Trapso act Marcus Braveboy is making global music moves—all from his couch in West Ridge Villas, Diego Martin.
Braveboy collaborates with artistes/producers from five continents on his new album project, aptly titled Braveboy Meets World. Released on Monday under his self-published Bravehouse Music Group label, the 13-track offering features music-makers from North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
The album lead single, “Pa Atra”, is produced by Venezeulan Joelmy and features Venezuelan rapper Flyo and Dominican Republic act Yonas Flow. Argentinian singer Moreno La Reja appears on “Start It” and Brazil-born, German-based DJ Crell sings on “Shake That Boom Boom”. American rapper Ma-Less features on “Pronto”, while Russian dancehall act Miss Baas adds her vocals to the Sneaky Ollie UK-produced “Sauna”.
Nigerian Dellfire appears on both “Afribbean Gyal” and “Choke”, while Serbian production duo Marko Ristic and Alex Petrov touch the tracks “Bad Intentions” and “Mekhi Cypher”. Italian music producer Hysterism and German producer Tripton are also featured, while Taiwanese rapper GK and producer HuangFu complete the global project on “Saucing”.
“It’s a lot of moving parts, but I must admit it’s also pretty exciting,” Braveboy said, with his famous perpetually wide smile, when he spoke to the Express on Wednesday.
The “Iz a Trini” hitmaker admitted to having to rely on Google Translate to have conversations in Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin, as well as organising payments in cryptocurrency during his virtual globetrotting to complete the project.
“This was such an interesting process, especially since I had to deal with the language barrier at times while communicating with some of the artistes and producers. I also learnt the skill of global project management. I would record my vocals in Trinidad, and send to producers in other parts of the world, and then we would send the files to mix and master to engineers in another country,” he revealed.
Braveboy, formerly known as Mark Hardy, is well known for making bold international moves and connections with his music. The rapper/music producer has had in-person studio sessions with music producers and song writers in Los Angeles and Florida in the United States, as well as the United Kingdom. His 2021 single, “Clout Chaser”, was recently featured on season four of the Fast & Furious Spy Racers animated series on Netflix.
“I’ve casually been doing international collaborations, especially in the world of EDM (electronic dance music), but the pandemic really gave me the flexibility to focus more on other markets like Latin (America), Africa and Asia, and to experiment with genres like reggaeton, dembow, Afrobeats and baile funk. It also gave me the opportunity to start writing and singing in other languages like Spanish and Portuguese,” he related.
Making magic out of thin air
Recording vocals, mixing and mastering music around the world virtually is already an impressive management of resources and talents. Braveboy, however, takes the project a step further with the music video for the album’s lead single, “Pa Atra”, which was shot in Trinidad, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
The restrictions of the pandemic, he said, have forced music creatives the world over to think outside the box with the international collaborations. He has also worked with internationally acclaimed Trini-born filmmaker Michael Mooleedhar on video projects for the singles “Pronto”, “Afibbean Gyal” and “Saucing”.
“To be honest, because of the nature of what I’ve been doing with all my previous collaborations in the EDM market, working remotely or virtually was nothing new to me. I’m accustomed having virtual writing sessions and meetings, as well as recording and sending vocals to producers on a regular basis. However, since the pandemic allowed me to do it more often, I had to structure everything a lot more, especially from a time-management perspective,” he said.
Despite the efficiency and convenience of remote work, Braveboy says “nothing can beat the vibe of creating with others in a studio”.
“I definitely miss doing in-person sessions. I also miss performing for crowds, as nothing can beat that in-person interaction with performer and audience. But overall, the excess down time during the pandemic allowed me to take my global networking to a whole other level,” he admitted.
Braveboy says the work continues to promote his new album on the global market. He hinted, however, that he’s already focused on his next project—a remake of soca icon SuperBlue’s (Austin Lyons) 1993 classic, “Bacchanal Time”.
“I’m very excited about it. The interpolated version will be produced by Latin American DJ/producer Alex Muira,” he said with a wink.
