King out of Pic-O-De-Crop

Calypso veteran John King will not be entering this year’s Pic-O-De-Crop competition, which he says has become “challenging, boring and is not going anywhere”.
King, in an interview with the DAILY NATION yesterday, said the competition had become the “same old, same old”, revealing that he’d rather try his hand at the Party Monarch and Soca Royale competitions  this year.
“To me, those competitions are more challenging! I am not sure what they are doing with the Pic-O-De-Crop anymore! In one phase they are lambasting calypsonians for singing certain songs, but then each year they go and they change the judges and you end up then with mixed messages. So then there is no consistency and it seems to be good for one body and not the next,” he lamented.
“It’s just like judging a horse race . . . there are different horses and all different sizes, but there is a standard as to how you choose the winner. But it’s not so with the Pic-O-De-Crop.
“To me, it is just going from bad to worse. Right now I am not mentally up to it and I am not forcing myself to do it,” he said.
King already has a song called Hijackers that could possibly make the Soca Royale, which he would be entering for the first time, and another called Tear Up Dah, which could possibly be chosen for Party Monarch.
This is King’s 29th year in the calypso arena. He missed years 1990 to 1993, 1997 and 2004 to 2007. However, he has competed for the last three consecutive years. (CT)