I reached out to him, and asked him to give me a play by play of his weekend, Jabari messaged me on Monday, after what he told me was an uneventful but welcomed kind of quiet weekend.

Jabari…young, handsome, loud…I expected him to be “outside,” hyping up a crowd, being wild, jumping from XIV Lounge in Port of Spain, to a boat ride, to a J’ouvert fete…his Instagram stories flooded with lights, smiles, and ‘steam’…a weekend in the life of a hype man, a party promoter.

But this was a quiet weekend, reflective…in the life of someone who can’t pause, who has to be on the cusp of the next event, the next party, someone who has to build the fun. It was rare, but appreciated.
“It’s so crazy because as a person whose entire gimmick and job is to be loud or in loud environments, I really appreciate the sound of silence sometimes. I usually complain that I’m not getting to do what I love—but the rest was needed, badly.”

He decided to give me a retrospective on the weekend before. A three-day tour de force of fete-ing. A weekend where he barely slept, where he hopped from event to event, and the weekend that caused his urgency to rest…his first big gig.

On Friday, Jabari and his DJ (the one he fondly calls “Hance”) hit the XIV Lounge on the Ave.
“We got a call to perform at XIV on Friday night, and then the next day we got another call to perform at XIV Lounge again for a Kartel appreciation party.”
In this business, you have to be on one. Last-minute events can pop up at any time, and you have to have the presence of mind and the energy to jump when the call comes. Long weekends are a feeding frenzy in Trinidad, and that particular one was carded to be a huge one, with Vybz Kartel supposedly coming live in concert after years of imprisonment.

We now know the concert was a monumental bust. A spectacular failure that left clubs with a huge carcass to scavenge. Everyone popped up with on-the-spot Kartel events, capitalizing on the energy that now had no place to go. Jabari was in the middle of it. I remember looking at his stories that day, on the mic, he and Hance pumped the classics, the Kartel-esque rudeness that crowds needed that night.

“ so we went Friday into Saturday, Saturday into Sunday.”
Straight from the club, he went into Crimson Crew’s “Caution”—his first big gig.

The Crimson Crew are promoters known for their themed parties: youthful, high-brow crowd with low-brow steam and wildness. “Caution” was their first big J’ouvert party, themed to a sort of Wild West vibe. I had never seen Crimson host one of these before, so I was curious about how Jabari landed such a huge gig.

“They called us to perform the Thursday before. I know a good few people in Crimson, but I’m not necessarily a part of it, so it was a big deal for me. And it was a lot of work.”

When he entered the venue, it felt different, like they knew this was something bigger than they had ever done before. There was a nervousness, a jittery feeling. As he performed his set, he watched as the party blossomed and grew.

While it is a party, as a mic man, he’s there to do a job. In between all the music and dancing and the performance of fun, the sponsors and promoters have to get shoutouts, and the crowd has to be monitored.
“That was my first J’ouvert fete! And I think I passed the test,” he said. “Every time we go on stage, we testing ourselves.”

He performed earlier on, 2 hours into the event, a spot usually reserved for younger, less-established DJs and mic men. An honorable spot regardless, as they prep the crowd for more momentum later.

“No matter what time we playing, party is party regardless. We have to fete, you not just coming to lime alone.”

Jabari notes that energy is constantly shifting in a party, something the hype men and promoters need to be aware of.

“What makes a good party is complex,” he stated. Promoters must care, have a plan with DJs, mic men, there must be a flow that makes sense in the music. The vibe and energy must be kept up, artificially if they must, until the party’s ecosystem can sustain itself on its own hype. But behind the work of it is a sort of euphoria.

“When you see the crowd respond to you—it feels powerful.
No doubt, seeing hundreds, even thousands of people move under the weight of your command must be thrilling. he talks a humble game though, stating that the people are there for the music, he’s just the garnish of hype.

The way I see it, The work of it all comes to a head in those moments on stage during the set, where mic man, dj and the crowd do an energetic dance, a call-and-response, each reacting to the other’s energy. And when it synchronizes it’s electrifying for everyone.

I sat with his voice notes—everything he shared about a world that is close, but foreign to me. The energy he sustains, and the work that goes into the fun, is daunting but fascinating.
There’s always that spirit of wanting more, even in something that seems like just vibes and fun. There’s this aspect of selling your own entertainment, marketing yourself and your brand of fun and seeing if the world responds to it, and how it responds. I don’t doubt that young Jabari is going far, he has the bite, the energy and the persistence, not to mention the connections to maintain a certain momentum for his duo team. A lot of this is about personality, and I think thus far, he’s got one that sells.

The rest of the party went as all good parties do—fast and intensely. By the end, his body was begging for a break.

“I feel like that’s a part of the party promoting, entertainment lifestyle that nobody talks about. Your entire biological clock is flipped.”

And how can it not be? Alcohol, long hours, caffeine for energy boosts, music, lights…the stimulation is constant. The week after, you suffer  terrible sleeping schedules, something you barely recover from before you have to get ready for the next weekend.

As with everything else, accomplishments only satiate so much. It’s a shark tank, the entertainment world of Trinidad, every DJ, hype man, promoter trying to edge each other out of the relevancy race. Jabari obviously feels the pressure in some way. He noted:
“I don’t really feel satisfied, even though I got the Crimson Crew gig—I want more.”