It has been some time since a Jamaican artiste had a soca hit song.

Heading into this year’s Carnival season, Traz Di Jennik aims to get revellers jamming to his
Party Nice.

The song, which he co-produced with his wife Lydia Campbell and Trevor “Skatta” Bonnick, was released last week.

It is the singer’s first crack at soca, after recording dancehall-reggae songs for almost 30 years.

“It was a great feeling [doing soca], because it took me out of my comfort zone. I had a lot of fun doing it,” he said.

Party Nice has hit the market just in time for the Jamaican Carnival season which gets into high gear during the Easter period. Soca songs from the Eastern Caribbean, mainly Trinidad and Tobago, usually dominate local events.

Traz di Jennik added: “It’s a nice song, wi hope di people like it, ‘cause it’s what Carnival is all about.”

Byron Lee, founder of the successful Jamaica Carnival in the mid-1980s, had several soca hit singles with Tiney Winey, Give Me Soca, Dancehall Soca, and Soca Butterfly. The latter songs were done alongside Admiral Bailey during the 1993 and 1994 Jamaica Carnival seasons, respectively.

The Portland-born Traz Di Jennik kicked off his recording career around that time as Alkatraz. Better Days, his first song, was done for Steely and Clevie.

During the 1990s, he met Bonnick, former lead singer of The Bloodfire Posse and current frontman for Grammy winners Inner Circle. Bonnick has produced several of his recent songs including Health Over Wealth.

The artiste admits he is a fan of soca giant The Mighty Sparrow with Saltfish being his favourite song.