Home / Bouyon artists / Zwady

Zwady: the voice of Down Deh, a pen for Starsha, ten years of singles

Published October 20, 2026

Zwady is a singer and songwriter whose full name appears in platform credits as Aswad Mandela Nelson Polydore. His most streamed record, according to his Shazam artist page, is “Down Deh”, his cut on the 2020 Dwivayez Riddim by ProducerDlo and Savion Beats, where he sings alongside Fireman Lee. Around that peak, the catalog is the work of a steady singles craftsman: twelve lead singles between 2017 and 2026 on 1619613 Records DK, featured cuts for ProducerDlo, Dadamanufakture and Wetty Beatz, and a second trade, songwriting, with a duet and a writing credit for the Dominican singer Starsha. This profile follows those credits one by one, and also says what they do not contain: no source consulted publishes his biography or his home village.

A full name in the credits: Aswad Mandela Nelson Polydore

Zwady is a stage name, and platform credits tie it to a full writer identity. On “Keep Dancing”, released in 2025, and on “Life is For the Living”, released in 2026, the writing credit gives the long form: Aswad Mandela Nelson Polydore, songwriter on both records. The short form, Aswad Polydore, returns on “Down Deh” in 2020, on “Blaze” in 2025 and, in the lyrics credit, on “I Telling You” in 2026. One page breaks the pattern: “Mal Palan” spells the name Aswad Polydor, without the final e. This profile keeps those spellings exactly as printed, because on this scene a credit is a document, and a document is quoted before it is corrected.

Two roles share the file. The first is the singer: the “Mal Palan” page credits him explicitly on vocals, and the “Blaze” page credits Aswad Polydore as the vocalist. The second is the writer: he signs his own singles, co-signs his features, and also writes for another voice, Starsha, as the section on his pen shows. That double position, performer and songwriter, is the very structure of his career as the platforms tell it: Zwady almost never arrives on a record without also putting words on it.

On origin, this profile is exactly as precise as its sources, no more and no less. No page consulted gives a birthplace, a village, a birth date or a biography. What places Zwady in the Dominica scene is the bundle of his documented collaborations: the Dwivayez Riddim is produced by two men the press presents as Dominican producers, ProducerDlo and Savion Beats; his duet partner Starsha is documented as coming from Layou, Dominica; and his other producers, Dadamanufakture as much as ProducerDlo, belong to the same island bouyon and soca circuit. This site therefore files him in the Dominican scene on the basis of those credits, and says so openly rather than inventing a village origin.

The platforms, for their part, file his music with a carelessness that has to be flagged. Shazam shelves the artist under a Reggae tag, and his singles alternate between Reggae and Afro-Beat tags across the years, while the records themselves are soca and bouyon riddim cuts built for carnival. The genre frame is on our bouyon soca page: a form born in Dominica, started by Dada in 2003 according to the first-hand testimony of Sean “Smokiller” Francis, then popularized by Triple Kay. It is inside that frame, and not inside the automatic tags of the platforms, that the Zwady catalog makes sense.

“Down Deh”: the Dwivayez Riddim cut that tops his page

The Dwivayez Riddim was released as an EP on August 28, 2020, under Producerdlo name, on GloSho Music. The published tracklist holds five records: the riddim instrumental, “Happy Place” with Shelly, “Down Deh” with Zwady and Fireman Lee, “System Failure” with Starsha, and “Deliway” with Trilla-G. “Down Deh” is sung in English, at 117 BPM, and its four credited songwriters are Dylan Christon Lowe, Savion Augustine, Aswad Polydore and Leslie St. Jean: the two producers, Zwady, and a fourth name that the Fireman Lee profile, published in the same wave, examines in detail.

The riddim story is told by the regional press. In February 2021, an article datelined Port of Spain presented the Dwivayez Riddim as the meeting of two producers from Dominica, ProducerDlo, real name Dylan Lowe, and Savion Beats, real name Savion Augustine. The word dwivayez comes from the French Creole spoken in Dominica: dwive means to lime or wander, and a dwivayez is someone who limes from fete to fete. The riddim was conceived in the middle of lockdown, as an invitation to leave the house and go anywhere, as long as there was a party. The press spelled the Zwady title “Down Dere” where the platforms spell “Down Deh”, and it added a track by Trinidad Tevin Hartman, “Overproof”, that does not appear on the 2020 EP tracklist: this profile keeps both versions visible instead of merging them.

The weight of the record can be read on Zwady own artist page. Shazam ranks “Down Deh” first among his most streamed songs, ahead of every lead single, from “I Telling You” to “Mal Palan”. In other words, the most exposed piece of his catalog is not a solo single but a riddim cut, shared with another singer, on a production built by two other men. That is the normal working of the riddim economy, explained on our bouyon riddim page: one production carries several voices, and the voice that marks its cut marks the whole riddim. For Zwady, that founding cut arrives in 2020, three years after his first single, and it still tops his page six years later.

Twelve lead singles, from “2 Shots” to “Life is For the Living”

The solo catalog starts early. “2 Shots” was released on May 21, 2017, then “Redeem Yourself” on July 15, 2019 and “Roll It” on September 20, 2019, and “She Top” on February 1, 2020. All four records came out on 1619613 Records DK, the imprint that would carry every one of his lead singles, and the platforms tagged them Reggae. At that stage Zwady is a singer of singles at a slow rhythm, one or two records a year, and it is into that landscape that “Down Deh” arrives, in the same year 2020, to give him his widest exposure.

The published discography then shows a silence that must be described without being filled in. No lead single is listed for 2021 or 2022 on his artist page. The run resumes in January 2023 with two records back to back, “Mother’s Mas” on January 7 and “She Bizness” on January 25, still on 1619613 Records DK, with the platform tag shifting to Afro-Beat. This profile assumes no break, no retirement and no reason: it records that the public catalog passes from February 2020 to January 2023 with no solo single, while the name Zwady stays attached to the Dwivayez Riddim, which keeps circulating.

The final stretch is the fullest. “To the END (2DN)” was released on January 22, 2024, and the record also circulates in carnival mixes in the short form To The End. “Juice” followed on October 31, 2024, at 160 BPM. The year 2025 holds “For You” on October 3 and “What’s in your Yeti” on December 17, on top of his three riddim features detailed below. The year 2026 opens with “Jelly” on January 29, then “Life is For the Living”, on May 15, 2026, featuring Jab King, produced by Cecil Joseph Jr and written by Aswad Mandela Nelson Polydore under his full name. Twelve singles, no album: like most voices of his bouyon and soca generation, Zwady builds his presence record by record, at the rhythm of the carnival seasons.

One manufacturing detail is worth recording. The 1619613 Records DK imprint, a name made of a number, returns on all twelve singles without exception, from 2017 to 2026, while his features appear on GloSho Music, ProducerDlo, Dadamanufakture or Wetty-Beatz Productionz. No source consulted describes that imprint beyond the record pages, and this profile calls it neither a personal label nor a third party structure. It simply notes the regularity: one single release channel for the work under his own name, for almost ten years, which, on a scene of scattered singles, looks like discipline.

The pen: writing and singing with Starsha

The second thread of the file leads to Starsha. According to the profile published by Dominica Festivals, Starsha is the stage name of Marsha Laurent, from Layou, Dominica, a soca and bouyon singer associated with Signal Band. Her list of soca singles includes “First”, presented as a duet with Zwady on the Fete Lyfe Riddim. No date and no label were verified for “First” in the sources opened, and this profile invents none: the duet is documented, its riddim context is named, and that is all, but it is already a document, that of two Dominican voices sharing one record.

The second document is richer still. The official credits of “Black Girl Magic”, by Starsha, published with the video, read: performed by Starsha, written by Marsha Laurent, additional writing credits Aswad “Zwady” Polydore, produced by Dernel Green, mixed and mastered by Cornell Phillip. That credit does two things at once. It proves that Zwady writes for a voice other than his own, in support of a writer who signs her own record. And it welds the two names together in public, Aswad Polydore and Zwady, in quotation marks, inside a production document: it is one of the pieces that allow this profile to treat the writer of the credits and the singer of the posters as one and the same person.

This profile files “Black Girl Magic” with care: it is a Starsha recording, not a Zwady record, and it therefore does not appear in the track list of this page structured data. It appears here as writing work, which is what it is. The distinction matters in a genre where credits are the currency: mistaking a writing line for a performer record would inflate one catalog and steal the other record. The Starsha page on Dominica Festivals also recalls that her own Dwivayez Riddim cut, “System Failure”, became her 2021 hit: the two artists therefore cross twice in the documents, once as riddim neighbours, once as writer and performer.

Zwady pen also works inside his own features. He is a co-writer of “Blaze” with Dylan Lowe, a co-writer of “Keep Dancing” with Dylan Lowe and Kevin Thomas, and he is credited with the lyrics of “I Telling You”, whose composition is signed by Phillip Bastien. The pattern is constant over ten years: when Zwady sings on someone else record, his name also appears among the writers. It is the mark of a singer who negotiates his presence with a text, and it explains why riddim producers return to him: a cut sung by Zwady arrives with its lyrics included.

2025 and 2026: the riddim man

On May 24, 2025, Producerdlo and MK767 released the Sazon Riddim, and its vocal cut is “Keep Dancing”, featuring Zwady. The record, at 107 BPM, was written by Dylan Lowe, Kevin Thomas and Aswad Mandela Nelson Polydore, produced by Dylan Lowe with Kevin Thomas as co-producer and Dernel Green mixing. Five years after the Dwivayez Riddim, the same producer calls back the same voice, and the writing credit this time gives the writer full name: the Dlo and Zwady relation is the longest continuous line in this file, from 2020 to 2025, by way of a “Down Deh” that had meanwhile become the singer most streamed record.

On July 6, 2025, Zwady appeared on the Dadamanufakture Kryptic Riddim with “Mal Palan”. The riddim album lines up nine tracks, including “Bess Jam” by Fadda Fox and Faithii, “Savage” by Pumpa, “Ah Coming” by Jael Joseph and the Dadamanufakture instrumental. “Mal Palan” is sung in English, at 131 BPM, written by Aswad Polydor, the spelling without the final e that belongs to this page, and Clyde Krishna Lawrence, and produced, mixed and mastered by Dada Manufakture. The record places Zwady in a wide regional cast, beyond the Dominican circle of his beginnings, on one of the soca riddims of the summer of 2025.

On August 8, 2025, Producerdlo released “Blaze”, featuring Zwady, at 114 BPM. The credits give Aswad Polydore on vocals, Aswad Polydore and Dylan Lowe as writers, Shane St. Claire on background vocals, Dwight Florent on guitar and Dernel Green mastering. In the single year 2025, Zwady therefore signs three riddim cuts for two producers, Sazon, Kryptic and the “Blaze” single, on top of his two lead singles. It is the finished profile of the riddim singer: the producers change, the tempos change, from 107 to 131 BPM, and the voice and the pen remain the constant that the credit pages allow us to follow.

The run continues in 2026. On May 18, 2026, Wetty-Beatz Productionz released the Full Steam Riddim, and “I Telling You” is credited to Zwady and Wetty Beatz: lyrics by Aswad Polydore, composition by Phillip Bastien, the legal name behind Wetty Beatz, production, mixing and mastering by Wetty-Beatz Productionz. At 153 BPM, it is the fastest record in his whole documented catalog. His artist page ranks it second among his most streamed songs, just behind “Down Deh”: six years after his founding cut, Zwady therefore holds the first two places of his own page with two riddim records, and our bouyon playlist follows that output as it lands.

What the public file does not say

The limits of this profile fit in a few lines, and they are stated here as everywhere on this site. No official biography of Zwady was found in the sources consulted: no village, no birth date, no path narrated by the artist himself. No official social account was verified by direct opening during this research, and the only link carried in this page structured data is his Shazam artist page, opened and verified. The most streamed rankings and release lists quoted are those recorded at the time of research, in October 2026, and they will keep moving with new releases.

The genre tags of the platforms should also be read for what they are: an automatic filing, not a description. The same singer cannot be shelved as Reggae in 2019, Afro-Beat in 2023 and Reggae again in 2025 without those words losing their meaning; what does not change are the credits, the producers and the riddims, and those are what this profile rests on. Dominican bouyon and soca have their own documents, their own awards and their own charts, and the Zwady trajectory reads there without needing the platform boxes.

What remains is the portrait the credits allow, and it is consistent. A writer performer active since 2017, twelve lead singles on one imprint, a founding riddim cut in 2020 that still tops his page, a pen lent to Starsha, and a 2025 year of three riddims extended in 2026 by a Full Steam Riddim ranked second among his most streamed songs. If the artist one day publishes a biography, a village or a verified official account, this profile will be completed and dated. Until then, listening starts with “Down Deh”, continues with “Mal Palan”, “I Telling You”, “Blaze” and “Keep Dancing”, then with the singles “Juice”, “To the END” and “Life is For the Living”.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Zwady?

Zwady is a singer and songwriter in Dominica bouyon and soca scene. Platform credits give his full name, Aswad Mandela Nelson Polydore, notably as the writer of Keep Dancing in 2025 and Life is For the Living in 2026, and the short form Aswad Polydore on Down Deh, Blaze and I Telling You. One page, Mal Palan, spells his name Aswad Polydor, without the final e. He sings his own singles, riddim cuts for several producers, and he also writes for others, including Starsha.

What is Zwady most streamed record?

Down Deh, his cut on the Producerdlo Dwivayez Riddim, released on August 28, 2020 on GloSho Music as part of the riddim EP. He sings it with Fireman Lee as a fellow feature, in English, at 117 BPM, and the record was written by Dylan Christon Lowe, Savion Augustine, Aswad Polydore and Leslie St. Jean. His Shazam artist page ranks it first among his most streamed songs, ahead of I Telling You and his lead singles. The regional press of February 2021 spelled the title Down Dere.

What are Zwady lead singles?

Twelve singles are documented on his artist page, all on 1619613 Records DK: 2 Shots in 2017, Redeem Yourself and Roll It in 2019, She Top in 2020, Mother’s Mas and She Bizness in 2023, to the END (2DN) and Juice in 2024, For You and What’s in your Yeti in 2025, Jelly and Life is For the Living, with Jab King, in 2026. No album is referenced: his lead catalog is a singles catalog.

Who has Zwady written for?

For Starsha, the singer from Layou, Dominica. The official credits of her record Black Girl Magic give writing by Marsha Laurent, Starsha legal name, with additional writing credits for Aswad “Zwady” Polydore. Zwady also sings a duet with her on First, a Fete Lyfe Riddim record listed in the Starsha profile published by Dominica Festivals. Black Girl Magic remains a Starsha record: Zwady holds a writing line on it, not a performer role.

Where is Zwady from?

No source consulted gives his birthplace or his village, and this profile does not invent one. His anchoring in the Dominica scene is documentary: the Dwivayez Riddim that carries his most streamed record is produced by ProducerDlo and Savion Beats, presented by the press as two producers from Dominica, his duet partner Starsha comes from Layou, and his riddim producers, ProducerDlo and Dadamanufakture, belong to the island bouyon and soca circuit. If a primary source publishes his origin, this page will be completed.

Where can I listen to Zwady?

Start with Down Deh on the Dwivayez Riddim EP, then Mal Palan on the Kryptic Riddim, I Telling You on the Full Steam Riddim, Blaze and Keep Dancing with ProducerDlo, and the singles Juice, to the END (2DN) and Life is For the Living. Our bouyon playlist follows the releases of this scene, and the Shelly and Trilla-G profiles document two more voices of the same Dwivayez Riddim.

Read next

More bouyon artists

Kassidje · Ridge · ScarnX · Corane Vincent · Gaza Crew · DJ Skaytah · Khallion · Gaza Girls Crew · Yellow Gaza · Tasmo · MB On The Track · Kkrytical · D-Mitri · Xavvoknockin · Smokiller · DJ Wizz767 · Billy BYBF · SMS Girls · Edday · Skinny Fabulous · Nensha · Keks Mafia · Sonic Art Studios · DJ Taffy