For anyone who spent this past Labor Day on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NY, you'll definitely recognize some of these tunes. During the West Indian Day Parade, the most popular Caribbean hits of the year thunder nonstop from massive tractor-trailer sound systems accompanying masquerade bands down the parkway. Most of the sounds are soca, the extremely popular Caribbean dance music that was born out of calypso in the '70s. As steel bands back in the day would play calypso tunes for the Panorama competition, most bands these days play arrangements of soca hits from earlier in the year. We have here for you a burning-hot playlist of some of the songs that we heard both on the parade route on Labor Day and as steel pan covers during Panorama.
For an in-depth look at Brooklyn's Carnival, listen to our program "Carnival in Brooklyn."
You can also check out these songs as a YouTube playlist.
5 Star Akil - "Different Me"
(Covered by both Despers USA and D'Radoes Steel Orchestra)
