JOHN BERGER / JBERGER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Big Every Time (also known as B.E.T.) is the duo of Tim "Papa T" Troxell, left, and James "J.D" Daniels.
In every style of music, there are a few innovators and a horde of wannabes and also-rans who copy them. Tim "Papa T" Troxell and Joe "J.D" Daniels -- better known as Big Every Time or B.E.T. -- have been leaders in the insular "island music" scene from the time their first album, "Polynesian P-Funk," was released in 1998. Four years and two albums later, B.E.T. is still one of the few innovators in contemporary island music.
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com"It took two years to come out with this album, but we're happy with how it turned out. It's solid us," J.D said this week during a late-afternoon conversation at Blaisdell Park. He and T will be celebrating with a performance at the Mai Tai Bar in Ala Moana Center on Sunday. A formal CD release party will probably take place in January.
"Volume 3" seems certain to rank as another milestone in local hip-hop/reggae, but is far from a "comeback" project. Although it's been two years since the duo's last full-length album, "Hear We Come," hit the market, they've appeared as guests on so many other albums that they've never been off the airwaves.
"A lot of people may not know B.E.T., but they know the songs we've been on," T said, adding that he is still amazed by the demand for their services as guest artists.
Where: Mai Tai Bar, Ala Moana Center Big Every Time
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Admission: Free; minimum age 21
Call: 947-2900The immediate reason for the demand is obvious: B.E.T. is the top duo in local hip-hop/reggae, and one of the most popular acts in local music. T covers the ever-popular Jamaican-style roots-reggae sound to perfection while J.D represents the soulful traditions of "urban" R&B ballads. Both men have developed their own styles within those often exploited genres and brought the opposing traditions of Afro-Jamaican reggae and African-American R&B together in ways that work and appeal to local audiences.
The process of cross-cultural fusion began almost 10 years ago. T was sitting in with a local bar band, Diane & Da Boyz, that wanted to add a trendy Jawaiian/reggae edge to its repertoire. J.D had come up from Samoa and was looking for something interesting to do in the local music scene. He and T found that they shared an interest in hip-hop and "old school" urban music, even through T's first love was Jamaican reggae and J.D was into soulful urban ballads.
"We had different music backgrounds but that same interest in doing something (original) with that clashing of our sounds," J.D said. The duo also looked to ska and classic mid-'60s soul music for ideas, and kept working on their own thing after the bar band faded. By the time B.E.T. debuted with "Polynesian P-Funk" in 1998, they were looking to their Polynesian roots for ideas as well (T is Hawaiian-Caucasian, J.D is Samoan and black).
"(For) the first album we put together a bunch of stuff, and what the people liked most, on the next album we wrote on that, and then this album, from both of those, what they liked most, came on this one. It's learning from experience," T said.
The guys have also stepped to the front in addressing issues of relevance here. On "Polynesian P-Funk" they called for an end to neighborhood rivalries and ethnic grudges. Their second album included songs addressing the struggle of Pacific Islanders to maintain or regain control of their ancestral lands.
Now, with a song titled "Chanthem," they're looking at the social problems caused by island men who don't support the children they father.
"We try to deal with everyday problems that everybody deals with -- not just one (person) -- so for that song, it deals with a woman's point of view," J.D said. "We had the (female) artist Katana on that song, and she's real conscious (of social issues), and with our consciousness of what we feel (about) how strugglers are, how strugglers live."
"This (album) addresses a lot of subjects," T said, adding that some of their observations may not be politically correct these days but that social problems call for awareness.
"It's all positive," T said. "This is what we feel, and this is what we bring out."
Steel guitarist Greg Sardinha sat in with the duo's primary backing musicians, the HI Town Players, on a track or two, and lists of guests included some new artists as well as major players Tippa Irie and Fiji.
T and J.D say they are both looking forward to doing solo albums and producing other artists in 2003 but that there are no plans -- repeat, no plans -- to dissolve their partnership.
J.D describes it as another way of showing their "love of what we do."
"I like slow R&B ballads that we can't do reggae on, and there's reggae songs he wants to do that don't require R&B singing on, so just for our creative selves we'll do our own albums, but B.E.T. is always going to be B.E.T. We're going to come back together no matter what. We're friends first -- then we're B.E.T."
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