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Kapa Shanti - Reggae musician from New York

Kapa Shanti

The name Kapa Shanti alone, has a powerful meaning to it. Kindly-appreciate-people- and- stop- hating- another- nation- that's- I. Reggae musician from New York City, Kapa, was raised by his mother and grandmother. Kapa's parents migrated when he was still a little boy. "We lived in various villages including Craig and Campbellville, GT. Then I joined my parents in the US to live on the Island of Shaolin (Staten Island). I still haven’t moved off the Island but have roots in Brooklyn. I’ve been singing from when I was growing up in GT where I went to school in the Houston community", says Kapa Shanti.

Kapa Shanti's musical influences is old rockers reggae stars like Freddie McGregor, Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs, Yellowman, Fathead and many more. "I had a passion for reggae from early on. The riddim and blues side I must say such artist like Lionell Richie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Cool and the Gang had a effect on me also".

Coming to the states in 1986 Kapa met his best friend for life Popular, who is from the parish of St. Mary Jamaica, in 1989 in the staircase of 240 parkhill staten island . "I wasn’t good or as smooth as him, I couldn’t even rhyme well at that point. When I wrote my first lyrics he would critique me. He recognized that I had the vibes and the passion but needed some training".

"From then I continued to write lyrics everyday. We used to go by a good friend of ours called Chopper Ranks who is also from jam-rock. He had a set in his house and everyday we would freestyle, raising the level of my talent. I would walk with a shopping bag full of lyrics, just writing and singing (me, Popular, Fred Locks, Dice and Siah. This period from 1989 to 1991 was truly an education for me, learning from other talented dudes while honing my skill. My First show was 5 person competition in 1991. My knees shaking so bad it was like I was doing the Elvis Presley and but I kept singing, people in the audience was laughing hard at my nervousness but I thought they were into my music, so I kept going. I came in last and was pissed because I thought I did better, however I moved on from that experience vowing not to give up.

Reggae musician from New York. Kapa Shanti

Reggae musician from New York. Kapa Shanti

My first big show was in 1993 with Machel Montano at Syracuse University. My girlfriend at the time was the Class President and paid me for the show despite my amateur status and the other committee members weren’t happy about that. However at the end of my performance the others asked me if I was ok with the money because it went so well. This gave me the confidence boost I needed to move on to bigger and better things. So I kept doing shows and eventually worked with entertainers such as Elephant Man, Bounty Killer, Beanie Man, Buju Bantan, Luciano, Sparrow, Lady Saw, Sean Paul, Capleton, and many more.

Some of the location included Randals Island, Steple Chase Park, Keyspan Park, St.George Theater and Georgia Music Fest. I was invited to be on a couple of radio stations, and in 2006 Jabba from Hot 97 in New York, hosted my mixed cd of which sold ten thousand copies."

Kapa Shanti is working on his first official album. "My aspiration is to meet the massive from corner to corner, Africa to Europe, South and North Americas. I want people to be inspired by my music. I don’t believe music should be used to put others down but to uplift,it was not given from GOD to call our women the B word. For my West Indian and American people I would like you to know that you could from nothing and be all you could be with persistence."

Info and music at MySpace