Hodari Q sings Christmas In The Tropics
There were not a lot of Caribbean Christmas songs on Jamaican radio when Hodari Q was a boy.
As an artiste, he believes it is appropriate to celebrate the season with music depicting West Indian culture.
The singjay does just that with Christmas In The Tropics, a self-produced, four-song EP.
It contains Under My Christmas Tree, which was released last year.
“The concept is to do Christmas songs with a sound that represents the Caribbean and tropics. I don’t know a lot of original Christmas songs from the Caribbean,” Hodari Q stated.
Christmas Time (a collaboration with Ch4se), Feliz Navidad, and Bae For The Holiday are the other songs.
All are written by Hodari Q, who went for a dancehall flavour on most of the tracks.
Importantly, he wanted the songs to project the sense of community that made Christmas his favourite time of the year.
“It’s just the atmosphere, it’s a feeling. The time is cooler, the lights, the music, and it also takes me back to when I was a kid —, the house is filled with family, the smell of food being prepared, cakes, watch sorrel being made,” he said.
Hodari Q has been a recording artiste for 20 years. Prior to Christmas In The Tropics he released four songs this year.
— Howard Campbell
