Though his songs about Bahamian culture are lighthearted and fun, for artist Kirkland "K.B." Bodie, keeping culture alive is a serious matter.
"We're going down the path of total wrong," he says. "We're picking up so much nonsense from other cultures that we are losing what we have."
K.B. would know - the music on his "Bahamian Hits" and "K.B. and Friends" albums are without a doubt the epitome of Bahamian Rake n' Scrape. When Bahamians list "true-true" Bahamian music, his name is one of the first out of their mouths.
Yet the singer is concerned about the future of such sound - indeed, the future of Bahamian culture in general, especially in the arena of the arts. Culture now, he points out, is a two-dimensional idea to many Bahamians.
"They equate Bahamian culture with the colors of the flag. I've been to many functions that are about culture and they put on their Bahamian colors, that's what Bahamian culture is to them. It's ridiculous," he says.
"Other people, they are only waiting for us to slip and their culture will come in there and guess what? They live and die by that. It will replace us."
Such ambivalence, he says, is created by many factors, yet they all boil down to the lack of an established, well-oiled arts and culture industry, especially one in music.
"We don't concentrate on industry in this country," he says. "We need an industry - we need investors that would invest in the music, we need radio stations mandated to play Bahamian music."
"Did you notice the entire time they were negotiating with Baha Mar, there was never any word about musicians or bands to be performing at Baha Mar?" he points out.
It's this lack of promotion of local culture that he fears will make such Bahamian signifiers as rake n' scrape an endangered species. What's unfortunate about this, he says, is that up-and-coming artists will no longer appreciate that sound, especially as they are inundated with other musical styles and the current reality TV culture.
"Most of these younger artists, they just want to be stars, they don't want to be a Bahamian icon or legend," he says. "They're going behind materialism, behind money. They want what Lil' Wayne has. They care about getting into the gym, slimming down, showing the booty and chest. They don't have any talent, but they have a great glossy shot."
"They want to get from A to Z but they forget that there are letters in between they have to jump on to get there - B, C, D, E, F, G," he continues. "Everyone thinks they'll get in and the end comes and you jump on that. No, there's L, M, N, O - all those letters you've got to deal with, that's what will get you there."
It's the kind of advice to take note of -- K.B.'s own path to music was nothing short of struggle, and was motivated by his love of music and Bahamian culture, something his parents, Ortland H. Bodie Sr. and Beatrice Outten, fostered.
"Both of my parents were very musical," he says. "I would travel between their houses and both sides were yin and yang, but both sides liked music. That's how I got into really appreciating music."
Joining chorus in both primary school growing up in Grand Bahama and then in high school in the United States as a teenager, learning about the theory of music, this love was fostered into a passion and he earned "Best Tenor" in his junior year of high school and "Best Male Vocalist" in his senior year.
Yet perusing a career in music was never in the realm of possibility at the time.
"I wanted to be a doctor actually. But chemistry stopped me from being a doctor," he laughs. "Me, chemistry and math don't really get along. I'm more literate. I like to write."
Moving back home after graduating high school, K.B. burned through three nine-to-five jobs in about a year at a gas station, restaurant, and auto parts shop. He still sang small gigs at events around Grand Bahama, yet music remained simply a passion or hobby, and not a career possibility.
"I wanted to do it, I loved doing it, but I never saw the road to it. I never knew anything but get out there and get a job," he says. "In my soul, because I know who I am, I know who my mother is, I know who my father is, I knew that I was more than what I was doing. I always knew that. I did the jobs for a period of time just to get by, but it never felt right to me."
When his friend Sid Rolle approached him about forming a band with K.B. as the lead singer, he jumped at it, and along with Dave Cooper and George Delancy, the formed The Ego Tripp Band.
"We decided to put our team together and we decided to quit our jobs," he says. "We saved our money and that was it. Go broke or go home."
For a while, they did indeed struggle, even after releasing their first and second albums with Frank Penn and his G.B.I. Recording Studio. Ironically, The Ego Tripp Band was strictly an alternative music band, producing music far from what K.B. epitomizes as Bahamian music now.
Yet the public's desires became clear when The Band released a song with Bahamian flavor, "Turn Her Loose" and it took them national--they wanted the Bahamian spirit.
A subsequent falling out with Frank Penn and the band parting ways during the economic slump of the 80s led K.B. on his solo career, but not before the band also released "Ya Whinin'" and the song K.B. himself penned and produced, "Juicy Suzy". Once Boston native, Gary Bernstein, became his manager. K.B. spent the nineties taking Bahamian culture abroad to the U.S. where he also has many fans.
It has appeal in the U.S., he argues, because of its authenticity--for K.B. who spent so much time building up music culture and helping to define it in The Bahamas, Bahamian singers who are now taking the route of rap and R&B with violent and overly sexual lyrics are causing him to despair that Bahamian culture will be a thing of the past--and our identities will be lost.
"No one is stepping up to the plate," he says. "The Ronnie Butlers are leaving--I'm not meaning they're gone but one day we'll have to go and I wonder who is going to be the next one."
For now, he continues to lead by example by producing his own Bahamian rake n' scrape hits and collaborating on albums with like-minded Bahamian artists. He even recently expanded his repertoire by publishing his first book, "Bahamian Lyrical Tales", a short story collection. It's all a part of his desire to stay true to his creativity, his Bahamian identity, and to inspire his people.
"I aim to brainwash you with our culture, inundate you with our culture--if only with our speech, our way of talk. This is who we are: Bahamian culture. I want you to hear that," he says.
"Everyone needs to be inspired--every single person," he continues. "When you have that, society feels good about themselves, they feel that they can achieve something, that they're worth something, that they have something special that can bring to reality."

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