by Morgan Catanzaro

If you were to imagine the major cities of America by a genre of music, I’m fairly sure you would generally see New York City as being a hub for underground music of all genres; Los Angeles as the hang out for the ska and punk rockers; Nashville as, obviously, the country music haven; Atlanta’s infamous hip hop and rap scene; and Miami as, well, a large mixing pot of culturally influenced music. If you want a good pop song with a Latin beat, or maybe a Bob Marley inspired reggae band, Miami is the place to be. Many popular artists like Nelly Furtado, Akon, Sean Kingston, Shakira, and Rihanna thrive in this area because of their cultural backgrounds and music.

Jaiko, an up and coming artist from the Barbados, is a musician I could possibly see becoming quite popular in the Miami area, as well as with the rest of the US. Caribbean beats are infused with a poppy hip-hop beat and laced with catchy lyrics to create something that ultimately reminds me of the early music of Rihanna, along with Sean Kingston, Akon, and even Chris Brown. Although some of the beats and lyrics are somewhat cheesy and almost juvenile in a sense, reminding me of something that would be on the Disney channel or Kids Bop, he does seem to have some redeeming qualities in his debut album entitled “Can I.” Jaiko has a good voice, perfect for the genre of music he’s getting into. And I can tell from many of his songs that he has radio potential, which is extremely important as it is one of the hardest methods of advertising music now a days. I would recommend this album to those who only listen to music on Y100, or love anything on MTV.