Caribbean Up-And-Comer Umpa Is on a Mission to Bring Saint Lucia’s Dennery Segment to the World: ‘We Need to Become the Face of Our Sound’

Music has never been more globalized — and Saint Lucia is dancing its way to the center of the global stage.

As smaller Caribbean islands like Dominica (bouyon) and Grenada (jab) have broken into the mainstream musical conversation, with styles that innovate on their respective cultural sounds, Saint Lucia is doing the same with the fast-rising sound known as Dennery segment. Pioneered in the island nation’s Dennery District, the genre is a drum-heavy, chant-forward offshoot of soca that blends elements of kuduro and zouk with Kwéyòl lyrics and a dancehall attitude, distilled through a distinctly Lucian lens.

With larger hits like Freezy’s “Split in Di Middle” helping the genre gain more notoriety across the Caribbean near the end of the 2010s, this decade has been defined by several sizable Dennery segment hits, including Dezral & Jardel’s “The Car,” Shemmy J’s “Ms Grippy” and Andrew’s “Biscuit.” And as the inaugural winner of the Caribbean Music Award for Dennery segment artist of the year, Umpa has cemented himself as the leader of the genre’s current wave.

For the artist born Brendan Jordan Charlery, 32, his musical journey began with a karaoke set his mother bought him as a child — and he was probably singing a Vybz Kartel song. “That was my first time actually getting on a mic,” he tells Billboard. “I remember my aunt told me that I had a voice made for a mic, and from there, I just continued.” He also found that singing helped him process the harsher realities of the world around him: “Music was my escape from poverty and the hungry days. [As] Bob Marley says, When the music hits, all the pain goes away.”

Like many children, Umpa spent his school years freestyling with his friends, performing behind their desks, in the streets, and at bars and shops around the area. Eventually, his best friend convinced him to record his own songs, and those early cuts caught the ear of several local DJs and early fans, helping him graduate from a laptop-and-mic setup to professional recording studios.

By 2014, all of that steady momentum culminated in the song he calls his “first local hit”: “Gwatel,” which he recorded on Jammin Records’ Revolt riddim. With a bonafide hit under his belt, Umpa continued grinding for the next few years, eventually linking up with record label and management company Young Boss Entertainment around 2019. That year, Umpa also dropped three of his most popular songs to date: “One Drop,” “Siren” and “Baguy.”

With those three hits, he perfected his sly, carnal, bilingual lyricism as the Dennery segment genre solidified its key sonic signifiers for the 2020s. He emerged from the pandemic with 2020’s galvanizing “Dennery Anthem,” which he followed with more recent winners like 2021’s “Plat,” 2025’s “Pain Killer” and 2026’s “Mouyè.”

As his profile rises, Umpa is fiercely holding onto his independence, maintaining a team consisting of close family and friends. Further down the line, he hopes to sign younger Denner artists to his own label. “If you don’t trust somebody, you can’t work with them because you’ll be uncomfortable,” he says. “Everybody around me understands their role and what they need to do. We have no problems because we have trust.”

Though he’s yet to clinch a Road March or Soca Monarch title, Umpa turned many heads with his Caribbean Music Awards triumph last month (Sept. 19). Beating out a stacked line-up that included Blackboy, Deejay ASAP, Dezral, Jardel, Mighty & Nerdy, Umpa held it down for Lucian-born Dennery segment artists — on the same night that Klassik Frescobar, a Jamaican-American, won the inaugural Dennery segment song of the year award for “Dansa.”

Below, Umpa talks to Billboard about that hotly contested awards moment, his sonic and artistic evolution and how he merged his love for his neighborhood with his passion for ATVs.

What do you remember from your first performance?

My very first stage performance was in Choiseul. It went horribly. [Laughs.] Dennery segment was a bit new to the people, so when we touched the stage, there was a bit of confusion between the promoter and the crowd. He didn’t announce us properly, so as we were about to perform, the crowd started to leave.

I’m sure they’re staying for the full show now.

Oh yeah, definitely!

How has your sound evolved since you first started making music?

The earlier Umpa songs had more bad gyal lyrics. More Kartel inspiration. But I’ve mastered the craft and changed it up a bit. Most times, adults would complain about the [racier] lyrics, so you move with the times, especially because a lot of children are listening to the music now. We structure the lyrics in a different way so they can resonate with people.

What song perfected that “cleaned up” version of your sound?

A couple of them, but “One Drop” was the one for sure.

What do you remember about making that song?

I actually told the producer not to release it because I didn’t like it at the time. G6 Production sent me the beat, but I thought it was too slow for my style. My buddy from Canada was visiting, and I freestyled for him over the beat, and he thought it was fire. He left Saint Lucia a few days later, but he kept calling me and asking about the song. I finally decided to get it out of the way, so I went to the Young Boss Entertainment studio and recorded the song. I sent it to my friend, and he didn’t listen to me and released the song. He said, “You’re going to thank me later,” and it ended up being one of the biggest songs of my career. “One Drop” brought me to Mauritius!

What makes a song Dennery segment? What are the rules of the genre?

The rules of the genre are 1) the beat and 2) Kwéyòl lyrics. Dennery segment is a unique sound; the way the drums are aligned is what makes the song, because [everything else] is so sparse. There are also Dennery segment artists [who] are not from Dennery, and are from Castries, Babonneau, Vieux Fort, etc.

Can you call your song Dennery segment if you’re not a Lucian?

You have me in the hot seat! [Laughs.] I feel like the genre itself has grown. As much as we need to protect what’s ours and protect our culture, doing that in itself kind of limits it. We definitely need to become the face of our sound, but I don’t feel we should exclude other artists wanting to try out our music. They want to try because the music is great.

How did the genre get its name?

The Saint Lucian people gave it the name unknowingly. Our community of Dennery has some stigma [around] it, but the pioneers of the music originated from the community of Dennery. When we started making Dennery segment, and it began playing on the airwaves, everybody and their grandmother had their opinion. When people would call the radio stations to request our songs, they’d be like, I want to hear the guys from Dennery. And that’s how the name came about over time. At one point, they wanted to change the name, but it was too late. You can’t change everybody’s mind!