(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN) – The 2019 In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch win­ner is in Trinidad and he is hop­ing to pick up an­oth­er crown.

But soon af­ter touch­ing down on T&T shores, the Grena­di­an singer found him­self de­fend­ing the genre of mu­sic as he ad­dressed crit­i­cism that some lo­cal so­ca artistes are re­spon­si­ble for men view­ing women as ob­jects, there­fore con­tribut­ing to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

The com­ment was made by for­mer Health Min­is­ter and San Juan/Barataria MP Dr Fuad Khan on the spate of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, which led to three women be­ing mur­dered so far for the year.

Ac­cord­ing to Mr Kil­la, the men­tal health and well-be­ing of men are the is­sues which should take fo­cus and not so­ca mu­sic.

“Through­out the year some­time so­ca hard­ly play­ing and men killing women. I think so­ci­ety is men­tal­ly de­te­ri­o­rat­ing in many oth­er ways. I think you have more is­sues that are more press­ing on the stressed na­ture of hu­man be­ings in so­ci­ety than to try and blame some­thing on the mu­sic. Mu­sic is what helps peo­ple to ac­tu­al­ly free stress, free their prob­lems, and al­so frus­tra­tion. So­ca is med­i­cine.”

Mr Kil­la whose re­al name is Hol­lice Mapp, took home the 2019 ti­tle with his song Run Wid It. He said he is look­ing for­ward to Car­ni­val 2020 and he an­tic­i­pates that his song The Storm will pick up steam.

“I am a man go­ing to be the leader of the storm and I know def­i­nite­ly in Trinidad there are go­ing to be some dread storm hunters. Arm up your­self with yuh rag, with yuh flag, go to the gym get fit and we get ready to move some­thing, to shake some­thing, to sway, make the so­ca breeze blow.”

And he said fans can soon ex­pect to see him along­side some in­ter­na­tion­al artistes lat­er this year.

“There is a col­lab­o­ra­tion we are go­ing to launch for the sum­mer, its Mr Kil­la, Bar­ring­ton Levy, Shag­gy and Caple­ton on one track and it’s go­ing to be so­ca flavoured.”

And when it comes to dance­hall mu­sic be­ing played in so­ca fetes, Mr Kil­la said it’s no threat to the cul­ture.

“I don’t think we should be afraid of any­thing play­ing amongst the so­ca mu­sic be­cause when Car­ni­val time come there is noth­ing that can beat so­ca and I feel even out­side of Car­ni­val right now so­ca is a force to be reck­oned with.”