User:Legbazoe/sandbox



Don Roy/Legba Zoe is Haitian artist and a pioneer of the Haitian Hip Hop/ Ragga movement. He was born in the locality of Bedimèl in the city of Cavaillonin the South of Haiti on November 4, 1974. His real name is Yves Ron Regis. He is the son of Mireille Sarazin and his mother raised him alone. As for his father, Don Roy's mother always used to tell him that he was a man named Yves Roland Regis who was a musician but unfortunately Don Roy/Legba Zoe never had the chance to grow up with his father.

Early in his childhood, Don Roy/Legba Zoe would leave Cavaillon and moved in the Djobèl area on the Bourdon Road. He did part of his primary studies at the Don Bosco de Petion ville school before he left Haiti in the 1980s to live in the state of Kentucky, in the United States. He completed his elementary studies at Jefferson Elementary School and began his secondary studies at Myers Middle School before returning to Haiti where he attended Jacques André Joseph College (on Lalue) and completed his classical studies at Fanel Amazan College. After his classical studies, Don Roy/Legba Zoe studied Sound Engineering and became a sound technician. He had the opportunity to teach as a teacher during a time at the Laboratoire de Langue Modernes d’Haiti and at the America English School.

He worked as a sound engineer and in charge of logistics at the French Institute of Haiti where he later became the head of the recording studio at that institute.

Don Roy/Legba Zoe loved music and it is his mother, Mireille Sarazin, who initiated him into music and will make him taste this beautiful art because her mother was a great music lover who always sang and played a lot of music for him. especially rara music.

After the death of his mother in the 1990s, Don Roy will show more interest in music, because he found through music a means of escape and a source of consolation at the same time. Music was his only landmark. For musical influences, it was first Rock n Roll and Country music because he was raised by a white family in Kentucky when he was a teenager, and these types of music were played at home. Jon Bon Jovi and the band Poison were the artists and bands he raved about while growing up in the United States. The first rap music that he would discover while he was a child in the United States was in 1986 and it was the music of Walk This Way, a song by the rock group Aerosmith that had already been released in 1975 and 1976, and Run DMC decided to take over the rap version with the group Aerosmith in 1986.

Don Roy will be exposed more to American rap music and dancehall when he returned to Haiti. He quickly fell in love with these musical genres and started mimic them. He was a huge fan of the like of Shabba Ranks, Yellow Man, Eric B and Rakim, Too Short and so on.

Don Roy aka Legba Zoe started making music with Pouchon Duverger and Ken D before these 2 men became part of the Djakout Music group and the Flex group respectively. They used to sing in different venues in Port-au-Prince as independent artists who were looking to break through. In 1995 Don Roy will create DDB with 2 other friends who were Cool DF and Bad Voice (Bad Voice is the old name of artist FedtonLouis who also became a member of Black Leaders). The DDB group would become part of Jazz Light, which is a program hosted by Jah Yeye. When Jazz Light stopped, some of the artists who used to perform in that program decided to create Rap in Family and Don Roy showed his desire to be part of Rap in Family, but it didn't work because they decided to make Rap in Family city guy only. Then Don Roy who lived in Petionville checked out another group in Petionville called Cool Moon Jah (MC Charles and Bum Shawn Jamaican) and then he contacted Black Alex who used to sing in the streets of Petionville and they formed in 1994 the Black Leaders movement that will lead to a group. Don Roy, Black Alex, Bad Voice (FedtonLouis), Cool DF, Bum Shawn, MC Charles are the original founding members of Black Leaders. With the Black Leaders, Don Roy recorded a beautiful album called TOUT MOUN JWEN which was released in 1997. After the success of this album throughout the country, in 1998, the group released a single called VOAZINAJ PAT MET BARIÈ.

Black Leaders was a notable group from the 1990s. The impact of Black Leaders and its members is lasting. Though known primarily for his role in Black Leaders. Don Roy is still an active contributor to Haitian music across many genres. Since the peak of his notoriety, Don Roy has chosen to create in other genres. While still working in a production capacity in genres such as Rap Kreyòl and Reggae, Don Roy has chosen to create and work with prominent artists of the modern roots/Rasin movement. Don Roy works with several artists as a producer (studio producer). He makes beats and musical productions for several artists (rap, roots, reggae, etc.) such as Jean Bernard Thomas, 35Zile (Absalyann Da God), Dutty, Sanba Yamba, etc...

Apart from the time he devotes to music, for his professional life, Don Roy/Legba Zoe tells us that he works as a school bus driver, he also works as a graphic designer. And he is an expert in doing taxes for individuals and businesses during tax season.

Legba Zoe admits that she loves Haiti so much with all her strength, all her soul. He is so attached to Haiti and loves our history as a people, if he were not Haitian, he would be naturalized. He wishes for Haitians to reconnect with their culture, reconcile with themselves and their origins. He hopes to see Haitians gain awareness and join forces to bring real change to the country. In the early 2000s, Don Roy befriended a musician called Calixte Preserve. During the exchange, Calixte shared with Roy his vision of merging our roots music with reggae. After a while, Calixte and Don Roy started to work together and the result was KALE DADA with the group Kriz, which was a mega hit.

For several years, Don Roy has been living in the United States. He still makes music. But it is not focused on commercial music. He is not so much into the logic of making "mainstream" music, but he makes music and publishes it on Legba Zoe's page on YouTube.

Legba Zoe is also part of a platform called Brooklyn Roots Music Festival that is working to revitalize our roots music.

While reminiscing his time in Creole Rap, Don Roy tells us his 3 best memories in his career, was the first time he performed in public with DDB (the first Creole rap group he founded). It was in 1993 or 1994 in college. Nicolas Copernic in a program where Sweet Micky was programmed. The reception they received was incredible.The 2nd is when the Black Leaders played at the Centre Sportif de Carefour in 1997 in front of thousands of people. The field was full to the brim, and they were given the security to enter so many people wanted to touch them and give them hugs. And the third one was with the group Kriz in French Guyana in 2004.

Apart from the time he devotes to music, for his professional life, Don Roy/Legba Zoe tells us that he works as a school bus driver, he also works as a graphic designer. And he is an expert in doing taxes for individuals and businesses during tax season.

Legba Zoe admits that she loves Haiti so much with all his strength, all his soul. He is so attached to Haiti and loves our history as a people, if he were not Haitian, he would be naturalized. He wishes for Haitians to reconnect with their culture, reconcile with themselves and their origins. He hopes to see Haitians gain awareness and join forces to bring real change to the country.Legbazoe (talk) 20:47, 1 April 2024 (UTC)Legba Zoe A.K.A Yves Rony Regis