Stonedwithcupid releases Body Count

Stonedwithcupid is one of the most revered spoken-word artiste in Barbados in the modern era. The award-winning poet who is currently the Poetry Slam King in Barbados is not slowing down with his achievements.

Stonedwithcupid whose real name is Akeem Chandler-Prescod recently was nominated in the National Youth Awards organized by the Division of Youth and Community Empowerment where he performed his original self-penned piece ‘We Mek It’.

Reflecting on his performance Chandler-Prescod said it was a fantastic experience to be recognized.

“It was nice to be acknowledged and recognized for my hard work, especially in areas like spoken word or poetry where we are often forgotten or an afterthought within the Cultural Industries. What I sought to accomplish with that performance is to highlight the resilience and perseverance of young people today. We are dealing with daily sensory bombardment and world events that may have lasting effects for decades to come, more often than not young people are not in a position to make decisions that affect society at large but are often the victims of decisions made by previous generations. The piece "We Mek It" is a nod to how much we have made it through,” he said.

The former student of Combermere School who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Entertainment Management from the Barbados Community College recently received a Certificate Of Honourable Mention from the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Competition for his work dubbed ‘Cupid’s Notepad’.

“I see myself more as a performing artiste than a literary artiste so to place in the most prestigious literary arts competition was a surprise as most of the pieces were intended to be performed and heard not read. However, this showed me that my performance work is well written and can be applied to other spaces even if it may fall a little short of the best purely literary works,” he said.

Stonedwithcupid is continuing to trailblaze in the spoken word arena as he has recently released his new single Body Count on Valentine’s Day which is available on all streaming platforms and already had amassed over 79.5k views on his Instagram page @stonedwithcupid. The piece which explores silent masculine introspection is well-written and causes the listener to reflect on some of their past emotional experiences.

“We [men] often see things from our perspective, tunnel-visioned with emotional blinders refusing to hold space for the woman's experience. We often treat the woman's experience as peripheral; a satellite orbiting our wants and needs and there comes a time when we start to see things from her perspective. The piece is an exploration of a man taking accountability for his past transgressions and admitting to sometimes being wrong or being the problem while recognizing admission of guilt will not erode what is done. The music of the piece is reflective, and the vocal delivery is intimate and remorseful, blending together to create what I believe is a perfect spoken word track,” he said.

The audio track which is 3 minutes and 19 seconds in length was produced by Shawn Spencer who is the owner of Music Core and mixed and mastered by Dbase Studios.

“I invite persons to listen to the track which is available on all streaming platforms under my name Stonedwithcupid which includes Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and in the Instagram and TikTok music tabs. The track can also be bought on iTunes and on Amazon Music,” he said.

The twenty-eight-year-old multiple award-winning poet and spoken-word artiste is also nominated in this year’s Gine On People’s Choice Award for Poet of the Year 2022-2023. His nomination comes as no surprise as last year he would have won the National Library Services Poetry Slam, TAF Barbados Run Yah Mout Open Mic as well as performed at the Sagicor Life Inc Lighting Ceremony and Mahalia’s Corner Christmas Edition. On February 6th, 2023, he performed at the Regional Launch for the Early Warnings For All Initiative for the Caribbean which was held at the United Nations House (Barbados) where he received a standing ovation for his poem Family Affair. It must be noted that in the audience was the Prime Minister of Barbados The Hon. Mia Amor Mottley who gave his piece ‘Family Affair’ a glowing commendation.

But what advice does Stonedwithcupid have for young persons who are seeking to become spoken word artiste?

The Earl Warner Awardee in Theatre told future poets that the absence of something is an opportunity to get paid to make it present.

“I think young poets should look at what is not being done and fill those gaps and holes. This will create a more rounded market with offerings appealing to different demographics and ultimately growing the artform,” he said. (Write Right PR Services)