by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – Dancehall star I-Octane has a blast whenever he visits Circle House in North Miami. He also loves recording songs with Inner Circle, the veteran band world-famous for the pop anthems, Sweat and Bad Boys.
Chocolate is the title of their latest collaboration, released in November.
“Inner Circle is a band dat always accept young artist, dem nuh (don’t) ridicule yuh nuh matter if yuh style different. Some elder artist always ridicule us ‘cause di style different but Circle House welcome every artist an’ it was a great energy,” said I-Octane.
The uptempo Chocolate is the second project between the Grammy-winning band and I-Octane, who were first introduced 10 years ago by Wendy Morgan, his manager. Young Wild And Free, their previous song, was done with Peetah Morgan of Morgan Heritage and (remix) rapper Bizerk.
Chocolate is also the latest reach-out by Inner Circle to dancehall’s young turks. The band, formed 54 years ago by brothers Roger and Ian Lewis, has also done songs with Chronixx, Kabaka Pyramid, Khago and Teejay.
Tenement Yard (News Carrying Dread), their 2015 effort with Chronixx, has been the most commercially vibrant of those joint projects. It was an update of their 1976 song with singer Jacob Miller.
Best known for songs including L.O.V.E.Y.O.U. and Hold Her in my Arms, I-Octane released I Am Great — a 15-song album produced by Troyton Music and Conquer The Globe Productions — in March.
He is also currently promoting his solo song, Independent.
