Witch Doctor
Just riddim section and Machel’s voice. In 2012, the monk didn’t need much to conjure steady waistline movement.
81) Machel Montano x Kerwin Du Bois – Possessed
So many things could have gone wrong when Machel dreevayed to Africa and linked with the Ladysmith Black Mambazo group (popularized by a legendary skit in Sesame Street) for a soca collaboration. In retrospect, Machel couldn’t have chosen a better co-pilot for this adventure than writer extraordinaire and upcoming challenger to the throne Kerwin Du Bois. Kerwin’s production and writing pulled everything together in a way that is nothing short of genius. And he still found time to give himself the best verse:
“Taking over me, taking over mih soul
Is the kind of feeling that I cannot control
Messing with me body, messing with mih mind
Every time it hit mih man I does start to whine…”
The melody on “whi….iiii….iiiine”…gets me every time. Beautiful melody.
80) Ravi B – Ah Drinka
The true genius of this song is that it’s a rum song that isn’t really about rum. It’s about accepting me the way you met me. Let’s face it, that message is deeply resonant to us all. We all want to be accepted…doh try change mehhhh. That’s why it’s still his most popular song.
79) Mr Killa – Party Bad
For some reason, despite the fact that Mr Killa has had some huge hits here in Trinidad, some of his biggest chunes have gotten fight down. Howwww, is Party Bad not more known? Imagine this 2017 hit only started get more notoriety after “Run Wid It”. Shame man, this song is a guaranteed wine and wildness starter. You know the period in a cooler breakfast party around 4 am in the morning when it cold and people eh sure whether to wine yet? This song tunning it up one time. Come on Deejays, stop sleeping. Allyuh sleeping on Screwdriver too.
78) Orlando Octave – Single
It isn’t easy to do a soca song with a message. Lewwe be real, people don’t want to hear too much lecture and sermonizing when they looking for a wine. This song is the exception. The melodies are too sweet and the lyrics too hard showcasing both sides of Orlando Octave.
77) Machel Montano – Ministry of Road
In a previous article, I recognized MOR as one of the most creative soca songs and best Road March hits from the 2010s. If it seems minor for a Machel hit, it’s only in comparison to the other chunes the monk has blessed us with.
76) Marzville & Unruly Empire – Bang Bim
Hip hop has multiples grunts and ‘skrrrtts’ that widely understood onomatopoeia certified in the culture. Bang Bim is up there in soca as the audio representation of Bajans “wukking up”. It’s wining yeah but more violent than what we trinis do. Just waist crashing on bumper like angry Bocas waves on a shore line. When it start though, every man playing musical chairs looking for a waistline.
75) Kerwin Du Bois & Lil Rick – Monster Winer
There was a time we thought Kerwin was only a crooner, belting out smooth, slowish groovy soca in spite of Gyal Farm. Monster Winer let them know what the order was quick. As soon as the song start, all the winer gyal skipping to the dancefloor on tip toe.
74) Benjai – Trini
When we talk about remaking a calypso classic in soca, this is the platinum standard.
73) Kerwin Du Bois – No Apology
I don’t know how Kerwin does it but his lyrics always perfectly capture the mood within our culture. I mean partying isn’t deep but the shame and regret associated with drinking too much is. Inevitably, any remorse is cast aside and for the next few days you show the world yuh “dutty ways”. This is displayed in genius fashion via two distinct sections of the song, the reflective build up and the eventual release where we decide we eh care who judging…who vex loss.
72) Calypso Rose – Leave Me Alone
At 80 years plus, Calypso Rose is touring France, grabbing awards and breaking records. If that is not life goals, I don’t know what is. The most amazing thing is the energy she still brings to her vocal performances. Listen to “Fire in Me Wire” released more than 40 years ago and this. The ‘fire’ is still there.
71) Porgie & Murda – Benup
The name of the group is now Lead Pipe & Sadis but this is still their best song. It’s intoxicating to hear them find pockets on this jammish beat going back and forth like two rappers with hilarious ad libs to match like “whoa” and “blaw”. As a rapper myself, the lyrics in the verse are pretty impressive – they brim with personality and are coloured sharply with details.
“Well out ah luck, she mash up di carborator
It ah hurt me back like terminator WHOA!”
One of the most fun songs of the decade.
70) Preedy – Lost and Found
The rumour is, Preedy went St Lucia and wrote a normal Preedy song on this beat which I take to mean something involving soaring, pretty vocal melodies and loverboy lyrics. The producers apparently weren’t really on that and they tell him that he have to “come harder”. And that was ignition for this atypically fiery vocal performance by the one Akeem Chance. Preedy rides the beat like a champion eh but the real winner is the beat itself and its thunderous bass-line.
69) Blaxx – Hulk
When I first heard “Hulk”, I thought the concept was on a Dr Jekyll/ Mr Hyde vibes. Basically like what the comic book character is actually based on. You come in the party normel and after some drinks you feel like Hulk because, I mean, a few shots a rum does make some men feel they invincible right? The lyrics however are quite different; they are really about overcoming and trampling problems. But I wouldn’t blame you for not paying attention to the uplifting lyrics because the chorus is so much fun. Who doesn’t enjoy flexing like Hulk in a party? Raaaaaaah!
68) Salty – Gyal Meets Brass (Rock It and Rock It)
Salty is the Waka Flocka of soca, a minimalist artisan of energetic delivery whose budget on words is tighter than Colm Imbert managingTrinidad’s economy. Don’t believe me? Check the lyrics for entire song below:
yuh what the stupidness to start Leh we go yuh wa speed ×2 eh look at you look at you with your crew you you Baby gyal i wa yuh rock it, rock it and rocket×6 Baby gyal i say to O lord rocket, rocket and rocket×6 Baby gyal i wa yuh roll, roll and roll ×8 Take yuh time I wa yuh roll, roll and roll×8 lemme ask yuh this how yuh wining so yes you how yuh wining so baby gyall gu
That’s it! Those who would complain about this fail to appreciate the percussive brilliance of this track and miss the entire point of soca on the whole; to get your waistline moving. The same people who calling it chupidness cyah wait to find a bumper come jouvert when the “chupidness start”. With a beat this brilliant I contend Salty had the right approach – doh do too much…go with the flow and just…rock it , rock it and rock it.
67) Teddyson John – Allez
It is straight facts that Teddyson John is one of the best singers in the soca genre – a soaring tenor with great control, range and style. Great singer plus great song equals straight fire. Nothing more to say than that.
66) Machel Montano – Dr Mashup (1 and 2)
These days only part 1 is played, out of respect for Iwer George. Part 1 was the warning shot while part 2 was straight disrespect, basically introducing the water god to a one million degree nuclear furnace. Soca is largely happy music so diss songs are a rarity; “Gimmi a Bligh“, the Rachel Price clapback and “Fete is Fete“, which Bunji used to scorch the Fire Fete promoters are as good as it gets. I will argue that part 2 is the greatest soca diss of all time. The lyrics crafted by lyricist extraordinaire Skinny Fabulous range from laugh out loud funny,
“Woii
Georgie in every party
Begging promoters, singing for free
Yo release a song, build hype off ah me/Bout Chili bibibibibibibi- Nonsense/”,
to savagely close to reality:
“Yuh cyah test Machel no day
Yuh cyah come Machel Monday
Yuh best run up in Kes Tuesday
Cause nobody going to Iwer Wednesday”.
And the best part about it, the beat is straight fire. Not in a serious, lyrical type of way but in a “get the whole party wining” kinda vibes ensuring that it will live on long after people remember the details of the initial confrontation.
65) Sekon Sta – Kings and Queens
It will be some time before Sekon Sta releases a better song than Kings and Queens and it won’t be because he isn’t trying. The song is just too good
64) Milko – Carnival to Remember
You would be hard pressed to find a song that better distills the true experience of Carnival to its essence than the first verse of Carnival to Remember. The pain of experiencing carnival with a troublesome significant other is dissected to an atomic level in the following lines:
“She tell meh she go find she way
Jus drop she down in town
And I not taking stress today
I rolling with meh rum”
If you never had that experience as a trini, say one thousand amens. But just as we get depressed with that memory, Milko reminds us “is sweet ‘oman for daysss… and they brucking it brucking it down”. The silver lining after (or before) the storm.
63) Dev – Is Jam
The mark of a truly great song is when you can’t replace the singer with anyone else. The “Outlaw Riddim” itself is an epic work of minimalist beauty and proof that a good rolling bass line is more than half the battle. But Dev makes his verses as catchy as the chorus through vocal tics and theatrics, watch any crowd on the road as they repeat -“Jouvert morning ah drunk like ah fish ah out on the road …eh!”. The winner of Jouvert Road March 2018.
(62) Iwer George – Take a Bathe
The audacity and straight-forwardness of Iwer George’s creations have been both a gift and a curse. In the worst case, they have been maligned as juvenile and basically audio versions of click-bait. At best, they have been memes before memes, snapshots of cultural moments that everyone can make their own. In the 2000s, the best version of this was Iwer semi-parodying himself with the Road March winning “Carnival Come Back Again“. This decade, it’s this ode to taking a bath.
61) Patrice Roberts – A Little Wine
“A little wine never hurt nobody” – However if you on somebody if is a wine as sweet as this song, then somebody getting cuff down. This song is the best case scenario for Patrice’s vocals; beautiful, big and soaring over a synthy groovy beat. It’s a timeless classic.
60) JW & Blaze – Palance
In retrospect, this song is a little overrated. But we can’t ignore what it has accomplished – Road March, Soca Monarch and it still is played today. And with the right head, it still is vibes.
59) Lil Rick – Work
Is these kinda tunes that does cause the boat to rock back and forth when you on a boat ride. Around the same time as “Go Dung”, Lil Rick dropped another masterpiece to make de gyal dem flex.
58) Mr Slaughter – Jook and Jook
Slaughter has the kinda voice that he could literally say the alphabet on a soca beat and score. However, after giving us hits like “Trample” and “Carnival, I Love You”, he took a little hiatus and it was wondered whether he had retired from the soca arena completely. We shouldn’t have worried because Jook and Jook was a street-certified scorcher. On a sparse beat reminiscent of mid-nineties dancehall, Slaughter rips the beat to shreds barely breaking a sweat and giving us a wining classic for the 2010s.
57) Benjai – Phenomenal
In 2015, the Kan Kan riddim produced by Advokit Productions was inescapable. The first and biggest hit off the riddim was “Ola” by Olatunji, a novel (at the time), afrosoca groover that had workplaces and primary school yards alike sweaty in chorus. However, the best song on the riddim is arguably this offering from the eclectic and ever talented Benjai. It’s one of the rare soca songs that sounds at home blasting from a big truck speakers Carnival Tuesday or as the background music at a school graduation. It also has the distinction of being part of another list: the songs I use to prove to people that soca has substance. This is not just a great soca song, it’s a great song, period.
56) Fadda Fox – Ducking
This song will live forever for two reasons; people will always duck work to go fete and the dance is extremely fun to do.
55) Machel Montano – Pop Ah Bottle
Buying clothes is a funny thing. Most people would prefer to buy that on their own because of peculiarities with size, style, colour etc. Some people are blessed to have that one friend who knows them inside out. When that specific friend buys you a shirt it immediately holds status as the best thing you own. If that friend buys you a pants, you living in it until somebody make you out. The way this song fit Machel, I am convinced Nadia Batson is that friend.
54) Shal Marshall – Splinters
Splinters is arguably Shal’s best song, which is saying a lot this decade because 2010s Shal is not 2000s Shal. In the 2000s, Shal was regarded as a deejay who was trying a ting. In the 2010s, Shal not only morphed into a bonafide soca star, he became one of the most consistent hitmakers with an uncanny ear for lit beats, emerging trends and stellar writing talent. Splinters is the best case scenario of all these things
53) Mr Killa – Rolly Polly
It’s difficult to separate a Mr Killa song from his performance of it. Can you think of “Run Wid It” without picturing grown ass, clinically sane, fetegoers removing public property and sometimes other humans to hoist high above their heads with Mr Killa in the middle elevated by some patrons, like a high priest conducting a macabre ritual? Similarly, the spectacle of Mr Killa dancing with some remarkably agile, flexible, abundantly thick women is etched in my brain anytime I hear this song. On its own, this song is a great ode to plus sized ladies but night after night of humorously entertaining performances has cemented it as one of the decade’s best.
52) Nailah Blackman – Iron Love
“But she now come out. How you go put she so high?”
- This song is awesome.
- It has excellent production (shout out to Anson Pro), melding pan, a notoriously difficult instrument to blend on an instrumental, with pretty synths and some vibesy riddim section.
- It’s Nailah’s best vocal performance on a track to date.
- Conceptually it’s bulletproof.
- It passes the “will little children sing it” test.
To be honest, this song may have been placed too low.
51) Teddyson John – Vent
I almost thought we in Trinidad was going to sleep on this song. As it released after Carnival 2018, I quickly added it to my personal playlist but most deejays did not. In my mind I was already pouring puncheon out for another soca mafia casualty. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry for long. I was pleasantly surprised to see it rally the entire year and become a huge hit for Teddyson in Carnival 2019 – he was also the runner up Groovy Soca Monarch. If we talking Groovy soca in the 2010s this is one of the finest every released. If we talking soca vocal performances, I can’t think of many that come close.
50) Olatunji – Ola
There was a time when afrosoca was not a thing. Now, it’s basically a sub-genre. We have Advokit Productions and Olatunji to thank for this. You don’t hear this song much these days but you have to respect how influential it was. Currently sitting at over 13 million views, it’s also one of those most viewed soca songs of all time on Youtube.
49) Skinny Fabulous – Behaving The Worst (BTW)
In 2014 Skinny Fabulous penned one of Machel’s best songs of the decade in “Happiest Man Alive”. Not missing a beat, he wrote one that’s basically on par in “Behaving The Worst”.
48) Machel Montano – Happiest Man Alive
Skinny may have written it but Machel sang it like he did. When he says “ah come out live mih life”, you can’t help but feel the same way.
47) Machel Montano – Vibes Cyah Done
The Antilles Riddim is legendary. It’s probably the best riddim of the 2010s. In 2012, it was no surprise that a still prime Machel would do the beat justice and rip it to shreds. What was unexpected was the nostalgia and introspection in the lyrics as Machel navel-gazed and took us on a mini journey through his musical history. Big up F.B.E. who has penned many other classics (quite a few on this list tbh) such as “People” for Kes. It’s a beautiful moment and a a gem in Machel’s discography.
46) Farmer Nappy – Big People Party
Approaching the mid 2010s, productions became increasingly more electronic. The engine room rhythms that blessed David Rudder, Tambu and Super Blue in the eighties and early nineties had given way completely to the programmings of Advokit Productions and Precision Productions. When bands ruled the festival, brass horn sections were so ubiquitous that the most popular party in the Carnival was called “Brass Festival”. By the 2010s, Brass Festival and ‘Brass’ was dead.
And dry so…in 2014 AD Nappy resurrected Brass so the “big people” could get their groove back.
45) Marzville – Give it to ya
The highest praise I can give this song is that is sounds like one of the best Burning Flames songs ever made. And that’s no easy task because Burning Flames is a legendary group.
44) Hypasounds – Dip
Not to be confused with Shal’s Dip which barely missed the top 100, Hypasounds song “Dip” falls squarely into the soca sub category of “songs for wining low” alongside “Music Farm” and “In the Meantime“. To fully understand why this song is ranked so high you have to witness its devastating effect in a party setting especially the year it came out.
43) Ricky T – Freaky Girls
When girls practice different wines in front of their mirror – varying types of bubbles and tick tocs with some clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations, I imagine there must be songs they pencil off as vehicles to showcase their hard work. From what I have witnessed, this song has to be near the top of the list.
42) KI – Single Forever
Chutney usually takes a backseat to Soca in the pecking order in T+T. Single Forever is the biggest crossover chutney hit of the 2010s. Everybody, old and young, wanted to be single forever in 2012.
41) Voice – Year For Love
The Upendo Riddim was a groundbreaking riddim in soca. It was the beginning of the current trend of strong calypso influence in soca productions and still the best example of such. The riddim featured top tier contributions from Machel and Turner but none shone brighter than Voice who went for the jugular lyrically, channeling frustration with injustice and crime into a soaring hook that captivated the public. How serious was this song? Voice entered Calypso Monarch with it and finished second.
40) Kes – Incredible
For Kes, this was the song that got away. In 2017, Kes was busy pushing this song for Road March instead. Now that’s “incredible”.
39) Machel Montano – Bottle of Rum
Around the time when Machel announced his 3Zero brand of rum, he announced the 3Zero riddim that gave us this song and another fantastic song from Benjai that narrowly missed the top 100. Still holding out hope for the alcohol to get better (sorry Machel) but this song will live on as one of the finest and classiest rum songs ever made.
38) Nessa Preppy – Issa Snack
I think it’s safe to say this will go down as Nessa’s signature hit. I swear this isn’t a disparagement on Nessa, it’s just that the song fit her so perfectly that I can’t see it being repeated. The slightly husky, speak-sung, dead-eyed delivery makes the song is pure Nessa. Not even Destra with her unlimited pipes could have done a better job.. Many female soca artists could have ‘sung it better’ but none would have delivered with the same authority. When she says “and is dat”, you believe her. Place mashup. And is dat!!!
37) Mighty and Subance – Bad in Bum Bum
If you want to trace the semi-dominance of Dennery segment and Lucian bashment soca you have to go back to this and Split in the Middle. In 2017 is sounded like glorious madness…. a cacophony of claps and hype. And you can’t leave out the hilariously nuanced video.
36) Freezy – Split in the middle
Freezy was smart enough to tap into the zeitgeist of the time. Passa passa culture, diffused from Jamaica, had already been absorbed into the cultures of neighbouring Caribbean islands so by 2017 real gyal had their split on point. What better time to release an ode to flexibility and winning for a bottle of Hennessy from the Deejay?
35) Erphaan Alves – Overdue
Erphaan jumped out with the video to this song in September 2017 and trust me, it was far from a smash at first. I wish I could tell you what happened, maybe Erphaan will have to tell that story, but by late January 2018 it was inspiring sing-a-longs from all the ladies in the party. By the end of the Carnival it wasn’t too far from “Hello”, the other dominant, ladies-certified, banger. With his “no seasons” project, Erphaan has been always putting in work so success was, as they say, “overdue”.
34) Nailah Blackman & Kes – Work Out
I just vex we never got a video for this song, it would have been the cutest thing right? Vocally, it’s hard to think of a soca song where the artists complemented each other better – the smooth tenor of Kes flirtatiously circling Nailah’s high pitched come hithers. This song also marked the birth of Nailah as a soca artist which seems incredible because by the next year she became a staple of the scene.
33) Bunji Garlin – Big Bad Soca
This is Bunji Garlin’s best soca song of the 2010s, no disrespect to Differentology of course. When it comes to Bunji there are two schools of fans, the people like me who want the lyrical Viking and the other people who want the Differentology-type, melodic experimentation. Big Bad Soca brought all of us together and forced us to make peace.
32) Lyrikal – Loner
Loner isn’t an ode to loneliness. It’s an ode to independence and moving on ‘yuh own beat’, yuh get mih? Sometimes you go move with a big crew but other times you want to just let the music guide you to your destiny. I’ll leave you with this quote “bottom sharing out, like alcohol, you know…a must get tipsy”.
31) Kerwin Du Bois – Bacchanalist
Machel doesn’t get defeated on a riddim often but when it happens, it usually means the other artist did something special.
30) Bunji Garlin – Differentology
“And the cow now waking up”.
This was the song that gave Bunji international success – the Soul Train award, high placements on many musical charts and collabs with ‘fareign’ artists. It took him out of the box of being a hardcore ‘ragga soca’ artist and placed him, for better or worse depending on who you ask, on a decidedly more melodic path. If you really want to be cynical (nobody? ok I’ll do it), it inspired Machel to form a truce for the ‘greater good’ leading to the events of Famalaay. While it may not be a better song than Big Bad Soca, it was more important to Bunji and soca as an artform. Only thing, we couldn’t get a better video bai? Steups.
29) Farmer Nappy – Hooking Meh
Earlier we spoke about Nadia giving people songs that fit them like a glove. She did Nappy one better and gave him a straight up classic. While some wasted time debating about male entitlement, the rest of us was busy drunkenly singing along – “and she paaaaack, all mih cloooooothes, in a gaaaarbaage baag”. Fun times.
28) Erphaan Alves – Come From (Bumper Like Rain)
With all respect to Overdue, Bumper Like Rain is Erphaan’s best song. You know how we love it when singy, sentimental soca artists let loose and just look to tief a wine. Let’s look at the examples, Preedy with “Lost and Found“, Kes with “Wotless“, Voice with “Pandemonium” and of course this chune. Ah lie?
27) Machel and Super Blue – Soca Kingdom
Lewwe address it one time. Yes, Chinese Laundry overdo it. When the song premiered on 96.1FM in 2018, it was played for almost an hour straight on repeat. To make things worse, Chinese Laundry is Machel’s friend and manager – it’s unclear which role inspired the move but it’s sufficient to say both were happy. This left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouth and many joined forces to pool their hate in an attempt to prevent it from winning Road March. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. It still won because it’s too good a song. Machel’s tension building first verse leading into Super Blue’s ragged, alley-oop of a chorus is still classic – “Wine and fling it up, wine and wine and fling it up“. The song is still played today and is guaranteed to mashup a fete. So doh fight it. Wine and fling it up.
26) Machel Montano & Angela Hunte – Party Done
In the 2010s Machel became more business-like in his approach. He was about the trophies; the Road March, the Soca Monarch and just…dominance. A lot of the experimentation of the 2000s with songs like Higher than High and Water Flowing was replaced with slick productions of Fog and the EDM flavored Epic. Machel didn’t have time to play anymore. Thankfully, Party Done was a return to that experimental Machel featuring a pre-Nailah high pitched tone that we later identified as Angela Hunte on the most UK-friendly soca beat since Come Dig It.
25) Machel Montano – Epic
We’ve had a lot of bad attempts of incorporating EDM into soca. It might seem weird now but mid-decade, EDM was the hottest thing and everyone and their mother was rushing to slip some EDM packs into their music. Epic is the only perfect incorporation of EDM I can think of in soca. It has and will outlive its EDM influence.
24) Kes – People
That awkward moment when Full Blown Entertainment slipped away from Machel to give Kes a classic.
23) Kes – Wotless
I’ve been a card-carrying Kes supporter real long. How long? Since 2003 when he dropped this song while he was still with Imij & Co. I know, I know, 80% of Kes fans are female…llow mih nah. And is not a school thing either – Kes was one year above me in Pres Sando before he transferred to CIC. The truth is, I have always gravitated to the singy, RnB type soca – Destra is my hero.
Either way, people were very dismissive of Kes in the 2000s. They saw him as a “singer” and not a proper soca artist. Eventually the redman get fed up with all the hate, link with Kerwin and dropped this scorcher on them. And me? I rock back like….”What I tell allyuh”. From the classic opening guitar to the satisfaction of singing along and bussing on the falsetto of “And I feel like, I just win a million dolllllaarrrrssss“, this song will go down in history as the point when one of the best soca artists of all time snatched his respect and never looked back.
22) Nailah Blackman & Shenseea – Badishh
Annoying spelling aside, this song is the best case scenario for these two beautiful women. So much so, that they keep trying to recapture the magic…they need to let it be. Also the video was epic – remember when it shutdown Caribbean internet upon release? Thirst men across the islands experienced the pain of both heads exploding.
21) Machel Montano – Fast Wine
Machel has given us many sweet groovy songs but none sweeter than Fast Wine. Check yuh boy with some of these lyrics:
Baby
I’ve travel through the stars
And many moons to find you
Baby
The sugar on your skin
The sweetest melanin
Yeah!
See when you out into the light and your body looking right
No conslettation in the sky could ever take your shine
I’ll travel a million miles
Kaiso Kaiso
20) Machel Montano – Haunted
“Happiest Man Alive” is one of Machel’s best soca albums…fight me. One of the brightest gems is this soulful song that always gives me the haunted feeling to sing along in a party –
“Cause’ we heading out ah road, and we in party mode
Nobodys’ going home, we circuits overload
And I doh want sleep no more, we in di fete for sure
Wining all on the floor, is more gyal feelin for
This haunted feeling, yeah“
I always imagine the “haunted feeling” as defined to be the state where you know you should go home and sleep but you don’t want to for fear of missing out on something epic. For the 9 to 5 limers who don’t even know why they lime, just that they can’t stop, this is the mournful dedication. To hear Machel sing it, it’s sad and beautiful at the same time.
19) Super Blue – Fantastic Friday
Super Blue was undoubtedly the biggest soca artist of the 90s. Every soca monarch and Road March was really a race for second. Things weren’t so good in the 2000s. After winning Road March with “Pump Up (Soca Matrix)” in 2000, Super Blue basically disappeared without even a trace of blue smoke. The rumours spread like wildfire. Drugs was an issue. He was spotted washing cars. Things seemed dismal for such a great artist.
And then in 2013 we got the return – 80s babies rejoiced, eager for an end to Machel’s reign. It didn’t exactly work out like they hoped but for one season we got a master class in melody and lyrics – few can quite sermonize and ‘regalize’ carnival and mas like Super Blue. By the end, he had added another solo Road March win to the trophy case.
18) Destra – Lucy
It’s rare for soca songs to have introspection with narratives that you can follow. It’s not so much the fault of the writers, it’s a tight rope walk because above all, the number one rule of soca writing is “Don’t Interrupt the wine”. In 2015, Destra completely shattered this, delivering the now classic lines:
I grew up as a real good girl
Always home, don’t go nowhere
As soon as I was introduced to Carnival
Dey say I loose
All down on di ground
Wukkin’, wukkin’ up mi bottom and it
Draggin’, draggin’ all ova town
And dey say I Lucy
Most importantly, a community of girls congregated, not because of the wine but because of a shared collective experience.
17) Machel Montano – Advantage
There are many things one can say about this song but the best thing I will say is….it’s Big Truck for the 2010s.
16) Kerwin Du Bois – Too Real
Kerwin wasn’t playing in 2014. After falling short to Machel in 2013 with Bacchanalist he decided to go for the jugular the following year. Are there many better intros in soca?
Gyal how yuh bad so
How yuh bad so
How yuh rude so
Ah wanna take ah little piece of that,
One of the finest sonnets to bumpers – the bumper dangerous yet you still moving in? You wicked Kerwin.
15) Cloud 5 – No Behaviour (the whole place shelldown)
This song is an eternal Jouvert staple and arguably one of the biggest of the decade.
14) GBM Nutron – Calypso
It goes without saying that if you’re naming a soca song “Calypso”, it better be creative and dope. This song is more than that, it’s a phenomenal work of art and a masterpiece. It’s one of those songs that can be admired regardless of whether you like soca or not. The opening sample is somberly dramatic and from the intro you know something epic is about to go down. And what I love the most is that the beat never really revs up to check off any box – I heard a popular radio deejay say he advised him to add more elements to the beat so it could play on radio. Steups…thank God he didn’t listen.
The minimalist production allows the melody and the words to shine front and true, just like a calypso. Amazingly, the melody of the verses are so catchy it sounds like a chorus straight through, especially this part – “And now all I want in life is Soca, Is like they want to pay me with this thing they call soca“. This song more than raises my pores, it gives me chills and is high on the list of soca songs I play for people who say soca is shit.
13) Blaxx – Leh Go
What more can be said of this song? If you attended any fete this decade and you’re not hearing impaired, even if you were drunk like skunk you MUST have heard this song. Doh do meh dat. This song has been a staple of 2010s fetes like ladies rocking high heels at all inclusive events. Sidenote: the video is hilarious.
12) Natty & Thunda – Get in your Section
Now this song is really just Top Striker pt 2 but:
- We wanted that movie again
- This one is almost as hard.
There is a magic to the Natty & Thunda pairing that just can’t miss right now, as Voice would attest. That formula, big bombastic synth heavy beat featuring an opening set up from Natty followed by a Thanos level smackdown on the chorus from Thunda is blatant but highly effective. I eh vex. I just waiting for them to complete the trilogy.
11) Ultimate Rejects – Full Extreme
In 2017, Full Extreme was dominant. #wejammingstill was a hashtag and meme. People could gleefully riffed off the vibes and applied it to their lives. The funny thing is, like most satire, the satirical component went over people’s heads. “The city, go bun down…We Jamming Still” was designed to be an admonishment of our predisposition to party even in the face of disaster. We wore it like a badge of honor. This song was so popular that when the Ultimate Rejects attempted to avoid the Road March competition, they were compelled to enter due to public outcry. And they won.
10) Machel Montano – Mr Fete
Though “Advantage” was released in 2011, Mr Fete was the real comeback for Machel after sitting out 2010 – he still wasn’t on solid ground entering 2012. His reputation had been damaged towards the end of the 2000s through his involvement in a fight outside Zen and the doubt was strong. His win in the 2011 soca monarch was seen as highly controversial to say the least and people wasn’t ready to embrace him with open arms. Even I was nervous.
Then the video for Mr Fete dropped. That video in my eyes made me regain my confidence. Of course the song is a classic but it was his demeanor in the video that won people over. Machel the famed a**hole died (or went in hiding) and from the ashes was this happy guy who was in the crowd partying and dancing with fans. The song was the soundtrack for his redemption that was a joy to witness.
9) Natty & Thunda – Top Striker
How big was this song? For those who know, in 2018 this was low-key road march. Good ting only trinis can enter right? How big was it? I attended Private Ryan’s Braincooler that year and after the deejay played Iwer’s Savannah and Machel’s Soca Kingdom, he pressed the button on Top Striker and detonated. It was as if a hurricane struck. People were jumping in and out of themselves, it felt like if the ground was shaking. From the time these immortal words hit the speakers. all I saw was dust and white, just madness:
“Last night ah drink de rum and ah fallin down but ah know dis morning
Ah wakin up. Ah wakin up, ah tellin yuh“.
How big was it? Machel himself jump out on the remix.
8) Kes – Hello
First thing you should know about “Hello” is that it’s currently the most popular soca song of all time. Right now, it sits at 32 million views. Also, based on anecdotal evidence, it has generated the most amount of wines for fellas this decade. What can I say about “Hello”? It brought afro soca back…thanks Advokit. On the surface it’s a simple song but every part of the song is a hook, even the damn intro. You’re not going to escape when you listen to this one, the traps are set. Also, Kes was at the height of his powers. Just listen to him sing it live. He annihilates every note, performing it record perfect. Expect to hear this at every TOTR until Kes hangs it up.
7) Voice – Cheers to Life
In 2016 we found our soca Voice, an artist with a sweet raspy tenor and determination to spread positive vibes in his music or to “talk de tings” as he would say. Some, and I emphasize some, of his later tracks have felt slightly and preachy with the positive message. Of course some would disagree. But you see this song? It has a purity that shines through unfiltered. From your grandmother to de neighborhood spranga to your hungry dog you forget to feed – all wagging they tail to this one. It’s the type of soca to really inspire you: not just to sing along in a fete but to start a business or leave that wutless boyfriend who spending out yuh money.
6) Machel Montano – Fog
I previously wrote an article about the top thirty Machel songs and there is a quote I made that I think is relevant: Fog features a melody so sweet that the pun “fog up the place” is the least memorable part of the song. I think that sums it up nicely. Another fun fact, the video for the song was filmed at Soaka, which subsequently turned from a fledgling event to one of the biggest and most anticipated fetes every Carnival.
5) Mr Killa – Run Wid It
There is a list of songs by non-trinis that would have won if they were eligible to enter our Road March competition. This list consists of “Faluma” by Alison Hinds, one of them Krosfyah songs during the Bajan Invasion…probably “Wet Me” or “Pump Me Up”, “Bazodee” by Alison Hinds, “Top Stiker” by Natty and Thunda and of course this song.
The hard thing to rate about this song is what also ranks it so high; it was a friggin phenomenon. Sane, distinguished people alongside genuinely deranged individuals were all picking up items and people in the name of partying and ‘fun’. Destruction of personal and public property was the wave. But that begs the question, is this song that great or did people just like destroying property? Of course the song is great, that beat from Stadic alone is awesome, but how great is it? I don’t know. But in the meantime, lemme pick up something and run wid it.
4) Nadia Batson – So Long
Nadia Batson has been a great writer for so long but for a while it seemed like the songs she wrote for other artists would outshine her own. She wasn’t having it this time though. After giving Nappy arguably the best song of his career, she kept the real volcanic lava for herself, mih girl eh chupid. The best thing one can say about So Long is that it doesn’t sound like a song, it sounds like a real conversation. Just check these lyrics:
It Coulda Be Just Last Week When I Call Yuh Name
I Did Ask Your Friend And Them
When Last They Did Talk To Yuh
So Long I Ain’t Talk To Yuh
Look How Funny Your In My Sight
Didn’t Know Yuh Was Here Tonight
It Look Like Yuh Doing Alright
Like Money Running Rhell Nice
And then the verse flows smoothly into this: “I thought you hidinnnnnng, ah thought you went foreign, look how ting does happen nah, look how ting does happen nah“. That sounds like something I said last year. Get out my head Nadia. Get Out!!!!!
3) Skinny Fabulous, Bunji Garlin, Machel Montano – Famalaay
I wrote something great about this song already and I think it’s perfect so I’ll just leave it right here.
Famalay is a great song, one of the best Road March songs of all time. The beat, heavily influenced by the Bouyon stylings native to Dominica is a thing of beauty. It is relentless – it catches you from the intro and builds till it flattens you on the chorus. The verses delivered in a ragga soca style by the respective lyrical gods of Trinidad and St Vincent (Bunji and Skinny Fabulous) should be printed on gold tablets and stored inside a vacuum under heavy guard at the National Museum.
I mean, Bunji and Skinny absolutely murder the beat. They find more pockets to flow on than a Michael Jackson jacket – just check out the second verse where Skinny Fabulous shreds the beat with a furious string of syllables which leads into and contrasts with Bunji, who comes in laidback, absolutely floating on the beat. And Machel is like the sixth man off the bench, he does the small essential things to make the song shine. He adds hype to the chorus (his low harmony on the call on response “jumping up together” is underrated), drops some well placed “huys” here and there…just sets up everything to let Skinny and the Viking shine.
There was a movement of hate for this song in 2019 because it was competing for Road March with Savannah Grass, Kes’ tour de force. Now that we past all that in 2020, let’s rock back and appreciate this great collaboration.
2) Machel Montano – Like a Boss
With soca, a lot of songs need to grow on you. Since most soca songs center around a festival or experience, you need to be in a party setting to really identify with what you’re hearing. You can’t just be on work, earbuds on and “wine on something” (especially not your female boss you marking a while now). It wouldn’t be wise to take a “shot ah hennesy” in traffic on your way to work. You can’t “mash up and buy back” a pew if you hear Problem Child whlle in church. Like a Boss however, is that rare exception.
From the build up into “look trouble now”, I knew this song was Road March. I didn’t need to hear anymore. In fact, after just hearing the intro I actually said to myself “this is Road March”, closed the YouTube window and went on my merry way. The much touted brass was just icing on the cake…and if that brass is icing you know the cake is something else. People who ignored soca for years were seduced back into the fold Pied Piper-style. The 25/8 feters like me beat our chest with pride to the following line: “Everyday is fete, I come out tuh fete, ah bet, ah fete-in’ more than you!”. It was sung drunkenly in many faces. Real ‘boulders’.
Like A Boss was unanimously accepted and celebrated during the season and steamrolled to victory without complaint, controversy or surprise. It was one of those rare seasons where the Soca Mafia wasn’t mentioned… maybe they took a year off? The song was big in fetes, injecting some all inclusives with a little cooler fete juice, and was huge on the road as well. Machel listened to the public and pumped even more brass into the Road Mix to the delight of feters.
1) Kes – Savannah Grass
Savannah Grass is legendary, a fact that is becoming more apparent as we begin our journey into 2020. I think it’s a song that defies boxes like “Road March” or Soca Monarch. It’s a song that makes you feel a type of way – you feel to fete and wine yeah but it’s a very euphoric, natural high vibes. Is the kinda song to make a group of strangers put a hand across each shoulder and jump like primary school day ones.
Another subtext to this story, as we head into 2020, is this may be a changing of the guard song. Big Truck changed the guard from Super Blue to Machel in 1997. When that song dropped, it was immediately apparent that nothing in soca would be the same and we were now looking at the new soca general. Savannah Grass was not immediate. It did not win Road March because Famalaay was also awesome and a better fitting road tune than Savannah. And Kes didn’t have a better year in 2019 than an in-form and productive Machel Montano. The monk destroyed Iwer in a feud, won road march, collabed with legendary RnB princess Ashanti and had almost 17 songs in rotation whole season.
But coming into 2020, Kes is looking even stronger and as I listen to Savannah Grass now, I can’t help but think we may be on the cusp of a change. Only time will tell. Most importantly, when we think of the 2010s, Savannah Grass epitomizes what soca and feteing evolved to in the decade. The sleekness of the production. The skillfulness of the sample – 2000s soca used very obvious sample chops, this one is very seamless. The smooth vocals – the singing that was a nice to have is basically a requirement for a soca artist now. Kes and Savannah Grass are looking like the future and for that reason, Savannah Grass is the number one soca song of the 2010s. [Edit: Kes won his first Road March alongside the one and only Neil Iwer George]
Your Thoughts
I assume you probably have your own list so let me hear your picks in the comments. Or if you feel I have something too high or low, let me know. Also, if you are on apple music, listen to a playlist of all these songs. Face out.