RESPECT. Interview: Taste of Pluto is a Musical Collective Out of This World

Caribbean hip-hop collective, Taste of Pluto, release their much-anticipated debut ‘Scorpio’s Letter’ via Pretty Boy Worldwide. Having previously put out soft releases which have helped garner a buzz, ‘Scorpio’s Letter’ immediately captivates listeners in the first few seconds and is an excellent display of their musical talents; witty lyrics and ultra-sexy vocal ability. With each word delicately harpooned with sultry efficiency, lead singer Navy doesn’t shy away from singing about a love ready to give, over floaty J. Ellis production. Even the dynamic of the trio is a cross between nature isle of Dominica, and Barbados, Sweden and North America, a solar system of DNA.

The song is about the moment when you know you are falling in love with someone, and the freedom to express that love with a level of passion. – Taste of Pluto

Daring to be authentic, the group whose style isn’t genre specific pays homage to the legends while building their legacy. Citing inspiration from musical greats such as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Bob Marley and more to mention a few, Taste of Pluto uses their music to tackle love, politics and island life. Out of their

RESPECT: Okay. Hello, Navy!

Navy: Hi!

RESPECT: So, tell me about your name, Navy? Did that come from your parents? I know in the music industry, we often meet people who will make up their own names. So, how did Navy come to be?

Navy: Navy came to me when I signed to Pretty Boy Worldwide. We were basically trying to put together how is it we should do my projects because of my personality, I’m very disciplined. I was a girl scout and stuff like that so I’m very disciplined and sort of “militant” in the way that I do my work and my music is my work. So he’s like, “Oh, you’re like one of those military people, you’re so strict and stuff.” And then, it also goes with my dressing style and stuff like that so we went with Navy because it reflects a bit of me.

RESPECT: Reflects a bit of you? I love that. And then you have Pluto, Taste of Pluto, which is such a cool name. How did that come together? How did you guys form the collective and then talk about what Taste of Pluto means and what you guys, as a collective, are about.

Navy: Okay. So, Taste of Pluto, we’ve been working together for about a year. We officially got together during our writing camp in Barbados, along with Trevor and Pretty Boy Worldwide. Taste of Pluto came from the fact that we’re all Sagittarians, that’s our ruling planet. And since our EP and our album is basically going to be giving the world a taste of who we are, what we do musically, Taste of Pluto was coined by A&R. And we’re basically just about bridging the gap between old school and new school music in terms of music productions, how we write, what we write about, how we deliver, our personalities, our styles of dressing, the Caribbean, the U.S., Europe, everything just coming together and giving you the whole image.

RESPECT: Oh my God. Okay. And now you have your new songs, I mean, which just made it on Complex. What was that like? How exciting, I’m sure that was super exciting for you.

Navy: It was super exciting when we, when we got the news that they actually, they posted the article. First of all, I did not sleep the night before because kind of being from a small Island that’s I only heard about these things. I only hear about certain people or read about certain things. So to be on the website at the feature Taste of Pluto and their premiere, I’m like, yo, what’s going on? Is this real? Am I sleeping? Wake up! But we wouldn’t know. We were freaking out. We were really excited, a lot of messages back and forth, a lot of congratulations. And like, this is only the beginning work is not starting. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go really good vibes. It really set the pace for what it is we’re about to do.

RESPECT: Amazing. Congrats again, tell us more about Scorpio’s Letter what that song is to you and how it came about. What are you hoping people like about it?

Navy: Scorpio’s letter is, it’s a song based on a letter that was written to me, a little love letter from a secret admirer. And we coined it together, nicely with the music from one of our producers. And it means a lot to me cause it’s one of those songs that I did and I pitched it to A&R expecting of course notes and stuff and saying, you know, let’s fix this, let’s head back to the studio. And the report that we got was like, “Leave it alone , it’s fine.” I’m like, “Leave it alone?” And he’s like, “Yeah yeah leave it, it’s fine, don’t touch it anymore.” I’m like, “Okay, this is going to be easier than I thought.” So yeah, it’s very dear to the group. It’s really the first song that, sealed my style because I did it as a risk, as we know, it’s an R&B influenced beat, and the way that I delivered on it, it’s very Caribbean, very island, very dancehall, very reggae. So I’m like, I wonder if A&R is going to like this and he’s like, “It’s perfect because that’s who you are, fused with what you like.” So that really set the tone for, for everything really.

RESPECT: I’ve been reading myself. You hear that fan in the background a lot or no.

Navy: I don’t hear it at all.
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect. My next question for you, obviously there’s so much going on in the world right now, and we’re in such a transformational period. How do you see this period of time affecting your music?
Navy: It is a transformational period. I think if I was back in Dominica, on my little Island, only, depending on the news and media to understand what’s going on, I would be worried as I was in the beginning, but being in London, which is such a big city, a big country, part of the UK, it’s a really big, a big place, with a lot of people. You have different races and different cultures of people. I understand that the change isn’t all that bad and it could actually be very beneficial for the type of music that I do because at Pretty Boy, we’re unapologetically black. Like we don’t care. We don’t see color quite honestly. Like we don’t, we see talent. We see what you’re able to do, what you’re able to contribute to the project. So with that movement right now, where people are really standing up for what they believe in coming into this music industry as a dark skin girl, I never had to worry about it because I was always sheltered from it, but now being on this level, you’re being premiered on Complex. And you’re hearing about all the big heads in the labels and stuff like that. I’m still not worried. I’m not worried about being a dark skinned black girl because now is the time to be proud of who you are and how you look and where you’re from. And I know my accent is funny, but I love it. So everybody’s going to love it too. I’m very, very positive and very optimistic about everything.

RESPECT: I love that. And then musically, what’s next for you guys? Is the album coming out? Are we getting another single first? What’s happening next?

Navy: I think it would be safe for me to say that we’re in “Let’s make some noise” mode. Let’s just let people know, “Hey, this is Taste of Pluto, hey this is Navy, this is what’s going on.” But if ever, and whenever that album has to be dropped, we’re ready. We each have two projects. Taste of Pluto has two projects. Navy has two projects. So if tomorrow we decide, now is the time to drop the album it’s all set and all done. I’m not sure what they’re going to go with. It’s really conversations over my head, but we’re ready. We’re ready for everything.

RESPECT: How would you describe your beauty regimen and your fashion sense?

Navy: Hmm, beauty regimens, I will, A&R calls me the Bush girl, because ,Dominica is a very eco-tourist place. We depend heavily on tourism, dealing it for our rivers and our trees and our natural products and stuff like that. So my diet has a lot to do with, with taking care of myself, what we eat, what we listen to, what we look at, where we place ourselves mentally. My fashion sense is very nineties, very old school, very crop tops and baggy jeans and colors and you know, plaid, stuff like that. It’s comfy. It’s edgy. It’s, there, because of my personality, I’m not really, I wouldn’t say like a really high, I don’t want to say the wrong word. I’m not really one you would find in a bikini running up and down. You would find me more, a crop, legs, stuff like that, little skin here and there, but not so much and A&R has understood that perfectly. We’re good , we’re nice.

RESPECT: And my last question for you is somebody, your dream like collaboration, like if you had to collaborate with somebody who would be, who would you pick if you had to pick one person?

Navy: What a good question.

RESPECT: Who is it and why?

Navy: So many, but right now I would go with Kendrick Lamar, like right off the top, Kendrick Lamar, because I was away for a while and I wasn’t really aware of new music because of what I had to do musically back home. I had to study a certain set of songs and learn those songs. And they were like sixties and fifties. So when I came out of that zone, one of the first songs that I heard was The Blacker The Berry. And I’m like, first of all, back home on my Island, I wouldn’t listen to Assassin, who’s now called Agent Sasco, and that’s who features Kendrick Lamar. The first one that I heard was The Blacker The Berry and featuring on that song, I knew him as Assasin from Jamaica, but he changed his name to Agent Sasco. So when I saw that collaboration, I’m like, if that is possible, then there was nothing right now. If Kendrick and Jamaica can come together, there’s nothing right now stopping Kendrick or people on his level from collaborating with somebody like me. So his lyrics, he goes so deep and he goes so hard and he is not afraid of speaking what he feels and what he experienced if I had to dress in a bunny suit and run around with bananas to feature Kendrick, I do it! I do it!

‘Scorpio’s Letter’ arrives just in time for summer and serves as the first of many to come from Taste of Pluto this year; as the collective are set to release their EP in fall as well as singles from their own individual projects.