Though she did not live to see him perform, Kevin Scott’s grandmother had predicted that he would one day become an artiste. Today, ‘Da Prodigy’, the stage name by which he goes, has been in the music business for 15 years, and is not only singer but mentor and producer to other artistes as well.
Kevin grew up in an extended family, raised by his mother, uncles and grandparents. When his mother left for the US, he was seven years old and his now deceased and much beloved grandmother tried to do what she could to raise him but died when he was 11. After a few years, his grandfather, Edward Bailey, a retired pilot for Roraima Airways, moved out and moved on with his life.
Kevin grew up in Bent Street, near Lodge amongst friends who were always involved in illegal activities. “There was a point in time when that area was a very devastating area. Everyday you’d see things that you’d normally see on TV in the news and in the movies. Based on that environment I was hoping to make it out of that environment,” he said.
“I started being involved in some delinquent activities at the very tender age like fights. I was hanging out with well-known criminal elements to the police. These were the people who I grow up calling uncle. It didn’t matter what they did, once they were older than you, you respected them. I was nine when I wanted to be a drug dealer.
“There was this gold smith I was inspired by who lived in the very same yard with me and my grandmother and he would wear these very big gold chains and I liked all the [bling]. My mom when she was in Guyana used to operate the shop opposite Merriman’s Funeral Parlor and that’s where all the thugs used to hang out. All these guys used to be parading in all these gold chains and they had this flashy lifestyle, so this was the life I wanted. And this was how I planned on getting it.”
When he wrote his Secondary School Entrance Examinations, he secured for himself a place at Richard Ishmael’s Secondary School but in the last week of form two he was expelled for fighting. This habit got him into trouble so many times that he was expelled two more times after transferring to The Business School and School of the Nations. Finally, Imperial College accepted him, and this was where he sat ten subjects at CSEC, passing nine of them and finishing as the school’s valedictorian.
The passing of his grandmother, he shared was one of the hardest times for him and since he was not comfortable being verbal with his feelings, he put his emotions down on paper. During this time, Kevin was still a student at Richard Ishmael Secondary and his best friends Gino Fullington and Jason Softley (who is the cousin of Natural Black) were always about the music. The relationship that he grew to have with his grandmother made it hard for him to be just as comfortable confiding in anyone else. One day, he was jotting down his feelings in a book, when his friend Gino looked over and said, “This is a nice song!”. Surprised at his friend’s reaction, Kevin wanted to know whether he was serious since he did not see his penned feelings actually becoming a song. But Gino instantly added melody to the words and began singing it. With a closer look at the words, Gino realized that this was how his hurting friend felt and knew right away he wrote it for his grandmother.
A month later, Kevin and his friends turned up at Brutal Tracks Recording Studio to record the same song after hearing that the studio was doing free recording, but they were turned down because they did not have the required standard to record there. From there they went to Vizions Sounds Studio who allowed them to record with them. Excited that they had a song, the friends did almost 200 CD of that one song.
The song was called “We Don’t Get Second Chances”.
If he could get a second chance, another moment with his grandmother would be on top of this list. “There was so much I wanted to tell my grandmother and didn’t get the chance to tell her,” he said.
Today he doesn’t need to sit and pen his words but can make a whole new song while standing in front of a mic. “Music, whew… I can’t really explain what it feels like being onstage doing what I love. If I don’t do music, I’ll feel like a part of me is empty. I have to do music. I graduated with 9 CXC subjects, did my O Levels, and my SATs… didn’t get into college because my first child was born around that time.”
A former national sprinter for Guyana and one of the first Guyanese Carifta Games silver medalists, Kevin was awarded a sports scholarship at the Full Sail University with which he intended to pursue studies in music, but in an update about his personal life to the college, the mention of a son was considered a “liability” by the college. “Liability, that’s what they said. I will never forget that word; that’s why that scholarship meant nothing to me after,” he said. It was the same son, Kevin said, that made him turn his life around and want to become a better individual. Music and his children are the top priorities in his life.
At one time he was an English teacher and at another time, a procurement officer but he was not happy. After several jobs, he knew it was only music for him.
He has had his share of challenges, one of them being having his music stolen by famous Guyanese artistes. Another is being invited to shows to sing then not getting the opportunity to sing. One instance, he recalled, was on his first visit to perform at a show in Barbados. When he began singing before the show, the promoters said he could not sing anymore because he sounded “too American”. Explaining, he said that when persons hear an artiste is coming from Guyana, they expect to hear the creole whether they sing it or rap it but for someone like him, he was raised in such a way, that he was expected to speak fluent English and this didn’t cut it with the Barbadian promoters.
After his many challenges, Kevin arrived at a conclusion, that if no one was going to produce his work, then he would learn to do it as this was what he intended. In overcoming all the setbacks, he began watching YouTube for two hours every day to learn how to produce music.
During this time, Kevin did a cover of four-time Grammy winning artiste, Meek Mill’s song. The artiste was impressed and invited him to do a remix of the song together later drawing up a contract for him to work along with him for five years. Kevin described the contract as being under slavery adding that while he may have been willing to adhere to terms for a year, five years is too long.
Kevin has since worked with Natural Black, Michelle ‘Big Red’ King, Jonathan King, Timeka Marshall and many other big names on the local scene. ‘Father Wally’, or Wally Fraser, CEO of Vizions Sound took the singer under his wings and allowed him to produce out of his studio. And then with his blessings supported him when he chose to go on his way and begin producing music from his studio ‘Trinity Records’ with which he is the co-founder of along with Jahie Charles, also his manager. It was these two who founded the now trending Frass Friday movement where local artistes get together on Fridays and train and perform their original pieces.
As a producer Kevin is always in the studio working on his music and music for persons of Frass Friday sometimes into the wee hours of the morning.
The rewards of being an artiste are numerous. Among the benefits are meeting with international artistes, getting to stand in the VIP line at the airport in Jamaica, going to clubs for free and having complimentary drinks.
Asked who some of his inspirations are, the artiste hesitated then said if he was going to be honest then one of the main persons would be Miley Cyrus, adding that through his daughter he has come to love the Hannah Montana Series also. He is a Michael Bolton fan as well. Locally his inspirations include Natural Black, Jumo Primo, Brandon Harding and best friend Gino ‘Lil Fame’ Fullington who he boasted is a presidential guard also.
To date, Kevin has recorded more than 270 of his songs, of which 11 were released and can be found on any digital platform. Currently, he has 15 songs waiting to be released early next year. He along with some of the Frass Friday artistes have close to 40 songs expected to be released next year.
Speaking about music on the local scene, Kevin said he wishes that nothing he says is censored as he feels that it is of great importance for sake of the music industry. “Hits and Jams started this carnival movement,” he elaborated. “Could you tell me of one item on their agenda that has anything to do about the ethnicity of Guyanese? All that is being promoted is a lot of vulgarity… There’s a lot of frivolous things going on under these carnival images.
“Look at what they are doing now, carnival is in May, Mashramani is in February then when it’s done in May there is no time for nothing else to be promoted in Guyana. By the time of July, they have a pre-launching of carnival for the next year. When this is going on, they are promoting all the international artistes, flooding the airwaves with them, bringing them to Guyana… Guyanese people now are spending their money to see these people. This is something I need Guyanese as a whole to understand. They are spending their monies now to go and see these people and when they done spend this money, nothing is coming back to Guyana; these artistes are taking it away and Hits and Jams done get paid. The only set of local artistes that perform for carnival are the local artistes that are on Hits and Jams management scheme like Timeka Marshall, Jumo, Lil Red, Drew Thoven, Brandon Harding….
“We have other legends here like the great Natural Black. How much Natural Black do you hear playing on the radio compared to the international artistes they are playing? They are killing the industry. The body of local artistes right now, there is a lot to be showcased. There’s some youths right now, if you only hear them. It’s only for the rest of Guyana to hear them but Hits and Jams they are blocking this wave….
“In a year, Hits and Jams got more than 34 shows. They don’t understand that they are contributing to the crime rate in Guyana? Look at all the youths them going to these shows. Check and see how much crimes are occurring just before these events because these young men need the money to buy the latest wear to go to these shows. Buju Banton came the other day and they spend US$200,000 for Buju Banton. Now tell me is there a percentage from that show that went back to fixing any street out there?
“This is where Guyanese artistes come in, this where a new scheme for revenue comes in. They wouldn’t give Natural Black US$5,000 [approximately $1 million] to come here and perform. Jumo Primo leaves Guyana and go and headline major shows and they wouldn’t give him $1 million to perform here. No Jamaican artiste don’t come to Guyana for less than US$5,000. You could get ten local artistes willing to perform and share that $1 million. Three months leading up to these shows you can play these artistes’ music and get the public familiar with them and you could make back $50 million on that $1 million you spend rather than spend $40 million on two and three foreign artistes and killing up yourself the night to make back that money. But they do it because they don’t want to see any artiste make it out of Guyana, because if any artiste do, they’ll own their own radio station and we will collectively have enough resources to put them out of business….”
