Renowned for his biting social commentaries, former St. Vincent and the Grenadines Calypso Monarch Errol “D Man Age” Rose was the lone artiste to perform Sunday night during a town hall meeting at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center in Brooklyn.
Though he only rendered two hits, D Man Age provided much entertainment to the large crowd during the “NDP Home for Home NY Tour”, organized by the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Progressive Organization of New York (SPOONY), the New York affiliate of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
NDP President and Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday, as well as three of his colleagues – Sen. Shevern John, Candidate for East St. George Lavern Velox and NDP Public Relations Officer Lavern King – addressed supporters and Vincentians in general during the 3 ½-hour-long town hall meeting.
“I’m honored to be here to be doing two honors tonight, which I think is very important for the Vincentian reality,” D Man Age told the audience before offering “Come On Na Man” and “Country to Build”.
In “Come On Na Man”, D Man Age, clearly, took a dig at Prime Minister Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves.
“Your dictatorship is not working at all/it leads to the country downfall,” he sang. “Come, purpose and urgency/and let us dismantle the dynasty.”
In “Country to Build”, De Man Age sang: “It wouldn’t be easy restoring this place/We get we country to build/Let’s pull it back together/We can’t rely on them to make this better.”
At the end of the town hall, De Man Age reiterated to Caribbean Life that “it was an honor to perform for an event like this.”
Before pursuing his singing career, D Man Age was a dedicated and devoted teacher at the Kingstown Methodist School.
After completing two years at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Teachers College, he was transferred to the Questelles Primary School because of his calypso, “Dey Go Ban It”.
D Man Age also had a passion for the steel pan in his young age; he visited the pan yard after school and played the steel pan before becoming an official member of Starlift Steel Pan Orchestra, the perennial panorama champions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
He inherited the name, “D Man Age”, because he was much smaller for his age as a youngster growing up in Rose Place, Kingstown, the Vincentian capital.
D Man Age, a member of the Brooklyn-based Dynamite Calypso Tent, the lone Vincentian calypso tent in North America, is reportedly feared by many politicians for his political and social commentaries.
He started singing calypsos at 26 and has been doing so for over four decades.
He is a three-time Vincentian Calypso Monarch, having won the crown in 1978 (Dey Go Ban It & In De Ghetto); 1999 (Country to Build) and 2000 (If Ah Coulda Ah Woulda).
After winning the Calypso Monarch in 1978, with “Dey Go Ban It”, then Prime Minister Robert Milton Cato banned the song from playing on the airwaves that same night.
D Man Age has over 100 recorded songs/tracks and 10 recorded albums.
He is a diverse calypsonian, with recorded songs in other genres, such as ballad and reggae.
He is best known for hit songs, such as: This Society Needs A Spectacle; Who have Eyes to see Let them See; Dey Smoking Too; Take Back We Country; A Country to Build; and What More Do You Want From We.
In September 2017, the Brooklyn-based Vincentian group, Vincy Liberators, honored D Man Age for his “41years of contribution and service to St. Vincent & The Grenadines in culture, calypso, and political and social commentaries over the years.”
