It’s noon on Sunday, and the check-in area of the docked Epic Carnival Cruise ship buzzes with pre-carnival energy as I search for an outlet to charge my phone. Passengers fresh from last night’s Soca Brainwash and PINKnicTT fetes move through what Johnny Mack, CEO of Epic Carnival Cruise, calls the “first floating all-inclusive hotel” in Trinidad—my home for the next few days. When Roxi from Machel Montano’s team arrives, umbrella tilted against the glaring sun, she grabs the napkins I’ve brought for midday touch-ups with a casual “Shoot’s delayed anyway, but we’re still on time.” This marks Montano’s first album in four years, “One Degree Hotter,” and his return to carnival season—a hiatus spent earning his Master’s in Carnival Studies from the University of Trinidad & Tobago. As I join his team to Maracas Bay Village for the “Fling It Up” video shoot with Davido, the Afrobeats dynamo whose rhythms pulse through the global music scene, I’m about to witness the King of Soca’s long-awaited return.
The 40-minute drive to the village turns punishing—I experienced my first-ever bout of car sickness as we wind through emerald mountain curves that seem to fold into themselves like origami. I force myself to sleep against the nausea, waking only when the car lurches to a stop on sun-baked gravel. To my left, beachgoers wade into turquoise waves that lap against the shoreline in hypnotic rhythm. To my right, Che—the manager I’d been coordinating with since before my evening flight landed me in Port of Spain at 1:30 AM Saturday, right as the city’s biggest cultural weekend ignited—waves me toward a weather-beaten staircase leading to what appears to be a makeshift prep area.
Upstairs, Machel Montano sits regally on a stool under a striped awning, his locs tied neatly back, wearing a hot pink two-piece outfit that catches the light, gold-trimmed sunglasses perched on his nose, and a multicolored silk…
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