drastic is considered as one of the most versatile artists out of antigua and the caribbean.
Songwriter, Musician, Producer, Athlete, Husband and Father; Art Philip transforms into the Entertainer known as "DRASTIC", who is a part of an army of talented musicians that call themselves "Them Island Boyz". On May 12, 1985, Drastic was born on the land of 365 beaches, sea, sand and sun, Antigua, WI.
He began his music career professionally in 2007 having won the first-ever Virgin Islands Idol title in St. Thomas, USVI – a title he shares with fellow Them Island Boyz member, USVI native, Brandon Varlack also known as "B.V." or “B. Royal”. The duo, who called themselves B.V. and Drastic, worked the Virgin Islands circuit and became known with their original hit “Lay Your Body Down”. In 2008 Drastic attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from the University of the Virgin Islands. Then managed by their friend and Drastic’s roommate Everton Walters, B.V. and Drastic went on to do a number of remixes to popular songs which culminated in the release of their first mixtape “The Introduction” in 2009.
Drastic moved back to his homeland Antigua in 2010 where he exploded on to the Soca scene with his groovy hit "Sugary Waistline". The sensational song took him all the way to the finals of Antigua’s 2010 Soca Party Monarch Competition, his first and last time entering the competition and first time doing a Soca song in his music career. Within one week of posting the song on Youtube, it received over 18,000 plays. “Sugary Waistline” also received the award for the best Soca music video from CariVibez in 2011.
Over the past seven years, Drastic has worked with other notable artists in the music industry such as Sean Kingston, Spragga Benz, Destra, Surwayne Winchester, Honorebel, Jemere Morgan (of the Morgan Heritage Family), Patrice Roberts, Ricardo Drue, Richie Loop, Shal Marshal, B’More (BVI’s Soca Monarch) and Jah Cure with whom he and B.V. teamed up with to record the song and music video for "Kiss Me Girl".
The official music video for “Kiss Me Girl” landed on the #1 spot on Tempo’s Cross Caribbean Countdown and #6 on MTV Base Africa. A number of his other music videos have made it to #1 on Tempo including “Life II Live” (with B.V.), “So Seductive” (with B.V.), “Blasting Away” (with J. Nation and LogiQ Pryce), “Royals” (with Jamie Lou) and “Caribbean Boy” (with Amanda Tappin). The “Blasting Away” 2d Animation video was awarded "Most Creative Use of Anime in a Music Video" at the 2012 Animae Caribe Animation and Digital Media Festival in Trinidad & Tobago.
In 2012 Drastic married his girlfriend and manager, Sheroma "Brass.Angel" Hodge, a Brand Manager, Multimedia Specialist, Musician and former Miss British Virgin Islands Universe. In 2014 Drastic moved to the BVI, his wife’s hometown where he performed with local bands and did the songwriting for international artists. On September 15, 2015, Drastic and his wife became parents with the birth of their son Aiden.
In 2016, Drastic was a finalist in BVI’s Soca Monarch Competition with his song “Chek Me” and penned a number of songs as Songwriter for artists such as Shurwayne Winchester, Tizzy, Supa Mario and Jah Cure. He wrapped up the year with a trip to Portugal where he networked with a number of industry professionals and shot a video for the Portuguese Remix to his previously released song “Wine Suh” with Out of Money Productions in Lisbon.
2017 started with Drastic performing at Richard Branson’s Virgin BVI Unite Event at the exclusive Moskito Island, British Virgin Islands. After a series of successful meetings, Drastic signed with Caribbean Cellars BVI as an Official Brand Ambassador for Stag Beer.
Once again, Drastic was a finalist for BVI’s Soca Monarch Competition with the Summer hit “Oye”. Being a crowd favorite, Drastic finished the competition with the 2nd runner up trophy. This September, Drastic experienced the devastation of Hurricane Irma in Tortola. With lots of damage to his home in the BVI, Drastic returned to his homeland Antigua with his family to continue working on his music career.
In May 2018 Drastic performed for multiple events at Atlanta Caribbean Carnival and is slated to perform for New York and Miami Carnivals coming up later in the year. Drastic was a semi-finalist for the Antigua Party Monarch competition in July with his groovy hit “Cinderella” and the jumpy song “Supa Saiyan”.
July continued to be quite an eventful month. Drastic signed on as a brand ambassador for inet, a division of the local Antigua telecoms company APUA; he played Mas with MisFitz Mas Troupe and performed alongside Teddyson John (St. Lucia) and Triple Kay (Dominica); and after 3 weeks of voting, Drastic was awarded Week 3 Winner and overall Groovy Champion for the 2018 Tola Radio VI (British Virgin Islands) Festival Countdown with “Cinderella” having over 1300 votes. “Supa Saiyan” was a finalist for the Jumpy category.
2019 was a year where Drastic dropped 9 whopping tracks and went all the way to the finals of the Antigua Groovy Party Monarch competition with his hit “Fi Di Carnival”.
Drastic started the new year with a performance at Antigua’s largest New Year’s Eve party, Nocturnal, opening up for dancehall star Shenseea. Drastic’s highly-anticipated project “15 Grams: The Mixtape” was released on January 10, with a packed mixtape release event.
A record deal with Brooklyn Knights Entertainment in New York was inked in February. Drastic released his lead single “Show Up” on April 3, featuring Wyclef Jean and Noah Powa. The single, an energetic blend of Caribbean, Hip-Hop and Pop sounds, already has over 1,000,000 streams.
2021 will continue to see Drastic release fresh music and content even throughout a global pandemic.