Crossovah: Not Your Ordinary Boy Band

By Monique Reuben

When I first learned I would be interviewing up-and-coming Caribbean male vocal group Crossovah, I was somewhat exasperated. I immediately remembered my general distaste for male singing groups of the moment, although I must admit back in the day I jammed to the likes of Jodeci, Dru Hill, 112, Tony! Toni! Toné!, and a few other select groups. But after doing my research, which included listening to their 2007 demo, I realized Crossovah wasn’t just another boy band. Crossovah, which consists of Ricardo Drue of Trinidad, Christopher "Criss" of Jamaica, Joshua "J-Rah" Jenkins of Barbados and Dave "Kupid" Richards of Antigua is a pleasant urprise--fusing R&B, hip hop, and reggae with soca music in an attempt to create what they coin “crossover music.” When I realized the motivation behind the group, I was in awe because I'd never seen such a blueprint executed successfully. I mean, have you ever seen a Caribbean male vocal group achieve mainstream success and longevity? If you're thinking about the Baha Men (they won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording for their hit, "Who Let the Dogs Out"), I'd like you to ask yourself where are they now? Crossovah may be on the verge of accomplishing what many Caribbean male groups of the past haven’t.

The young and energetic quartet with vocals and moves for days has already garnered enough attention to open for Elephant Man, Sean Kingston, Machel Montano and Dawgie Slaughter. With their debut album, Rock Your Body, set for release later this year, I caught up with two fourths of the talented group, Ricardo and Kupid and learned that unlike other male groups of the past, they’re in it for the long-haul.

IVM: The album that’s available now for download on your Myspace page, when was that released?

Ricardo: Well, It wasn’t an actual album. It was a demo so that people could know that Crossovah was coming out soon. We wanted to keep people aware of the kind of music we were making. Basically it was a taste of what is to come.

IVM: When did you guys put that demo out?

Ricardo: It was recorded in 07. In November and December.

IVM: I know you guys are touring the U.S. What are you guys working on now in the studio?

Ricardo: We have an album in the process right now. It’s our debut, called Rock Your Body.

IVM: With this album can we expect more of what we saw with your demo in terms of blending different genres together?

Ricardo: Right! Most of our tracks are a blend in general. Some of the production is more like an upbeat soca vibe, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it soca music. We call it crossover music. So what you’re saying is true. There is a diverse vibe to the album.

IVM: What do you think separates the group from other male vocal groups that are out currently or even those from the past?

Kupid: I would say the difference would be the stage presence and the energy that we give to our audience. We dance on the stage while we’re singing. We also rap. Between songs we joke around with each other. We entertain the audience as in not just going out there and doing our song and then getting off stage.

Ricardo: If I can add to that as well…what separates us also is that we are four sons of the Caribbean: Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, and Antigua. And what we’re doing with our music is unifying cultures in terms of music and dance.

IVM: Great! I definitely noticed that when I was watching some of the videos I found on YouTube of your performances. You guys definitely have a lot of energy.

Ricardo: (laughs) Thanks for taking the time to watch it!

IVM: For readers who may not be familiar with you because your group is new to the scene, can you guys give me a little bit of a background on how this group came to be? I read that you guys met in high school and that originally it was just two members and the other two members were backup dancers. So how did this all come to be?

Ricardo: We met in high school like you said. We were all in different groups (social circles). We were four different people. Kupid was more of the skater…

Kupid: (interjects) I still am a skater!

Ricardo: (laughs) Ja-Rah was more of a jock. He was into sports. Criss, he was more of like the dance/R&B type dude. I was more of the Caribbean type. I had this strong sense of Caribbean in me because I had just moved from Trinidad, whereas the others had been in the States for a bit longer than me. We were all in different groups competing against each other. Had friends in different cliques, all that. One day we just realized that we had the potential and the skills to benefit each other. So we decided we were going to create a group. It started off with just me and Criss and after that we realized that J-Rah and Kupid, who were our back-up dancers at the time, had musical talents as well. From there we started performing, bringing together what each of us had to the table. And we’ve been together ever since. And that was about five years ago.

IVM: What is the hardest part for you and the group in terms of trying to make a name for yourselves as a young group? I assume you guys are pretty young. Are you guys in your 20s?

Ricardo and Kupid: (laughing in unison) Yeah…

Kupid: I think the hardest thing will be local outsiders in both the U.S. and the Caribbean. We’re trying to bring the States to the Caribbean the Caribbean to the States. Getting people to acknowledge that we are not creating music only for Caribbeans or just for Americans is hard. We’re attracting both. So the understanding that everybody can get something out of what we’re trying to do. That might be one of the hardest things for us to establish.

Ricardo: Yeah one of the hardest things about it is the Caribbean people because some of them may think a group like Crossovah is not what they are accustomed to because of what we’re doing musically in trying to blend different genres.

IVM: So what would you say the overall response has been for you guys?

Richardo: I’d say the response has been great. I don’t think we’ve ever had any bad criticism. I mean we’ve had constructive criticism. Where they say we’d like to see a little less dancing here and a little bit more vocals here. But in terms of overall performances, it’s always been positive. The crowds have been extremely positive, especially.

IVM: Just in terms of male vocal groups. I’m pretty sure you guys are aware that lots of male groups from the past don’t usually seem to have longevity. Do you feel the chemistry between your group is tight enough to last?

Ricardo: Definitely. We are not just four guys that decided, “Oh, ya know…let’s create a group! I’m bored.” Let’s create a group. No, we’re family.

Kupid: We are family. Definitely. We went to the same high school, did some of the same things…

Ricardo: I’ve never met three other guys that were into the same things that I was into, did the same things that I enjoyed doing. Although there are some variations in our personalities, we do have similar likes and dislikes. And we all feel the same way about music. But at the same time, we’re not perfect. We do argue. We do fall out sometimes. We have our disagreements. But you know, we family. We wrap it up. Tough it out…punch each other (laughs).

IVM: So back to the new album, do you have tracks that you already know you’re going to use? Have you guys been writing? Do you write your own music?

Ricardo: Yes, we do. We’re in the process right now of looking for people that write. The last couple of years we’ve been writing all our own material and now we want to take a different approach to it this time. We want to see how it will be if someone else writes for us. But as far as Rock Your Body is concerned, the album that’s coming out…we are pretty much done with it. So we need two or three more tracks for that. And I think then we’ll be set for Rock Your Body. Then the album after that will be Crossovah My Way, which will really be a diversified album. It’ll have everything. R&B, reggae, soca, hip-hop, country, folk…Everything!

IVM: Wow. That’s crazy. I know you don’t have a release date as of yet, but will Rock Your Body be out in 09?

Ricardo: We’d like to shoot for Rock Your Body to be ready soon. We’d like to shoot for it to be done ASAP. We have a lot of tours coming up. A possible tour in Europe in August. A lot of things in Miami coming up pretty soon. Houston, Chicago. We’re really trying to get the album in order so that we can really start the Crossovah movement.

IVM: So, will we be getting Rock Your Body this year in 2009?

Ricardo: Yes, definitely. You will get it in 2009, we’re just not 100 percent sure when.

IVM: What artists would you guys love to work with?

Kupid: In the mainstream industry, I’d like to work with The Clipse. Caribbean, it’d be Kees from Kes the Band. But that’s just mine.

IVM: What about you Ricardo?

Ricardo: I’d like to work with people like Ne-Yo. Lil Wayne. I’d like to work with The Dream. But, not necessarily for tracks, The Dream writes a lot. I’d like to work with him, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z., Machel Montano, Beanie Man, Boyz II Men, etc. There’s a lot of people we’d like to work with. There’s just a lot.

IVM: So is there anything else you want people to know about Crossovah? What do you want people to understand about your group?

Ricardo: The main thing we’d like people to know, as I’ve said earlier, is that Crossovah is not just a group. We’re family. We are a brand. We are four sons of the Caribbean. We all live in the United States. We believe that with our music and our entertainment we can unify cultures. And just have that unification among music lovers. And…I mean that’s just about it. We’re a brand and we’re going to get people familiar with that brand.

(Monique Reuben is a contributor to Island Vibes Magazine and writes about Caribbean culture, entertainment, and social issues. For comments, please feel free to contact her at monique@islandvibesmag.com.)