T.O.K.

T.O.K.



OUR WORLD



Welcome to T.O.K.’s world where exquisite four part harmonies contrast

rough edged deejaying, soaring falsetto hooks and gently crooned love songs

are as plentiful as rapped verses and gritty gangster exploits; a world where

crisp production and idiosyncratic, taut songwriting yield a daring fusion that

ranks them among dancehall’s most distinctive and enduringly popular acts.

T.O.K. (an acronym for Touch of Klass) has named their third album for VP

Records “Our World” because it encompasses an assortment of musical

ingredients that have had the greatest influence on the group’s sonic identity.

“With this album we have consolidated all that variety into one project,” explains group member Roshaun

“Bay-C” Clarke. “We have dancehall, one-drop, Latin flavored beats, music for the hardcore listener, for the

conscious listener and for the party goers; that is what our world represents.”



“Our World” is dominated by previously unreleased tracks with a few of T.O.K.’s recent hits including

“Guardian Angel”, a prayer for spiritual strength sensitively sung over a one-drop reggae rhythm, produced by

Arif Cooper. In March 2009, nearly two years after its initial release, “Guardian Angel” topped Japan’s Ring

Tone Download Chart. Japanese fans have consistently shown tremendous love to T.O.K. since their initial

performance there in 200l. T.O.K.’s debut album “My Crew My Dogs” and their sophomore effort “Unknown

Language” were, respectively, certified gold (sales of 100,000) and platinum (sales of 250,000) by the

Recording Industry of Japan. Encouraged by the great response to “Our World” since its Japanese release on

June 16, T.O.K. anticipate equal success in various global territories when the album drops worldwide on

August 25th.



“Besides Japan we have a following in Germany, France, all over Europe,” Bay-C continues. “We also have a

following throughout Central America, we have fans in the US and we just came back from Canada where we

had three sold out performances and we did three major concerts in Africa. So all of that is also what we mean

when we say it is “Our World”.



T.O.K.’s world has greatly expanded since November 1992 when high school students Craig “Craigy T”

Thompson, Xavier “Flexx” Davidson, Alistaire “Alex” McCalla and Roshaun “Bay-C” Clarke formed a vocal

group. Like many of that era’s young singers they were greatly influenced by the brilliant harmonization of

1990s American boy bands including Boyz II Men and their favorite Shai, but as Jamaican youth they were

equally inspired by the island’s ubiquitous reggae and dancehall rhythms; their shared vision for T.O.K. was to

create an adventurous union between beautifully nuanced vocalizing and dancehall’s rough and rugged edge.



Bay-C and Craigy T introduced deejaying into T.O.K.’s performances at Cactus (the now defunct nightclub

located in the Kingston suburb of Portmore), which is where the group learned how to connect with a hardcore

dancehall crowd. They began writing original music, individually contributing significant concepts, choruses

and verses to the group’s collective compositions and were transformed from a mellifluous high school boy

band into a tough rhyming rude boy band. However, it took some time for audiences to embrace their audacious

yet appealing hybrid. “We fused harmonies with dancehall subject matter, Flexx and Alex’s sing-jaying with

Craig and my deejaying and created this new sound,” says Bay-C. “But people who liked that clean cut boy

group sound said why are you going into dancehall and the dancehall community was like you are a boy group,

what are you trying to do?”



Undeterred by such criticism T.O.K. persevered and secured their first recording session, covering 3T’s

“Anything For You”, which was produced by Stephen Greig, the group’s first manager for his Nuff Records

label. Flexx then approached ace selector Rory of the immortal Stone Love sound system with a copy of

“Anything For You”; Rory started spinning the tune at Stone Love sessions and before long it was playing on

the island’s airwaves.



In 1997 T.O.K. sought out producer Danny Browne whose Main Street Records label was having great success

with General Degree, Red Rat and Buccaneer, among other artists. Browne had a lukewarm reaction to T.O.K.’s

sound but his nephew (then fledgling) producer Richard “Shams” Browne was so impressed he offered to

manage the group. “We said if you get us a song with Lady Saw (dancehall’s queen, then at the peak of her

reign) we will make you our manager,” recalls Flexx. “So we did “Hardcore Lover” with Saw, Shams produced

it, and it became our first top 10 hit.” A succession of hits recorded with several top producers followed

including “Man Ah Bad Man” (Shams), “Eagles Cry” (Dave Kelly) and “Money To Burn” (Tony “CD” Kelly).

The aforementioned hits were included on T.O.K.’s acclaimed 2002 VP Records debut “My Crew, My Dogs”,

which reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Reggae Chart; that year T.O.K. became the first dancehall act to

appear on BET’s influential video countdown show106th and Park.



T.O.K. made even greater strides with “Unknown Language” which featured the dancehall smashes “Fire Fire”

and “Galang Gal”, and a few crossover triumphs. Its up tempo lead single “Gal You A Lead”, anchored by

Alex’s mesmeric vocal hook, became a hit on prominent urban stations including New York’s WQHT (Hot 97)

and Miami’s WPOW (Power 96) and was the first T.O.K. song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at

number 85. The anti-violence sentiment expressed throughout the group’s somber number one Jamaican hit,

“Footprints”, which honors Alex’s brother Gavin who was killed by a stray bullet in 2003, also connected with

a wider audience, reaching number 22 on the Billboard’s R&B Hip Hop Singles and Tracks tally and number 93

on the Hot 100.



T.O.K. foresee scaling even greater heights with “Our World” as they express on the album’s first track “The

World Is Mine”, produced by Rohan “Jah Sno Cone” Fuller; over a brooding synthetic beat, the group declares

their invincibility, “heading for the top and we a reach, nah lef without the prize/the world is mine, watch me

take it, cant stop me, I’m gonna make it”.



Tony “CD” Kelly, the producer responsible for some of T.O.K.’s biggest tunes reunites with the band after a six

year lapse contributing several dancehall boom shots including the gangster anthem “It’s Over”, the male

camaraderie chant heard throughout “Me and My Dawgs”, and the stern instructions issued to a cheating gal on

the pop-friendly “Get Out (Don’t Come Back”). Kelly also produced the intriguingly titled “Afternoon

PornStar” which chronicles role-playing in real life relationships, not the lewd celluloid depictions suggested by

the song’s name. “That song is based on our extensive research on the topic,” explains Alex to supportive

laughter from the other group members. “It’s about the side of a woman’s personality that she only shows to

that special someone and we try to facilitate that type of behavior as best as we can.” Assisting in the pursuit of

such behavior is the (for mature audiences only) ain’t-too-proud-to-beg dancehall ditty “Gimme Little (If You

Want Me)”, produced by Karim “DJ Karim” Thompson.



The group’s extraordinary versatility allows them to effortlessly flip from the risqué to the retro. The joyous

“Couple Up” (voiced on Arif Cooper’s appropriately named National Pride rhythm, which boasts synthetic

banjo instrumentation inspired by mento, Jamaica’s first popular music form) features T.O.K.’s effervescent

vocals celebrating the pleasures of a dancehall session: “watch de hot gal dem wine again, man and woman

dem a form conga line again,/it nah gun time, fun time again, bassline a move waistline again.” The percussive

driven “Gyrate” produced by Shane Browne, and the hit “Whining” produced by Flexx both highlight the fluid

pelvic motion that is key to successful dancehall moves.



Flexx and Bay-C have each released self-produced, various artists projects in Japan, which were primarily

intended to broaden T.O.K.’s collective strengths. “We went into production to support T.O.K. so we are not

dependent on outside producers and to invest more in our talent as a group,” says Bay-C, who produced “Miss

World”, featuring the incomparable rapid-fire flow of dancehall’s self-proclaimed king Beenie Man alongside

the foursome’s gleaming harmonies. The song honors the band’s devotees, which of course are “the hottest

girls inna de world”.



Slower paced one-drop rhythms have consistently provided the ideal framing for T.O.K.’s alluring vocal

textures. “Our World’s” one-drop tunes range from the crooned expectations derived from a lasting relationship

expressed on “I Wanna Love You”, produced by Mario “Mad Scientist” Lawrence and the acoustic plaintive

peace plea “Live It Up”, produced by Shane Brown, each song reaffirming the unparalleled aural sophistication

the group brings to popular Jamaican music.



The tough lyrical posturing T.O.K. adopts on tunes like “Gangsters Never Die”, produced by Chester Walker

merits the rude boys’ respect but it’s the ladies that are undoubtedly the group’s most ardent fans. The group’s

stunning harmonies deliver a lifelong pledge of love and devotion on the R&B flavored “Die For You”

produced by Craig “Lefside” Parkes and Mathew Esco Thompson.



T.O.K.’s continual refinement of their immense talent has kept them at the forefront of Jamaican dancehall and

brought them widespread success. The group’s diverse song content, unique sound and the sheer magnificence

f their vocals as heard on their third album, guarantees prominent placements on international charts and an

ven greater musical presence in Our World.