By Latrishka Thomas
In a video being circulated via social media, a Dominican soca artiste is claiming that Antigua’s 2019 soca hit, ‘Fish Dance’ which is sung by newcomer Rupert ‘Low Rider’ Albert was plagiarized.
“We have a little problem here. I see people just remixing the track how they want, anytime. There is a fish song [from] Antigua, I believe and we do did not know anything about that; nobody ever contacted us to ask us if they can remix the song and we are not pleased about that. We recorded the song. We wrote the song and everything and we are not happy about that. You can’t just come and remix the song like that. If you want to remix the song, you have to contact us and let us know what’s happening,” the artist said.
The song which is said to bear certain noticeable similarities to ‘Fish Dance’ is B.R.N and DJ Shil’s ‘Big Chain.’
The chorus in particular carries similar lyrics: “Gi dem da big chain. Dance fuh da big chain,” the song says.
However, when Low Rider was contacted for a statement, he redirected a reporter to his manager, soca artist Dennis ‘Menace XL’ Roberts. Menace then declined speaking to the media on the issue.
Meantime, sources allege that this new development is as a result of the reigning jumpy monarch, Tian Winter, attempting to stir up controversy.
In fact, on Thursday the singer of the carnival hit “Do Wah Yuh Want” made a post to his official Facebook page saying “Low Rider you ah post all kinda subben!! How you nar post the song ya thief the whole chorus from” while sharing the YouTube video of the Dominican song.
It was also revealed that the bouyon riddim in question is a frequently sampled riddim from another Dominican group called Triple Kay.
Low Rider, Tian Winter and Menace XL will all be competing in the Flow Party Monarch competition on the night of Sunday August 4th at Carnival City.