UNIVERSITY OF CALYPSO | Transcriptions and song notes by Michael Oliver-Goodwin
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Take Yuh Meat Out Meh Rice
This calypso about a conniving Barbadian who outsmarts a Trini is one of Kitchener's most beloved tunes. "Tek Yuh Meat" plays out much like a folk tale. Check out how the Bajan deflates the value of the Trini's meatbone with each chorus, from 12 cents to six cents to three cents, and how his warnings, which start with "a word of advice," grow increasingly violent. Relator's exaggerated Barbadian accent is a hoot, but then so was Kitchener's.
Footnotes
1 - native of Barbados
2 - angry
3 - a Bajan hice is when you pick somebody up and throw them
A Bajan[1] and a Trinidadian
Dyin' for starvation
The Bajan said, 'Look Trini
Leh we make a cook
I put the rice, an' you going put the meat
Den we going both have something to eat'
But when the pot was ready to done
The Bajan decide to pull a fast one
The Baje say 'Trini, I'm a born Barbadian
I don't like to fight
But when it comes to the occasion
I going die for meh right
Yuh put in a 12-cents meatbone
Yuh Trinidadian lice
I going give you a word of advice
Take yuh meat out meh rice'
Trini got in a big rage
'What wrong with you Baje
Ah go' tell you flat
Baje, ah ent takin' that
When we were shopping we both agree
The food will be cooked and shared equally
Ah put meh las' penny in dis meat
An' ah ent movin' until ah eat'
The Baje say 'Trini, I'm a born Barbadian
I don't like to fight
But when it comes to the occasion
I going die for meh right
Yuh put in a six-cents meatbone
Yuh Trinidadian lice
Before ah crush you like ice
Take yuh meat out meh rice'
Now by dis time de pot finish
Trini pick up a dish
The Bajan say 'No, no, no
Never happen so
What ah mention I can repeat
I said to lend me yuh piece of meat'
Trini get so vex[2] he started to cry
'Baje, in front meh eye, yuh tellin' a lie'
The Baje say 'No, no Trini, I'm a born Barbadian
I don't like to fight
But when it comes to the occasion
I going die for meh right
Yuh put in a three-cents meatbone
Yuh Trinidadian lice
Before ah give you a Bajan hice[3]
Take yuh meat out meh rice'