Gyptian

Due to twitter, I have been asked if I review music and to be fair, I haven't as of yet. My taste is music is very varied. I sometimes wake up and I am in the mood for a bit of Meatloaf and other mornings I am more in the mood for some Bob Marley. When I go out clubbing I am not the techno type, I love music you can bump and grind to. My preference on a night out is bashment and RnB as well as dancehall.

I am rigid when I am out clubbing, it has to be something I can sing along to and it has to have a beat you can really dance to, not something you just do the same boring movements to. I enjoy listening to more laid back music at home. I like songs that have meaning and really make you relate it to something happening in your life.

I am a big fan of Gyptian and I like his style of music because it varies from something you can sit and chill to, to a song you can really dance to. He hit us last year with his song 'Hold Yuh' where he collaborated with Nicki Minaj. Since she has been such a phenomenon, I believe this really boosted his single. This song epitomizes that summer feel and everyone was playing it in the clubs, their cars or at home.

Five years ago Gyptian had a hit with the single 'Serious Times' and this is such a laid back, chilling with your friend's kind of song. I love the quality in his voice. He has a lot of soul in his voice and all of his songs have meaning behind them if you take the time to listen. I do like his more upbeat tracks, especially 'Nah Let go' but it is one track in particular that really is on my 25 most played on my iPod. The song 'I Can Feel Your Pain' is the type of song that makes you sit back and think about the words.

I love the high notes he uses and the reference to how women should be treated is something I like in an Artist when they are being positive about it. It relates to what a lot of women want and if Gyptian can give it, then line up ladies! I have set that song on replay too many times.

His music is smooth and is slow at times but I like the variety, like I said one minute he is singing about wanting to love a woman to then wanting to grind and hold her in a different sense. All of his songs make me want to listen and I am always waiting to listen to a new track of his, or a long lost one!

I want to really get into music reviewing so I am starting small and hoping to work my way up to more detailed posts. I am a lover of all things with a good beat and baseline but more importantly IT'S THE WORDS! You should never just know the chorus, listen and hear what is behind the lyrics and what the Artist is trying to portray in their songs. Doing this makes a song much more special and relatable to you and not just any old song you listen to for a summer and then move on the next 'in' thing.

I hope Gyptian lasts long in this industry as he has brought something to the table that can rival some of my other favourite Artists such as Jah Cure and Vybz Kartel. Don't even get me started on them, they are too much to handle!

I have set out a few of my favourite songs of Gyptian and I had to throw in a couple from the Artists I mentioned above, I couldn't help myself after listening to them again on YOUTUBE, so have a listen >>>

My Village

My most recent venture out of the country has been to visit my family in Cyprus. I visit every year to see my Grandparents and spend some time in the village where my Grandmother was born. My Grandparents were from two different villages and met when my Grandfather had to do some work in her village, Silikou.

They met young but knew they wanted to be together. They married and had children and have been happily married ever since. They have lived in England to provide a better life for their four children but when retirement came, they moved back to the village where they first met and loved.

Since then they have preoccupied themselves with looking after the land they have worked so hard to buy. This land provides them with home grown vegetables and fruit as well as olive and almond trees. They have everything they need from this land. They also look after chickens so they have eggs and meat to sell to other villagers. They make a good living for themselves from houses, flats and land they have bought over the years.

Silikou is located in the Troodos Mountains which is 650 metres above sea level. There are winding roads that lead onto the cobbled streets of my village. Every year from the age of 13 onwards, I travelled to this village to spend time with my Grandparents and various cousins that would stay in the village during the hot summer months.

As I get older I appreciate what this place has to offer. It is so quiet during the day and night. Every morning you can hear the church bells ringing. My relative is the priest of this local church but was born and bred in London. He has his own website which not only gives you an insight into the village itself but the history of our Greek Orthodox Religion. Check it out >>> http://www.christopherklitou.com/index.htm

The reason for this post is that after spending some time with my cousin in the village on this particular visit, we were walking around and found ourselves talking about whether we would ever bring our children here. The conversation came up as we were reminiscing about our childhood days spent here. My cousin is only 13 but lived in the village for a while so we discussed the fun I used to have spending my summer holidays here, as did she.




  I told her about the late nights playing pool in the local 'Siloyo' which had a pool table, games, ice cream and was the local hotspot of the village. I spent every night with the freedom to do what I wanted and walked around the village with all the locals and my English-Greek cousins. I used to eat at the small taverna that was there and go to the well to drink fresh drinking water.

It was a simple existence but I made it fun by exploring the village I was from and making friends along the way. Every year as the locals and my cousins grow older we spend less and less time there and now it is my cousin Athena and I that go every year.

As we strolled around we looked at all the things we could improve to make the village a place more people would want to visit. We thought about how to create the bustling atmosphere it once had and that surrounding villages, such as Platres, still have. We saw the closed museum and the run down park and thought if we could do these up people would bring their children here more often. We thought about adding a convenience store as well as doing up the 'Siloyo' with better quality pool tables and games to attract the teenagers back to their village from the main town.

We had so many ideas and vowed  that when we made our millions, with myself writing and my cousin singing, we would come back here and restore the village to its once former glory. It is such a tame and quiet village now. It still has it's beautiful scenery but it has lost it's energy and this is why my family may not visit as much as they would do if there was more to do in the village.

There is actually a hotel called 'Village Life' in the heart of Silikou and we wondered if they had any visitors. It is done up in the traditional way and captures the essence of living in a village but what is the use without visitors?

I took some photos to show the beauty of my village and thought I would share a place that is unknown to so many people. I have never fogotten where I am from and as I promised my cousin, I will make this place a place to remember, for generations to come.

Here is a site with a bit more information about the history of Silikou >>> http://www.cyprusvillagelink.com/SylikouEnglish.asp








This is the 'Siloyo'

 



Fresh water well built into an olive tree



The water comes out cold from the tree

Another well, all provide fresh water unlike the towns





Where we light candles for the local Saint



Me exploring the village with the mountains behind me





Inside an olive tree

The road leading to the Church

Where the chickens are kept

The oldest well where the villagers fetched their water