MC CARO: THE REIGN OF KING CARO

I am a person that deals with vibes. Even though I rap, I can feel like singing my soul out. It was just vibes. So people should expect vibes.

To best understand the reign of Mc Caro, you can listen to her freestyle, on the beat of christoph’s track titled “Savage”. One of the many lines in the freestyle that describes her introduction into the industry and the beginning of her reign is“when I came in the game they were asking who’s this? But I was picking up the crown for my kingship.”

Born Caroline Moore, Mc Caro grew up in New Kru town. Mc Caro got her breakthrough in the music industry in 2018, and has since had a fast growth up the ladder in the Liberian music scene. Mc Caro is regarded by most as the foremost female Hiphop star in current times. She was the first female artiste to win Hipco/Trapco artiste of the year at the Tunes Liberia music award. Recently, she won the award for female artiste of the year at the 2020 MTN Liberian music award. According to the artiste, music is a gift God gave her.

Nowadays, Mc Caro goes by the moniker, King Caro, a title she popularized on her savage freestyle, and it is also the title of her forthcoming album. When I asked her what we should expect from the album, she said “Just expect vibes. I am a person that deals with vibes. Even though I rap, I can feel like singing my soul out. It was just vibes. So people should expect vibes.”

I sat down with Mc Caro to talk about her breakthrough and experience in the music industry, as well as her thoughts on the industry. The questions asked are highlighted in bold, and her replies are directly below.

How did you get your big break?

It was in 2018 when I did a freestyle on the political climate at the time. It was 5 months into the president’s political term. I noticed that our people put a lot of attention on politics, and I wanted to do something that would grab people’s attention. The freestyle blew up.

I took the fame as an opportunity to build on, so I used the fame to push my music. I didn’t want my music to just be focused on politics, I wanted to be able to do more. If you focus your music solely on politics, your career would be about condemning or praising politicians. Off the fame of the freestyle, I then dropped “Listen” and “One More Round”, and the latter, “One More Round” really picked up. I later did the song “Dudu” with Christoph.

Why rap? Why Hipco?

I didn’t choose Hipco, I chose rap. Once you rap in Liberia, they call you a Hipco rapper because we mesh Hiphop with our culture. Trapco is relatively new on the scene, and it’s nowadays that people try to differentiate between Hipco, Hip hop and Trapco, but in the end it is the same Hip hop. When my album drops, I want people to understand that I am not just a Hiphop or Hipco person because they would see a part of my versatility. I can choose to sing as well; it all depends on my vibe at the moment.

Hip hop is currently dominated by men; how did you solidify your spot at the top?

No disrespect to anyone, but a lot of the female artistes that were at the top were rapping and singing. When I came into the game, the spot was basically for the taking and I was welcomed. I worked hard for the spot though, It was opportunity meeting preparation. I also had the energy, the consistency and most importantly, the grace.

You signed a contract in 2019 despite considerable fame. Why?

Fame in Liberia doesn’t put money in your pocket. We have a lot of artistes that have the fame but they can’t translate that fame to revenue. Most times, the reason is because they don’t have a competent team or structure around them to help them convert fame to money. As an independent artiste, having a competent team around you can be expensive. But if you have a label around you, they help you structure your craft to help you earn. That’s why I signed a record deal. The record deal also invests capital into my craft.

What are your thoughts on the profitability of music in Liberia?

Liberia cannot really pay for the talent it has right now. We have people making 400/500 USD from performances; others make less than that. If I make 200 USD a week, I would have to spend a considerable amount on data to maintain an online presence. Video shoots sometimes cost over 2,000 USD. It’s an expensive process.

We don’t have the structure here for artistes to earn the way they should. When I say structure, I don’t think it’s only about investing in our own streaming platforms. If you gave a Liberian ownership of a streaming platform, he would not make as much money because most Liberians in Liberia are not online to stream.  We need structure. I have fans in Maryland, in Grand Gedeh, etc., but how accessible are the roads for me to be able to reach them and perform in those places? We need structures to help us earn from our art.

That’s why we might need to push our music outside the shores of Liberia.  Is it not better to go to a country and make 3k USD a month off of music, than stay here and make 150 or 300 monthly?

Do you think we can export our music?

We can take our music out there. Most of the sounds you hear, Liberians can do those sounds. Liberian music has been out there before, that’s why I deal with vibes for my music. Burna boy, Olamide, and Phyno are all global, but not everyone understands Yoruba. Their music is doing well outside because of the vibes, because of how it makes people feel. Gbema is just vibes. It is a sound, but it is also vibes, and those vibes can be exported. Is it not Gbema that Olamide was doing on “Poverty die” song?

I deal with vibes. I have the vibes. I can take my music out there, meet artistes in the underground that we can grow up together. If I moved to Nigeria, I would do songs with artistes that are well known, but are on the come up, like Lyta. That way, people on the streets would listen to the vibes and my music and the featured artistes would grow together.

How do you think artistes can earn despite the current structure or lack of a structure?

For me, I focus on platforms that pay. I monetize my YouTube to be able to earn.  I try to think forward. In some years, you would have top Liberian artistes trying to set up their audio Mack. I am trying to set mine up now so that in the future when Audiomack is rolling out a better plan to pay artistes, I would already be set up.  I also value my art and my price range when I am booked for performances

Last year you had to deal with body shaming, how did you overcome that?

I think body shaming puts you in a bad state of mind.  Also, people might try to body shame me because they hate me. While they hate me, I have people that love me, love my body size, and love my creativity.

NOTES

Subscribe as we take you on a journey through the Liberian entertainment scene and pop culture. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For subscribers, check your email for a mail from “the echo”, move mail from promotions to your inbox, or add “the echo” email to your address book.