Born in the early 90’s, Ghetto Star is a Sound that represents ‘all’ of T-dot’s uptown areas according to MC/DJ (DeeJay) Troyton. Missing tonight from ‘the crew’ would be Fadda Mugzie, Spankie, Damian Vibes and MC Crazy Bigz. Ghetto Star would be represented by MC DeeJay Troyton on this broadcast of Sound System Fridays. He arrived late and didn’t start playing until 10 PM, one hour later than the scheduled start time of 9 PM.
Ghetto Star fumbled their start. Their presentation of dubs was sporadic and it was only when DeeJay Troyton finally touched the mic (about forty-five minutes in) that vibes finally ‘tun up’, well, to a degree. That wasn’t their only issue, there was a problem with their dubs (for a string of about half an hour), many sounded flat and lacked bass – they appeared not to have been cut properly. The sizzling highs (hi-hats) were missing which prompted some listeners and viewers to take to the chat room to say that they thought that they were listening to a cassette, questioning the sound quality and asking us here at ReggaeManiaRadio to turn up our bass. Troyton would later confess to me (off mic) that some of their dubs were converted from old plates to digital and were not done professionally, hence, the flat sound. So why did he play these dubs I wonder?…
Aside from the aforementioned, their performance was ‘up and down’ – the mixing was inconsistent, sloppy and at times boring. There was a noticeable difference in Ghetto Star’s performance when Troyton worked the mic. He showed signs of being a very talented and entertaining MC. If he had worked the mic from the beginning of the show, the vibes would have been better as the MC ‘distraction’ would have provided a cover effect to help the Sound get through the quality of dubs issue that presented itself earlier. Troyton is symbolic of many of Toronto’s selectors – very talented and possesses potential.
Bless Up Ghetto Star for your performance on Sound System Fridays still, I’m sure next time around, you will take advantage of the opportunity that is given – no hold barred and do a show that we both know you are capable of! Perhaps you had an off night. One thing to note…things would have gwaan better had they invited and brought an artiste(s) to perform (it takes pressure off of having to play dubs for three hours) and if their Selector Bigz had been there – he adds ‘fyah’ to the Sound. I’ve never known Ghetto Star as a one man crew, so for reasons some of us may not know, members failed to show and the Sound missed out on an hour to shine (says Troyton about his late arrival – “I’m a father…I had to take care of my kids, make sure they were in bed.”).
Big Up Mawga K of Firesquad Sound as well! This Montreal Sound did a short set after the Midnight hour, but mainly passed through to promote the annual Montreal International Reggae Festival that takes place in August. All in all, it was short, but sweet! Firesquad shot it down for twenty minutes playing quality Firesquad dub plates (immediately noticeable by the chat room folk who were quick to comment “the bass is back!” followed by an interview. Firesquad’s set actually provided some relief on this Friday Night.
After the show ‘officially’ ended, I experimented with a new toy that I recently purchased allowing us to put callers live on-air. I spoke with artiste Terminal DG and a female named Keisha. Enjoy the Podcast! Next weeks Sound – Bassline!
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