On his debut album, Love Trip, Hey Choppi is taking listeners on a journey of self-love and how that impacts relationships.
It is an album themed on personal experiences.
“It talks about the journey of finding love but through finding love for yourself. I have somebody special in my life and just being able to understand somebody on a certain level you have to understand yourself. It takes patience and self–reflection. I have always been an understanding person but as you get older you have different experiences that you learn from, you burn to learn,” said Choppi, birth name Sean Padmore.
The eight-track album, produced by Brooklyn Decent and Tano, weaves between a mesh of genres and contains songs such as the emotionally raw title track “Love Trip”, in which he sings about going through a tabanca and finding love again, “Cake Up”, featuring Jahllano, in which he praises his significant other for holding him down and having his back and “Only One” in which he sings “Make my heart surrender to your love, you are the only one.”
In addition to Choppi, songwriting credits on the album are attributed to Tano, 1st Klase, Jahllano, Wong Nebula, Raskality and a rising artiste called 33.
Love Trip cover art
Choppi with his trademark sensual lyrics and tone shows on the album that it is okay to be vulnerable and express one’s feelings.
“Yes, the album is personal but I feel like I am speaking on behalf of a lot of people especially men. A lot of men don’t know how to express themselves, there’s so much peer pressure being a man. I feel like it was important to me to be a voice for that, so men could listen to this and say this man really talking about the way I feel,” he explained.
His favourite is the Afrobeats-flavoured track number seven, “Only One”
He said: “That song embodies everything….for me it is almost like you have been you tied to somebody, chasing them through lifetimes…I am searching for this person, the connection is so deep…that is how love makes you feel. The first line says: ‘Chasing you, chasing you through lifetimes, travelling light-years away, our moons are aligned’.”
Love Trip is Choppi’s first album since going solo.
Formerly one-half of the group Nebula 868, he went solo in 2018, going first by the moniker Chopikal. Since then he has released a slew of songs such as “Captain” and “Siddung” on the Tender Touch Riddim.
Choppi said he never really thought about doing an album, it just happened.
“I was creating so much during the pandemic and we felt that we wanted people to get to know who I am as an individual. I have new fans now that I am solo and I have to start from scratch now so it is important for me to put together a body of work so people would know who I am as an individual,” he said.
“I want to be experienced. As an individual, I am an experience.”
Choppi is signed to a distribution deal with Machel Montano’s Monk Music label and has collaborated with the soca king on many projects.
He said working with Montano has taught him a lot about the business.
“Every time we link that is a learning experience. Just learning about the business, being able to learn from people’s past, what mistakes not to make, being able to have his mum as a mentor, his whole team has been supportive and helpful,” he said.
Being able to learn from those who went before is golden for Choppi who wants to do the same for those coming up after him.
“The ultimate goal is that I want to change the industry where music is concerned. I feel like this music is way bigger than me as an artiste, it is about the other talented artistes, if people like myself and 1st Klase don’t make the right moves, the youth under us wouldn’t have the opportunity to do better than we did,” he said.
Tracklist for Love Trip
“When I was coming up I had no artiste helping me, giving advice. This generation is different, we love each other, and we want to see each other rise. I want to have a label and take the talent from here and help it to become something. My hope is that artistes that are 21 could be rich. The main mission is never myself but I have a few steps to take right now to open a few doors for the ones behind me.”
Love Trip is available now on all streaming platforms and has features with Machel Montano (Gud Gud), Jahllano (Cake Up), and Raskality (Spending Money).