Introduced to the world two years ago in Major Lazer’s tripped-out sexual fantasy video for the club hit Pon de Floor, Skerrit Bwoy has become the poster child for daggering, a Caribbean dance that takes dry humping on dance floors to the extreme.
Skerrit will show off his daggering skills, as well as his DJ prowess, this Sunday at the Daniel Pearl Day event in Taipei, and then travel to Kaohsiung for a performance at Brickyard.
With a blond stegosaurus Mohawk, a menacing scowl, and a penchant for taking ladders and mattresses to parties, Skerrit knows how to make a place go crazy.
Photo courtesy of La Luka
In 2009, Diplo went to the Bronx looking for an artist to voice the first Major Lazer album. “My name kept coming up and after seeing videos of me, Diplo wanted to get me on the album,” Skerrit said in an e-mail interview with the Taipei Times. “Unfortunately, I’m not an artist. So after I told him what I do, he was interested in making me a part of the project. In June 2009, I went to Texas with Diplo and Switch for our first Major Lazer concert together. The people loved it and the rest is history.”
Labeled part hype man, part stuntman and part comedian, Skerrit loves his role as the jester/ladies man in Major Lazer. “I’m all of the above,” he said. “Plus I’m certified insane by the New York City Institute of Mental Health. Without Diplo here, I’m a bigger safety hazard because there’s no one around to tell me to stop.”
As a dancehall DJ and MC, as well as being the front man for Major Lazer, Skerrit bounces between two worlds. “When I’m with Diplo, I gotta speak American English. For the masses to get pumped, it’s more electronic music,” Skerrit said. “When I do the reggae clubs, it’s all hardcore dancehall music from the streets of Jamaica and I speak more broken English. That’s where daggering was started by going crazy in the reggae clubs, encouraging ladies and gents to get wilder and crazier than the last couple.”
Photo courtesy of Garret M. Clarke
Skerrit performed the triple dagger the last time he was at Luxy, in 2010. He jumped off a ladder in his underwear onto one girl whose legs were akimbo, then leapfrogged over her to grind on another girl, and finally jumped over her to land on a third dancer.
Some posters on an online message board viewed a video of this and voiced their opposition to Skerrit Bwoy appearing at the Daniel Pearl Day because he doesn’t fit the vibe, but a little griping isn’t going to stop him.
“This Sunday is gonna be filled with action, adventure, and more daggering than you could fit in a condom,” Skerrit said. “I don’t just DJ. I put on a show. I want the people to go as wild as possible, then go over that. By the end of the night we gonna be dancing on the ceiling.”
Skerrit Bwoy performs on Sunday at the Daniel Pearl Day (see story on page 13) and at Brickyard, B1, 507 Jhongshan 2nd Rd, Cianjin Dist, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市前金區中山二路507號B1). Advance tickets are NT$150 for ladies and NT$300 for men including a drink. Tickets can be purchased at Brickyard, Heaven Hall, 181 Sintian Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市新田路181號), or Global Asia Fitness (全球亞洲), 1091 Yucheng Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市裕成路1091號). Admission at the door is NT$300 for ladies and NT$500 for men, which includes a drink.
Another DJ with a reputation for going bonkers behind the decks hits the shores of Taiwan this weekend. La Luka (born Luke Steven James Chitty), will be co-headlining the English Breakfast party at Revolver with Chamber.
While Chamber plays mostly break beats, something a little more bass heavy is on the menu for La Luka. “Dubstep just wakes me up and makes me feel alive,” La Luka said. “At live shows on a big system it’s the best feeling in the world when a tune drops and everything vibrates and people’s faces go, ‘Ohhhhhh!’ Dubstep is a very unique form of dance music, and I love the fact that it can go from a dark roller, to all out right savagery to fully euphoric and trancey.”
Two years ago, La Luka had a hard time finding music that was his style, so he started making it himself. “My productions are all over the place and there’s not really a set style. I just write what I feel,” La Luka said. “I’ve just worked hard at tryin’ to get my own sound, which normally consists of a 4/4 beat, huge bass and an acidy synth.”
La Luka goes berserk when he’s playing his sets. “I honestly don’t do it to put on a show, I do it because I love the music and the atmosphere so much that I have no control over my body and just want to dance,” he said. “I’ve danced on DJ booths and tables. I’ve stage dived. I’ve even given myself a fat lip from head banging so hard I head butted a table! But with all this, my mixing is very tight, perfected and fun.”
English Breakfast tomorrow night at Revolver, 1-2, Roosevelt Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路一段1-2號). On the Net: www.revolvertaipei.com. Free entrance for women before 11:30pm. Afterwards admission is NT$300, the price for men all night, which includes a drink.
And last, but certainly not least, is Sunday’s huge G5 gay party at Luxy. This edition of the night, which has been going a decade, features New Jersey native and house DJ Hector Fonseca in the mix.
■ Tickets are NT$900 in advance (available from Luxy tonight and tomorrow night only) and NT$1,200 at the door for men, NT$1,500 for females.
■ From 11pm to 5am.
■ On the Net: www.g5-taipei.com and www.hectorfonseca.com or search for “G5 Taipei” on Facebook.
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