Kevin Lyttle

The summer’s hottest hit is already here - Kevin Lyttle’s sexy, Caribbean sunshine-soaked smash "Turn Me On." The track is already a global phenomenon, Top 5 on virtually every international chart, and now it’s exploding at Top 40 radio and MTV in the US. With that success, Kevin has not only established himself as a dynamic new global star, he also is in the vanguard of artists who are emerging from the Caribbean with a range of exciting new musical hybrids poised to follow the surge of dancehall reggae into worldwide prominence. Kevin’s fresh and innovative fusion of Caribbean soca music, American hip hop/R&B and Jamaican dancehall was the smash of St. Vincent’s yearly Carnival in 2002. Through Kevin’s live performances, the song saturated the entire Caribbean, spread to Caribbean communities in North America and the U.K, and eventually reached mainstream clubs and radio across several European countries and Japan. Over a two-year period of mounting popularity, and without any official international release until now, "Turn Me On" has emerged as soca’s biggest international crossover hit in 20 years. His self-titled debut album promises to be as groundbreaking and eclectic as his single, teaming Kevin with a slate of top names from the fields of dancehall, hip hop and soca, including Jeremy Harding (Sean Paul, Tanto Metro & Devonte, Beenie Man); Tony Kelly (T.O.K., Sean Paul, Sasha) and Salaam Remi (Nas, Ini Kamoze, Fugees), as well as "Turn Me On" hit collaborator Adrian Bailey.

Even as dancehall further installs itself as a sellable pop/R&B sound in the U.S., St. Vincent native Kevin Lyttle arrives with a sexy, party-ready variant on soca (soul-calypso). "Turn Me On," the single that ensured this album's release in the States, is a three-years-in-the-making hit that pushes the singer's lithesome voice into an irresistible organic-electronic track (the CD also offers a remix with reggae hard man Spragga Benz and a video for the song). The rest of the album keeps the groove up, making for one of the most likeable, boundary-breaking successes in recent memory; a cover of Terence Trent D'Arby's "Sign Your Name" is a timely reminder of that singer's late-'80s heyday. An even more likely follow-up smash, though, is the bumping "My Lady." Don't be surprised if Lyttle has kicked off a welcome new sound-fad in America, with more soca stars arriving quickly. --Rickey Wright