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Klockerz Krew: the name the pioneer list kept

Published October 20, 2026

Klockerz Krew is a Dominican crew active in the 1990s, whose name survives in two precise places in the public record. First, the French reference page on bouyon places it among the first groups and crews that popularised the sampling based style this site spells Wrecketeng, alongside the Bushtown Clan and Nursery Krew. Second, a portrait page of Dominican musicians records that Dice, a future calypso king, began singing in this group. This profile gathers those verified traces, attributes them one by one, and states clearly what the record does not hold.

A 1990s crew, two solid traces

Klockerz Krew belongs to the generation of Dominican crews of the 1990s, the period when, next to the big live bands such as WCK, collectives of singers, DJs and producers worked bouyon differently: on machines, on samples, with voices drawn from dancehall, hip hop and R&B. The crew name travels under two spellings in the sources, Klockerz Krew and Klockerz Crew. This profile keeps the first, the one used by the French reference page, and flags the second instead of silently deciding.

The first solid trace comes from that French page devoted to bouyon. In its section on the sampling style, it writes: “Among the first groups and crews that played an essential role in popularising the Rekenteng are the Bushtown Clan, Klockerz Krew and Nursery Crew Ink.” On this site, the style is spelled Wrecketeng, the official spelling given by DJ Cut himself, its founding pioneer; “reketeng” is the spelling spread across the internet, which that page uses and which we flag here as the circulating misspelling, without adopting it as our own.

The second trace comes from the “Music from Dominica” page of the A Virtual Dominica site, a gallery of portraits of the island musicians. In the portrait of Dice, it reads that Dennison Ikes Joseph, known as Dice, “first began singing R n’ B and reggae in the 90’s music group Klockerz Crew”. A future calypso king therefore served his vocal apprenticeship in this crew, and it is through that door that the group name enters documented Dominican music history.

Two traces are few, and this profile will not pretend otherwise. But they are two independent, published traces that meet: a crew of singers and sampling practitioners, active in Dominica in the 1990s, important enough to be named in the pioneer lineage of the style and to have formed one of the island great singers. The following sections unfold each of those traces, with their sources and their limits.

Wrecketeng: the method the crew helped popularise

To understand what “pioneer” means here, describe the method. The French reference page presents the style as a distinct sub genre of bouyon originating in Dominica, characterised mainly by a heavy use of sampling and by the fusion of bouyon with dancehall, R&B and hip hop. The pioneer DJs and producers generally removed the rhythm section of an existing record to lay the vocal, or other melodic elements, over a new bouyon instrumental base, fast and pounding. As in dub, the source material is stripped down to showcase the high tempo drum programming and the bass lines emblematic of bouyon.

The same page says those crews became known by mixing popular hip hop and dancehall anthems with aggressive bouyon drum programming and samples. It gives as emblematic examples of the period bouyon remixes of “Big Pimpin’” by Jay-Z, with UGK, and “Ridin’ Dirty” by Chamillionaire, presented as founding classics that laid the bases of the later hybrid styles. Those examples are attributed by the page to the pioneer crews it names as a group, and this profile reports them with the same care: they describe the collective practice of that generation, not a track by track catalogue of Klockerz Krew.

The Dominican context gives that practice its logic. At the turn of the 2000s, bouyon soca was born in the Nursery Krew studios, started in 2003 by producer Dada according to the first-hand testimony of Sean “Smokiller” Francis, then popularised by Triple Kay. Wrecketeng is the studio cousin of that birth: same generation, same move from the live band to the machine, same conviction that the Dominican sound could absorb hip hop and dancehall without ceasing to be Dominican. Our Wrecketeng page follows the full lineage, from DJ Cut to Nursery Krew Inc.

Note also the shape the French page gives the third crew name: “Nursery Crew Ink”, an approximate spelling of the Nursery Krew Inc. documented elsewhere. The French reference therefore sees the right lineage, with uncertain spellings. That is exactly the kind of record where a site like this one is useful: keep the names, correct the spellings, and say which parts of the story rest on credits and which rest on a single reference page, part of whose section the page itself flags as awaiting a source.

Dice: the calypso king who started in the crew

The best documented member of Klockerz Krew is also its best indirect witness. Dennison Ikes Joseph, known as Dice, began, according to A Virtual Dominica, singing R&B and reggae in the group in the 1990s. That starting point says something about the crew: it was a school for singers, a collective where a young Dominican vocalist could work the American and Jamaican repertoires before finding his own stage.

The rest of Dice path is, by contrast, abundantly documented. He entered calypso competition at Carnival 2002 and reached the quarter final; in 2003 he took third place; in 2004 he gained the title of Calypso King. A Virtual Dominica carries his total to eight Calypso Monarch crowns. A later Caribbean Times article, reporting Trilla G win in the competition, presents him as a nine time calypso monarch who placed second that year. This profile leaves the two counts side by side, with their sources: eight according to the portrait page, nine according to the more recent regional press.

The regional press follows those crowns one by one. In 2012, LargeUp magazine reported his fifth Calypso Monarch crown, won with an emotional call, “Stand Up for Teachers”, and the patriotic “Back to Country (True Confession)”, which brought the house down. The singer trained in an R&B and reggae crew had become, a decade later, the most decorated social commentary voice on his island.

That contrast between the two careers lights up the crew record. The singer who left Klockerz Krew became a national figure, covered by the press at every carnival. The crew itself left no official page, no dated discography, no verified member list. It is the classic pattern of the collectives of that generation: the voices move on to documented careers, the collective name survives in other people biographies and in one line of an encyclopedia.

For today reader, the practical consequence is simple: if you look for Klockerz Krew, also look for Dice. His path, from R&B and reggae singer in a 1990s crew to one of the most crowned calypso monarchs in Dominica, is the most concrete proof that this collective mattered in the formation of the island talent, well beyond its own discographic trace.

The Skydimex biography: three albums and big opening slots

The second voice in the record is Skydimex, an artist who presents himself, in his published artist biography, as a member of the Klockerz crew. The text says he started his career at 18, in a musical landscape fed by the diversity of his green island: calypso, reggae, soca, kompa, zouk, cadence lypso and dancehall. It describes the crew work as exploring a mix bringing together dancehall, hip hop and soca, that is, bouyon. That description, coming from a member, meets the crew place in the sampling pioneer lineage: the two sources describe the same sonic playground.

The same biography credits the crew with three albums, whose titles it gives: “Mental of Instrumental”, “K2” and “Sign’O’The Times”, plus a live album. It adds that the crew played opening acts for well known artists: Kassav’, Buju Banton, Sanchez and TOK. None of that information is dated in the biography, and no independent discography was found during the research for this profile to confirm it album by album. It is therefore reported here for what it is: the content of an artist biography published by a member of the crew, valuable because it comes from the inside, and presented with its status.

The biography then follows Skydimex departure: in 2009, he moved solo to Guadeloupe, working with Mad JMC, presented as one of Krys’ producers, with ManDragon and OneTime studio, recording albums and mixtapes. That route, from Dominica to Guadeloupe, is the one taken by many bouyon musicians of his generation, and it also explains part of the silence in the record: when the members each go their own way, the collective name stops being carried by anyone.

Between the line in the French reference page, the Dice portrait and this member biography, the Klockerz Krew portrait holds in a few verifiable traits: a Dominican crew of the 1990s, turned toward the dancehall, hip hop and bouyon mix, active enough on stage to open for the biggest passing names, and the starting home of at least two documented paths, that of Dice and that of Skydimex.

The one streaming era credit: “Tonite a De Nite”

There is one place where the name Klockerz appears in platform credits, and it is worth reading closely. On Shazam, the record “Tonite a De Nite”, performed by Partners In Kryme with Skinny Banton, carries this credit: Klockerz, composer; Skinny Banton, songwriter. The record appears on the compilation “200% Soca, 100% Tubes, Vol. 2”, released by Pastel Productions and dated January 1, 2002 on the platform, at a tempo of 149 BPM. An older Wikipedia list of bouyon bands also carried Partners In Kryme among the old school bouyon bands.

The name Skinny Banton gives that credit its context. The references present Skinny Banton as the most influential figure of bouyon muffin, the current that injected ragga vocals into bouyon from the mid 1990s, in collaboration with WCK and with DJ Cut of Bucktown Sounds. It is that bouyon muffin which, by absorbing more hip hop and dancehall, led to the sampling style Klockerz Krew helped popularise. Seeing the name Klockerz on a composing credit inside that orbit is therefore no catalogue accident: it is the same sound family, caught live in a line of metadata.

This profile does not turn that single credit into a discography. It says what it establishes: at the turn of the 2000s, the name Klockerz was still signing, as composer, on a bouyon soca record released on compilation, alongside one of the founding singers of bouyon muffin. For a crew with no official page, that credit line is a piece of the record in the same way as the pioneer list mention.

To hear the sound world the crew belonged to, our bouyon playlist and our Wrecketeng page gather the documented records and stories of that generation of Dominican experimenters.

What the record does not hold, and why the crew still matters

This profile ends with its limits, because here they are half the story. No official Klockerz Krew page was found. No verified member list exists in the sources consulted: only Dice and Skydimex are tied to the crew by published sources. The three albums named by the Skydimex biography are neither dated nor confirmed by an independent discography, so no track from those albums is listed here as a verified recording. Even the spelling of the name varies, Krew or Crew, according to the source.

The only recording credited to the crew name in platform metadata is “Tonite a De Nite”, where Klockerz is credited as composer. That is little, and it is stated as such. If crew members, listeners of the era or bouyon archivists bring dates, sleeves or verifiable track lists, this profile will be completed and corrected, like every page on this site.

Why, then, a full page for so thinly documented a crew? Because bouyon history is not only played out in the bands that lasted. It is also played out in the short lived crews that carried the decisive experiments: putting hip hop and dancehall anthems over bouyon programming, forming singers, opening the concerts of the passing giants. The French reference page kept the Klockerz Krew name in the pioneer list of that experiment. The English page of the same encyclopedia, in its current version, does not name it. This profile exists so the name no longer depends on a single reading tradition.

Klockerz Krew therefore matters as a link: between DJ Cut Bushtown Clan and the original recordings of Nursery Krew Inc., between the live bands of the 1990s and the solo careers it launched, starting with that of a calypso king. A thin link in the archives, but a named link, placed in its decade, and tied to sources every reader can check.

Frequently asked questions

Who were Klockerz Krew?

Klockerz Krew was a music crew from Dominica active in the 1990s. The French reference page on bouyon places it among the first groups and crews that popularised Wrecketeng, the sampling based bouyon style, alongside the Bushtown Clan and Nursery Krew. The singer Dice began his career there.

Why does Klockerz Krew appear in bouyon history when it left almost no archive?

Because the trace that matters is a pioneer list. The French tradition of the reference names the crew among the first to mix hip hop and dancehall anthems with aggressive bouyon drum programming and samples. The current English version of the same encyclopedia does not name the crew, which makes the French mention, and this profile, the places where its role is recorded.

Did Dice really start in Klockerz Krew?

Yes, according to the Music from Dominica page of A Virtual Dominica: Dennison Ikes Joseph, known as Dice, first began singing R&B and reggae in the 90’s music group Klockerz Crew. He went on to become a Dominica calypso monarch: eight crowns according to that page, nine according to a later Caribbean Times article.

Which albums did Klockerz Krew release?

According to the published artist biography of Skydimex, a member of the crew, the group released three albums: “Mental of Instrumental”, “K2” and “Sign’O’The Times”, plus a live album, and opened for Kassav’, Buju Banton, Sanchez and TOK. Those albums are not dated in the biography and were not confirmed by an independent discography during our research.

What is the link between Klockerz Krew and “Tonite a De Nite”?

On Shazam, “Tonite a De Nite”, performed by Partners In Kryme with Skinny Banton and released on the compilation “200% Soca, 100% Tubes, Vol. 2” (Pastel Productions, 2002), credits Klockerz as composer and Skinny Banton as songwriter. It is the only Klockerz name credit found in platform metadata.

Where can I hear music from the Klockerz Krew era?

The crew own recordings do not circulate on a verified official page. To hear the sound of its generation, start with our Wrecketeng page, which follows the sampling pioneer lineage, and our bouyon playlist, which gathers the Dominican classics documented by Bouyon Shattaz.

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