Hype and Fever
IN the past two years, the British duo known as Hype and Fever have pitched their blend of Jamaican and East Indian sounds at major events such as Glastonbury and BoomTown. On May 26 the brothers will make their Jamaican debut at Frenzi Reloaded, which celebrates deejay Spragga Benz’s birthday at Sabina Park.
It will be the fourth visit to Jamaica for Naveen “DJ Hype” and Bhumeet “Cold Fever” Kala-Lee, whose father was born in London to Jamaican parents. Their mother is from Delhi, India, but moved to England as a child.
“We’re looking forward to Frenzi and performing the Spread Out track (done with Spragga Benz) in Kingston. We’re also looking forward to linking up with family and seeing our 93-year-old grandfather, experiencing the island as adults, and working on some music whilst we are there,” said Hype in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.
Spragga Benz is among the handful of dancehall/reggae acts Hype and Fever have worked with. Several of their collaborations are on Legends, an EP released last year that also features Freddie McGregor, Michael Rose and Beenie Man.
A follow-up EP, The Burbs, was released in April with Si Down as its lead single.
Fever, 27, is the older of the brothers by two years. He believes Legends gave them street ‘cred’ and set things up perfectly for The Burbs.
“Throughout the years we’ve been lucky to work with legends such as Freddie McGregor, Beenie Man, Michael Rose, and more. Other projects never really took off, so I looked through my catalogue one day and realised I have unreleased vocals from some of the reggae legends. We then thought, ‘Yo, these vocals on our new sound will be a mad thing.’ That’s how Spread Out for Spragga’s album Chilliagon came about,” he explained.
In addition to playing big events like Glastonbury, Hype and Fever were exposed to a national audience through radio programmes including the BBC Asian Network and BBC Introducing. Hype said they are producers, songwriters and performers whose music is an appreciation of their parents’ vastly different cultures.
Their father moved to Kingston at age 15 when his parents returned to Jamaica, then went back to England as an adult. Jamaican food and music were a big part of the Kala-Lee siblings’ childhood in Leicester, a city in eastern England.
They also observed traditional rituals of their mother’s Hindu heritage, such as Diwali and music from the Punjab region where her family are from.
Frenzi Reloaded, Hype points out, gives them an opportunity to expose their music to a Jamaican audience.
“Production-wise, we’ve enjoyed all the collaborations, but we are very excited about the stuff we’ve done with Spragga and looking forward to seeing the ladies reacting to Spread Out,” he said. “The success is in front of us.”
Jah Vinci, Agent Saco and G Royal are also scheduled to perform at Frenzi Reloaded.