A Constant Battle: Kobo Town and "The War Between Is and Ought"

Kobo Town plays our random tune for today, called The War Between Is and Ought. Founded by Trinidadian/Canadian Drew Gonsalves in 2004, Kobo Town refers to the neighborhood in Port Au Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, where calypso was conceived and first performed. Kobo Town blends calypso music with other Caribbean music, as well as genres such as ska, reggae, dub, rapso, zouk and hip hop. Gonsalves moved to Canada from Diego Martin, Trinidad & Tobago with his mother when he was thirteen. She was a Canadian citizen who was escaping her abusive marriage. He turned to music and poetry to deal with his situation and feelings of exile. He studied history and political science at Carleton University before taking up music as a career. The War Between Is and Ought can be found on Kobo Town's 2013 album Jumbie in the Jukebox. The song uses a traditional santimanitay rhythm to tell the story of two feuding kings.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_Town; http://www.cumbancha.com/files/artist_pdfs_general/KoboTown_JumbieInTheJukebox_DigitalBooklet.pdf