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Still Hotter Than Pepper: Machel Montano on Soca, Legacy, and Lighting Up the Global Stage

In this no-holds-barred interview, the soca king gets candid about going viral on Tiny Desk, earning a master’s in Carnival Studies, and why the world is finally catching up to a sound he’s been perfecting since childhood.

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Montano has been the genre’s driving force for over four decades, helping transform it from a regional Caribbean sound into a global movement. The title reflects his dynamic soca catalog and recent academic milestone—earning a Master’s degree in Carnival Studies from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. "We’ve decided that Monk Music must be a tool that young people can use harness to take themselves deeper into the industry in [an] independent way but a well-connected way so they can be in charge of their careers in terms of data, understanding who their fanbase is, what the geography of that might look like, what the numbers are…Understand it in a business sense.”

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