When Bermudian hip-hop artist Imari Wade stepped out on stage in Jamaica, she hoped she’d find a few new fans.

It didn’t start well. There were thousands at the Magnum Sting 2014 concert — an event dubbed “the greatest one night reggae show on earth” — and the rhythm playing for her song was wrong.

Gamely, she went ahead.

“The response was much better than I expected,” said Miss Wade. “There were probably thousands of people there. It was crazy. It was the most energetic performance show that I have ever seen. Normally, I felt nervous when I was in the wings, but when I stepped out on stage I just started singing.”

It was no small thing that the audience enjoyed her music. Bottles were later thrown, and there was a crowd stampede; backstage, there was a violent clash between artists. Around 14,000 people turned out for the music spectacle which included big name artists like Gully Bop, Nature, Etana, Capleton, Loyal Flames, Kabaka Pyramid, and Tarrus Riley.

After the concert Miss Wade recorded Drop Mi with event headliner Gully Bop. That song is already available on YouTube. It’s had close to 9,000 views since it was posted on January 2.

Recordings with Tommy Lee Sparta and Sashay will soon be released.

“It was a nice atmosphere in the recording studio and different from Bermuda,” the 28-year-old said. “I feel like they are more in tune with their music and more into their artists. They centre everything around catering to the sound of the artist rather than what they like. It was great to record in the studio. It was like that with the studio I went to. You knew the engineer was doing this for you, so it was very motivating. It put me in the zone to do what I had to do.”

Miss Wade has an associate’s degree in science and audio visual communication.

“Music is a 360 degree thing with me, it can always turn my mood around,” she said. “I took up music and television in college, because I wanted to make beats.”

She started rapping seven years ago after hearing a song on the radio.

“I said to my friends, I could do that,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I could do it better, just that I could do that.”

She’s since performed with local band DIA. Several of her songs can be heard on Bermuda radio including Talk to Me Straight and Get Up to My Level.

“Talk to Me Straight was about the satisfaction of getting a real job,” she said.

She works for cable-laying company Modern Technology Changes. It’s owned by Marshaleen Robinson, who also happens to be her music manager. Ms Robinson organised the Boxing Day performance in St Catherine.

“I got a lot of feedback from Talk to Me Straight,” Miss Wade said, “and people also let me know things I could work on, such as delivery. They didn’t really say anything bad about my lyrical content. The people who responded to it also said, you are good now, but you are only going to get better.”

She said her next song, Get Up to My Level did even better. Even her mother, Jacqueline, liked it.

“She is not hard to please, but she is not necessarily a rap fan either,” Miss Wade said. “She lets me know what songs she likes and what songs she doesn’t like. When she tells me she likes a song, I know it is a good song.”

Miss Wade said she’d always dreamed of performing overseas and she was thrilled that she’d finally done it.

“I want to go where I can, and experience what I can,” she said. “I want to make as much different types of collaborations as I can, and take my music as far as I can.”

•Watch Drop Mi here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhDxbM8euQQ.