Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 19/12/2025 06:33

SLS: Motto’s love song to riddim

Lashley “Motto” Winter believes groovy soca could be the subgenre that gains the region consistent global recognition it desires. For the 2026 Carnival season, the St Lucian singer/songwriter and producer has created a groovy riddim called SLS (Soca Love Story). A with the same name sits on the riddim, M1, Salty and Grenada’s Blaka Dan also share contributions on the riddim. It was released under Motto’s production company, TeamFoxx. “It was heavily influenced by the grounds of Laventille, the riddim section, the vibes mixed with the Indian, tassa culture, sound. “It came from me just coming to Trinidad and Tobago consistently for so many years…I could remember the first time I heard a real Laventille riddim section, it was at one of Next 99.1 (fm) pavement limes and I was intrigued with that sound. “I said, ‘One day, I’d create a riddim that is solely rooted from Laventille,” he said in a phone interview with Newsday. Songs on that riddim ride 110 BPM (Beats per Minute). He added being from St Lucia and being intact with French Antillean culture as well as TT’s calypso, he meshed the genres together to create something “epic and unifying.” Although the artiste has created memorable songs in both subgenres: power and groovy, he believes artistes could never lose with the latter. “Though TT was always, at the peak of the season, they love their power soca and everything, but I still believe the core root of what the region likes is groovy soca.” Some of the biggest songs emerging out of TT’s 2025 Carnival were groovy soca pieces. “When I say big, they played in TT and, after that, all over the world and country. I love groovy soca, I love creating groovy soca beats and melodies.” [caption id="attachment_1197278" align="alignnone" width="683"] For the 2026 Carnival season, the St Lucian singer/songwriter and producer Lashley “Motto” Winter has created a groovy riddim called SLS (Soca Love Story). -[/caption] He always sat down and tried to figure out which Caribbean sound would say, ‘This is soca’ to the rest of the world and the answer always swung back to groovy. “Being that there are so many subgenres of soca: from St Lucia’s Dennery segment to Dominica’s bouyon music. “I think it is going to be a very difficult task to promote soca under one brand. However I do believe we have to find a common ground or one brand of soca music or one sound of soca, similar to Afrobeats or similar to South Africa’s amapiano, it has a specific sound to which everyone could relate.” In global environments, musical murkiness always came with the distinction between groovy and power. “The general global population would not know what kind of genre it is, they would not be able to differentiate it. But I would say, in my professional opinion, rather than the power soca, the groovy soca is what the world wants because it is so similar to Afrobeats, reggaeton and all of these other genres that’s already big.” To him, groovy soca would more be the path to sustained global interest in the music. Despite global geopolitical conditions, he believed people were open to what sounded good and based his assessment on Afrobeats’ success. “The music is evolving. People are accepting things that they are not used to: new songs, new genres, new type of lyrics…Over time I think soca will get there.” Eventually, Motto hopes soca becomes a global, consistent musical force. He applauded soca artiste Machel Montano, saying he tried, on many occasions, to collaborate with American artistes like Ashanti and Nicki Minaj which gave the music greater global recognition. There were the things more artistes needed to do to bridge the gap between soca and the American music market, he said. “Can you imagine Rihanna being on a song with Kes? Ariana Grande on a song with Motto? Being that they are core American artistes and they have their core American fans, they will be introducing their fans to soca music.” He recognised Yung Bredda doing so with American singers Chloe Bailey and Moily with the Greatest bend Over remake. “It was an amazing step for soca. She has no Caribbean roots so that was amazing for her to be welcome in that realm of things and presenting soca music to the millions of followers that she has. “We just have to keep on knocking that door and introducing that sound of soca to American markets through their artistes.” As Carnival 2026 fast approaches, his focus is to grow as an artiste and producer. He has 14-15 professional years in soca and about ten-15 major hit songs. “I may not be able to give a major mega hit one year and give an okay hit, I’d be fine with that. Next year, I’d try again and I’d do it again and again.” To him, it was the most important thing as an artiste. One of his major goals is to penetrate the American/European market with soca. “That has been something from the start of my career I recognised I need to do but I need to do so smartly. I can’t just say, ‘Forget soca and go do pop. I have to stay true to my roots and given that I am now based in Miami, I am doing certain little things to put myself within the position to be recognised within the American music market.” His September 2025 release, Ego, done with American singer Sean Kingston was one of his strategic steps in that direction. Eventually, Motto hopes Carnival 2026 would be amazing for all industry players. He also hoped that the recent impasse between the government and promoters’ association would soon come to a conclusion because the foreign market looked at these things. “I hope the government and promoters association could come to some sort of conclusion fast enough that would not affect the overall presentation of the 2026 Carnival season,” he said.   The post SLS: Motto’s love song to riddim appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.