Brother Shortman

Born in Trinidad in 1951, Brother Shortman (Bro. Shortman) became, together with Brother Resistance, the lead singer of the Network Riddum Band in 1979.^[2] They developed a hybrid of soca and rap that they called rapso, a genre for which they credited Lancelot Layne as originator.^[2][3]

Network Riddum Bands début album 1981, Busting Out, became a major hit, defining the musical genre that would come to be known as rapso. Busting Out was the first album to use the word rapso.^[4] After the release of the album Rapso Explosion, Brother Shortman left^[5] Network Riddum Band and did not appear on the music scene until 2004, when he released the album The Awakening Vol. 1 as Rapso Rebel, after living in Sweden for more than a decade.

Everard Romany was the son of Rita and Claude Romany and the second of their 3 children. He attended Rose Hill Primary School and spent his early life as a community builder in East Port of Spain. His is a story of talent becoming derailed by drug addiction and eventually re emerging to continue the story of the Rapso Rebel in Sweden.