Welcome to another episode of Chapo Ba, in which someone who has had significant impact on Haiti and its culture is highlighted. Today’s subject? Manno Charlemagne, a singer and lyricist.

Some have called him Haiti’s answer to Bob Marley and Bob Dylan. Known for his organic roots music and sublime tenor, Charlemagne was born in 1948 in Carrefour, an urban area in Port-au-Prince. In 1984, he released Fini Les Colonies, on the LP format that was popular in the 1980s. The album contained 11 tracks, many of which centered on the trials of the poor in Haiti. This record was followed four years later by Nou Nan male Ak oganizasyon mondyal (We’re in Trouble with World Organizations), a set of songs that had him accompanied by little instrumentation other than his guitar and voice.

In 1994, Charlemagne released La Fimen (Smoke) one of his most acclaimed albums. This exhaustive song collection contained several folksy tracks that had become his trademark.

Journalist Vernon Silver interviewed the singer for the November 1994 issue of the magazine Vibe. The singer detailed how members of Haiti’s military attempted to take away his life in the Fall of 1991. According to Silver’s article, Charlemagne had to find refuge at the Argentine Embassy in Haiti. In 1992, according to Silver, Charlemagne attempted to return to Haiti, but was met with soldiers upon landing in Haiti, who put him on a plane back to exile. He returned to Haiti in the mid-1990s.

The book A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti by Gage Averill revealed that Charlemagne became mayor of Port-au-Prince in 1997. He remained active on the music scene throughout the 1990s, including the recording of a Bò Tab La (A Seat at the Table), a song especially created for carnival season.

Throughout the late 2000s, Charlemagne could be seen performing at Tap Tap, as a guest artist at posh Haitian restaurant in Miami Beach. In 2006, the creative collective Fokal released Manno Charlemagne: trente ans de chansons (Manno Charlemagne: 30 Years of Song), a tribute to the singer’s life and musical accomplishments.

In 2010, Canadian-Haitian filmmaker and archivist Frantz Voltaire released Konviksyon, a documentary about the singer’s life.

According to the news publication Haiti Liberte, in mid-summer 2017, the singer underwent surgery to have a tumor removed from his brain.

His vast legacy as Haiti’s folk singing griot follows him everywhere he goes.

Check out a performance by the artist, at the Duke Humanities Institute below.

CLICK HERE to purchase Manno Charlemagne’s music on Amazon| Manno Charlemagne on CD BABY

[Main Photo Credit: Hougan Sydney]

Is there someone who’s made an impact on Haitian culture that you’d like for me to write about? Sound off below, or simply send me an email.

Skank Dollar is a survivor, however you’d like to interpret the word. He’s the Brooklyn native who raps about the life that he’s known. One of his career-defining collections Live from Da Trap, gives personal-diary-like details of life as he sees it. Prior to that work, he put out The New York Times Tape 1, a concept mix tape with each song symbolizing the figurative headlines from Brooklyn’s lyrical yet tough streets.

Kreyolicious: How did you get the name Skank Dollar?
I got the name Skank from my older brother…a Flatbush Brooklyn street hustler who was given the name after he escaped a police custody situation. He stole from a female officer he slept with. One of the guys from the neighborhood caught wind of his local acts, and deemed him Skank for his influence on young women from around the neighborhood. He later added the Dollar part in hopes of creating a music persona after surviving a massive trailer accident on the the corner of Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

Kreyolicious: Did hip-hop choose you or did you choose hip-hop?
Skank Dollar: Since his passing, I’ve actually chosen hip-hop as a way to deal with my own personal grief. Being an “early adult”, I wasn’t familiar with death of a loved one before this…I actually lost school friends in the area, but never lost someone so close to me. So, I was moved down South by my family due to poor school grades from my Brooklyn neighborhood. And engulfed in the lifestyle, my family tried to prevent me from. The news of his passing was sent to me and my older brother. The hip-hop aspect came beforehand after picking up frivolous drug-dealing aspects and skills from local notorious thugs in the South Florida area. It was like a pastime. After hustling, I thought myself remembering how much he wanted to be a rapper instead. So once I acquired the gift, I began to pass it on to my fellow streets hustlers who had long taken me in as if I was a runaway stray…And I felt like one too…At the time I was forced to go into this new area by him at the time due to his numerous exploits in the neighborhood we where from. So the rapping came naturally. My new friends were excited that I was from New York and expected me to be a good rapper…So, me being inexperienced, it was a perfect place to practice after my hustling duties…[Laughter] I was deemed the rapper out of my group because I was from new York. Cliché…I also had to open the minds of my friends to Northern hip-hop and vice versa…That has had an effect on my style of rap personally. So when I do hip-hop today, knowing I have influenced many in my travels, I keep the Southern style in my heart. Knowing my siblings had a more boom-bap style, he would’ve surely used before his soul was called home.

Kreyolicious: When you’re creating, what’s the process like from start to finish?
Skank Dollar: Honestly…it comes kinda natural…it’s random. I tend to find female partners first. sometimes I Freestyle songs over my live feeds today in time but when I was younger in the early and mid-2000’s I had less resources. I’ve since adjusted my style of rap and formed a conscious trap style of rap with is sort of an explanation in a sense… like I mixed the North and the South as much as I could. So sometimes I’d sound like I’m from the North, but spoke like I was from the South, or I’d sound like I’m from the South, but spoke like I was from the North or Midwest.

Kreyolicious: Which rappers have had the most profound influence on you?
Skank Dollar: I’ve pretty much today met all of my influences aside from a handful of artist like Jay Z, Mobb Deep, Trick Daddy, The Wu-Tang Clan, Dr Dre, Ice Cube, Wyclef Jean, LL Cool J, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Sean Combs. But I’ve come across many and some I didn’t take photographs with or met this decade. My social networks tell a different story today. But it has been a long time coming and very difficult. I’m talking about from Ludacris to Tip Harris in from the mid to late 2010s. Too many to count and I’m still in the streets.

Photo Credit: Dominik Kublan

Kreyolicious: You ever been to Haiti, dawg?
Skank Dollar: Nah. I ain’t have never been to Haiti. Unfortunately, but I do plan on visiting very very soon. As a young teen, I had a spoiled friend who visited Haiti with his family members. Unfortunately he had nothing but bad things to say about it being a spoiled American. In my adulthood, my mother took the time to inform me of my extensive background. So, I’m still learning about myself as I build my image and name.

Kreyolicious: Do you think there will be a time when hip hop won’t matter?
Skank Dollar: No. I believe hip-hop music as a music form will be preserved for decades and generations to come…It will be around for a long time…and as a young boy from Brooklyn I’ve long begun my quest to leave my stamp.

CLICK HERE to visit Skank Dollar’s website | SKANK DOLLAR ON YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM