Mighty Sparrow - First Flight: Early Calypsos from the Emory Cook Collection (CD)

All Music Guide

True calypso masks hard, unflinching social commentary in bright melodies and rhythms, and although it is very much a dance music, its infatuation with sexuality, cultural inequities, street gossip, violent situations, and eye for an eye revenge scenarios coupled with its full use of bravado, humor, inflated rhetoric, and private metaphors means it has much in common with contemporary rap, right down to the "calypso wars" that pitted performer against performer in sharp, improvised insult battles. Calypso at its purest is a truly devilish style, since the galloping rhythms say "don't worry, be happy" while the lyrics bite deep and list all the things to be worried about. To borrow a phrase from Phil Ochs (who might have made a passable calypso singer), calypso is "all the news that's fit to sing."