Toronto Caribbean Carnival

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bitters was at Caribana.

Big belly girls, do the right thing.

[laughs] Come on, man.

Mm.

Like, people's homes are literally there.

So it's not like you're on this secluded street like Lake Shore where we do it- Mm ... at Caribana, where there's no houses, nobody to worry about.

You can climb a fence, tree, whatever.

Yeah.

Well, we, uh, for us, we were going to talk about, like, you know, Caribana, because we have not given the people, like, updates from Caribana.

Were you, did you go out Caribana weekend?

I, I did not.

I actually was supposed to, but didn't end up going.

[laughs]

That's why your own beef of the week have been.

But own beef of the week, um, like we were talking, we were talking about Caribana the other day.

Yeah.

You know? So next time you pull up there, if, if it's Banner, Caribana weekend-

Yeah

... let me-

... like all of it together.

And so, yeah, I, I, I actually also liked there was, like, a quote there where she was like, "I'm sad we missed Caribana."

Yeah.

No, she was-

Mm-hmm

...

so sad that they were on the road for Caribana.

[laughs]

Yeah.

Never really participated in Caribana outside of maybe going to the one off Nigerian party.

Never been to the parade.

Never gone to see Canada Day fireworks.

Now, a lot of Caribbean brothers and sisters, immigrants, uh, carried these traditions with them.

And Toronto major Caribbean festival began in 1967, give or take, when Caribbean Canadians organized and became known as Caribana, originally connected with Canada's ci- centennial celebrations.

Now, how did New York get in the, in the mix? New York's Caribbean Carnival has roots in celebration organized by Caribbean immigrants, first in Harlem, and became, or later becam- becoming stronger, and BK all day, what you call Brooklyn, USA, and then you had the Labor Day West Indian American Day Parade, which established.

But they all have, because we was colonized by the Europeans, little pinch of their Catholic ideologies in terms of the parties, but we still had our foundation back into the African continent.

There are different distinctions of little different flavor of Caribana, whether it's in Barbados or Trinidad or Jamaica or New York.

They...

It's a combination of all, you know, Caribbean flavor.

Different costumes, different masks, different dancing, and so forth.

Yeah.

You know? So next time you pull up there, if, if it's Banner, Caribana weekend.

Yeah.

Let me-

Mm.

Man dem send you a video of your girl at Caribana hand on the f- like hands on the floor, fam.

She getting daggered crazy, bro, in her costume.

Are you gonna leave her now because she got-

It's because of who it is.

It's different because it's Chris Brown, fam.

What's the, what's the difference for you? I feel like mans were at Caribana, and that's what we're doing at Caribana.

And-

You're gonna get them on your local radio stations, especially when, you know, those shows on those stations are specialized, specialized programming.

So for instance, you know, you wanna know what's going on, you know, with Caribana and all the floats and who won the Soca Monarch of the Year and all that, you're tuning into Dr. J on the Soca Therapy.

You know, you wanna know what's going on with Kia Fest, you know, what artists are gonna be there or whatever, you're gonna tune into the Rhythm Track.

You know, and then it's fortunate that we have a station that plays reggae, soca, and dancehall, and Afrobeats, R&B, and hip hop all on one station.

Yeah.

Gosh.

On Caribana Saturday.

Mm-hmm.