Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Singer and producer Ricardo “Ricochae/Party Gud” James continues to work hard to achieve his goals to take soca music to an international level. He has released two songs for Carnival 2020, Feeling Ah Feeling, and Take Soca, and he’s working on an international album, I’m Ready.

James said his artiste name, Party Gud, is an extension of his Ricochae persona, which “basically shines a light on who Ricochae really is, which is when Ricochae is in the party it means the party is good and full of vibes.”

He said his two songs were written and produced by himself and Arnold “Blackstarr” Noel. He said “My inspiration for both songs is that I’ve been doing music for over 15 years. Feeling ah Feeling was written about the feelings I feel every time I hear soca music.  Take Soca is basically telling people about soca music and some of the people responsible for great hits, like Shadow, Super Blue, Machel, Iwer, Bunji, just to name a few. It’s all about taking soca in your soul.”

James said he knew he wanted to be an artist since high school. The son of JMC3Veni lead singer Jimmy Seenath and brother of producer and singer Jason Lee, James grew up in and around music, so it was inevitable he would follow suit.  In 2008, he established production company Code 202 Productions and in 2012 he released his first soca single, a duet with Blaxx entitled “Handle It.” Since then he has released music annually. He has worked with artistes such as Orlando Octave, Farmer Nappy, Patrice Roberts, Jah Melody, Blaxx, Wayne Wonder, and Kimba Sorzano to name a few and produced with Bobby Digital out of Jamaica, NYC based Cutting Edge Studios and Grammy Award winning producer Delroy “D-Roy” Andrews.  His writing credits include Criminal Wine by Patrice Roberts and Lyrikal, Kevin Little’s Emotion, and Wayne Wonders’ 2019 productions, among others. James is also the owner of OS Entertainment, formed by himself and Roberto Angelo “Cuba” Pantin, “where we were responsible for a lot of reggae artists, we did Darkie by Orlando Octave, we worked with Jah Melody, we worked with I-Sasha, and many more.”

Code 202 Productions is located in Chaguanas and out of Quad Studios in Manhattan, New York. James said the studio has already been attracting attention from many recording labels, including Atlantic Records, because of the quality and standard of music produced.”

James is working on his international album, I’m Ready, which he describes as a cross-genre blend of soca, reggae, pop, Afrobeats and R&B. He said “People are breaking the rules these days and mixing the genres together these days. I myself am into music and I still don’t know what type of music I am doing. Some of the pieces that I’ve seen Atlantic pay attention to are things I was just playing the fool with, and they grab it and say they love it. Some of my songs are a cross of R&B, soca, pop, reggae, Afrobeats, all of those influences in one song, and they’re actually like we’ll take this, and you just stand up there confused like, I wonder where they’re going to release this, if it’s Europe or if it’s New York, where are they going to carry this? How do I label this? Working on an international level with a lot of international people, I realise that every three years, labels tend to look for something new, and they will put it under their own genre, they will say this is the new wave of dancehall, this is the new version of soca, though they don’t really use soca that much, this is the new R&B or pop, they actually label it on their own.”

James said his plans for the future are very simple. “I want to take soca music to an international level by doing a lot of cross-over music and simply doing music the way I think it should be done. I will never give up on the fact that we can make a change and a musical stamp globally.”