The Musical Venam of Shanko (THIS IS A REPOST)
by Onica Dick
My first article for this Blog page was posted on September 01, 2021. It was posted on the page on November 21, 2021.
However, I am marking today as the anniversary this Blog page. In recognition of this four (4) year anniversary, I decided to repost the third article, posted on February 06, 2022, which featured a very talented and versatile Tobago artiste and entrepreneur, Shanko Venam. (See the repost below). A follow-up article will soon be done on the progress of this versatile artiste and his accomplishments from then to now.
He is an artiste entrepreneur who has very unique and interesting stories that need to be shared. However, the focus of this article is on 29-year-old Shankeel ‘Shanko’ Alleyne, the artiste. He is from Patience Hill and is a past student of the Patience Hill Primary School and the Pentecostal Light and Life Foundation High School.
At primary school his preference of teachers was Ms. Grant while at secondary school his extreme love for the subject English Language was his main reason for favouring his English teacher Ms. Pierre.
He always had an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to become an active entertainer. “My favourite artiste is Tupac and when I was younger, one of my uncles, now deceased, had put up a picture of him (Tupac) on the wall. At first I didn’t know that the person in the pic was Tupac. Where we lived the house was small and I used to try to look around the house to find things to entertain me and one day when I asked about the picture, I was told who he was and I said to myself that one day when I grow up, I want to be like him; in essence, I connected visually and I connected through the music.”
He adds, “So even though I did not come from a family background of anyone being an artiste, I always knew as a child that one day I would become an artiste and as I got older, I started focusing on that because deep within, I have a lot of stories to tell.” In 2018 he started “putting things in place” and in 2019, he took the music more seriously to show everyone that he was really “making the move”.
The artiste who sings mainly dancehall has a total of 14 songs recorded thus far and has the intention to do lots more, started laying the foundation with his first recording titled ‘Nuh Patience’ in 2019.” I ask him to sing part of the song as he sits in my backyard having the conversation for this article. He sings with full authority, “Leh me tell you bout Patience Hill man dem; Dawg we nuh ha patience; Leh me tell you bout Pump Mill man dem; dawg we nuh play around.”
I ask him to sing two more and he renders in fine style part of another song titled ‘Scars to Show’ in which he declares, “Dem just ah see me as a regular youth, but a nuff time mi face di worst; Nuh bother judge me by di cover mi yute; and feel seh mi life did perfect.”
In the other song he has chosen to sing titled ‘How Mi Survive’ he states, “How mi survive, how mi still alive, how mi go thru so much ah fight, and still ah try.”
At this point in time, Shanko is not working with a management team. The confident young man who has developed his own clothing brand discloses, “I am an independent artiste and if anyone is coming to manage me, they should not come to outsmart me because it is supposed to be that you are working for me.”
I ask him a bit about his clothing brand Venam Apparel which he informs me has gotten a good response thus far. “I came up with something that will be for everybody; my thing is for the various moods and there are different colours. The white flame is for when you are in a cool mood, the red flame is for when you are furious, the black is bold, and the gold flame is all about money.”
This artiste has so much ambition. He tells me that beside the entertainment and the clothing brand he also has a number of other entrepreneurial projects that he has been involved in.” My fast-food business is called Venam Wings with an assortment of wings including, garlic, hot and barbeque. I also do smoothies and juices under the umbrella name Venamade Juices, and I do wines under the name Venam Vin. Vin is a French word which means wine. I am even writing a four-book series at the moment of which I am near completion of the first one. I even have an online game with different stages that I am also perfecting, soon to be released. So you see I have a lot to offer. As a child I was out there on the streets selling anything, from chenette to golden apple; I used to make chow and sell. I got involved in so many types of business, but I got a better focus as I grew older. That is how I eventually started my clothing line.” I realise this artiste is extremely versatile and that I must do some follow up interviews with him about his other businesses especially the book.
Shanko is still yet to make a debut performance at a major event but so far, he has performed in front of friends and family, and he says he felt “real love just being in their presence.” His music is also on his YouTube channel ShankoVenamVEVO. He has also expressed interest in futuristic collaborations with “established artistes” but he is not ready to reveal their names just yet. He even aims in the next five years to have one of the biggest record labels in Trinidad and Tobago and internationally.
As the interview comes to close, I ask him if he has any advice for upcoming artistes. He divulges, “Anyone can make it no matter even if you live in a small board house on the roadside because one day you can be the person building schools in the community. So, if you want to sing and love singing, sing; if you want to leave an impact, do other things while singing.”
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