Can soca music survive beyond Crop Over or Carnival? For years this question has provoked much discussion by music industry executives as each season one witnesses the release of over 400 soca songs during the period preceding Barbados’ Crop Over festival and by the time the annual Party Monarch competition begins, only 30 or so songs survive in heavy rotation on most radio stations. Each year the vicious cycle continues as most artistes will not release another song fearing that most radio deejays will not play new soca releases outside of Crop Over unless it comes from one of the “ big names” in the business.

Notwithstanding the yearly struggle by most entertainers to survive the seasonal nature of the Barbados music industry, one local act The Fraud Squad have remained undaunted by the limited prospects which the festival driven industry offers. Starting in 1999 with their hit single Tek Dat, the group which at the time comprised Adrian O’neale, Shon Cummins and Omar “Chilly” Jordan have consistently made a contribution to local music. In 2000, they followed up with another hit titled “Yuk Wuk” and in 2001 released their first album “Undercover “. The album was one of the most heavily rotated albums that year and their success peaked with follow up hits “Haunted” “Bring Drinks”; “Pork Mout” and “Caan Get De Rass Hol’”.

Although this group which now comprises Adrian and Omar have never performed at any major national event or received any awards for their contribution to the music industry, two of their songs “Haunted” and “Bring Drinks” were recently licensed for use in Season 2 of the Canadian show “DA KINK IN MY HAIR”. The tracks attracted the attention of Michael Pelmetter, a music supervisor of over 11 years who was actively looking for songs for the upcoming show which is focused on Caribbean Canadian women who own a hair salon.

Production team Gary Serrao and Dwain “Dwaingerous” Antrobus are pleased with the recent licensing deals which both agree will create an additional income stream for the songs with the decline in the sale of CD’s and also expose the music to an entirely different audience.