Trilogy thrills
The first leg of Dexta Daps’s Trilogy Concert Tour served up a slew of fan favourite hits from not only the headliner, but several surprise acts inside Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, in St Andrew, shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Gates were opened from as early as 8:00 pm on Friday, but it wasn’t until 12:07 am that the ladies’ singjay was introduced to the stage.
Clad in a matching gold-sequinned pants and jacket, and an inside black Burberry-branded shirt, the entertainer, whose given name is Louis Grandison, made his grand entrance uttering the lyrics to Slippery When Wet and Only U. A decibel meter would have possibly broken if it attempted to measure the magnitude of screams that emitted from the hundreds of enthusiastic female fans who turned out to see him.
He churned out track after track, among them One Minute, Slavery, Owner, Forever, 7Eleven, Mi C Mi Bed N Miss U, Weak To You, Shabba Madda Pot, and many more.
He bargained with the crowd to allow him to temporarily give the spotlight to some of his up-and-coming musical cronies. Some resonated with the crowd, while others were not as well received.
One of the highest points of the show was Dexta Daps’s introduction of Bounty Killer and Cham to the stage so the trio could perform their hit single Slow Motion. The cherry on top was the fact that both Bounty Killer and Cham remained for a few minutes to do freestyles of some of their own classics. Other dancehall acts such as D’Yani, Rytikal, Chevaughn, and Benzly Hype also touched the stage.
While on stage, Bounty Killer hailed the headliner for the magnitude of success he has managed to earn over the years.
“Mi a congratulate him pon a great event, with a greater effort — I saw the next generation of my community tonight. This was like a ‘Seaview Gardens expo’,” the “Five-Star General” declared.
For his part, Dexta Daps also paid homage to Bounty Killer for a specific word of wisdom that he gave him some years ago.
“Mi represent dancehall from mi heart and mi nah stop enuh… Bounty Killer tell me seh, ‘Yuh do R&D; yuh nuh do R&B… yuh do rhythm and dancehall,’ and from him seh dat to me it resonate and mi seh… ‘No, yuh find mi niche.’ From him seh dat mi just keep miself inna the mind frame weh mi can do dancehall pon any beat,” he said.
Unfortunately, the show ended abruptly, approximately a couple minutes after 2:00 am, due to a call from police personnel onsite. This caused great disappointment among some fans who did not get to hear their favourite song.
In his closing remarks, Dexta Daps did a stanza from one of his most successful tracks, Call Me If.
The Jamaican leg of Trilogy Tour comes weeks ahead of the release of the entertainer’s third album of the same name slated for January 12, 2024.