Being in the company of the Mighty Duke is like being in the presence of royalty as he is the only calypsonian to have been crowned Trinidad Calypso Monarch in four consecutive years, a feat never repeated and that probably never will be.

And as Duke would tell you, this was no easy feat in the heyday of the art form, when he came up against fellow legendary names such as the Mighty Sparrow, Kitchener, Canary and others.

Born Kelvin Pope in Point Fortin, an oil town in the south of Trinidad the ever-ready artiste revealed that he grew up on a diet of calypso records fed to him on a regular basis by his mother and father. Therefore from early in life the Duke had a basis from which to work.

"As a child my parents liked calypso records I grew up hearing them and after school decided to do it," the calypsonian also known for his keen sense of style said. His loyalty to the true form of calypso is a manifestation of his background and upbringing according to the old fashioned values.

"I grew up in the country Point Fortin south and I can tell you most of the calypsonians were born and grew up there. I live in Port-of-Spain now but this is where I started from."

A veteran who has survived over 40 years in the business, producing some 40 albums along the way the calypsonian says his approach to the art form is to maintain the authentic calypso line and notes the Duke, "I am considered a purist I do just basic calypso not the dub thing."

"I do a bit of everything," Duke said explaining where he gets material for his music, "I've sung on everything politics, social commentary... because calypso as I know it is life. It has to do with every aspect of life everything you can think about I have sung on it. If you're a calypsonian you deal with what's bothering the people."

Having kicked off his amazing career in the late fifties, and still producing work, the Duke told The Scene of his unmatched accomplishment of four consecutive calypso monarch titles. "I am the only person in the history of calypso to have won calypso four consecutive years 1968,1969,1970 and 1971," he said adding, "that was when calypso was calypso."

Following these titles, that saw him coming up against Kitchener, Blakey, Stalin and Chalk Dust, the legendary artiste went on to win quite a few others including the Caribbean Calypso monarch title and the World Calypso monarch title. Truly one of the longer lasting high-calibre entertainers in the Caribbean, Duke has personally invested in the whole range of the work he has produced over his five decades in the business writing all of his songs.

"All my life," he told The Scene, "I have written all my songs."

He revealed that he has also done work for another legend in the business: Lord Nelson. "I have written for some people one of them is Lord Nelson. Most of his hits were my own, I'd say I did 99% of his work."

However though he writes his music arranging his melodies is only partial since now he is with Eddy Grant's Ice Records Ltd. Grant does some of the arranging.

The two legends in their own spheres hooked up 18 years ago, through the pursuit of Eddy who according to Duke, "heard my work, sought me out and signed me up and since then I have never left that arrangement. We are friends now. It is no longer just a working relationship."

At the moment Duke says he is working on a number of compositions two of which he said were "World's Greatest Composers", and "Fathering", which tells the youngsters about being "a father not only a daddy but a father."

The artiste himself a father of four children three boys and a girl said he was married years ago, divorced and was "looking to marry again."

Not unlike most artistes Duke had not immediately decided on a professional musical career early in his life. Shortly after leaving school the then budding performer was a teacher for a while and also worked with the oil company in Trinidad for a number of years.

"I just went to an ordinary school never went to high school per se. From school what I did was, when you pass your exams you didn't leave school but I took the teachers exam first and second year exams.

"Well as it was I taught for a while and worked with the oil company there for three years before I came out and started singing professionally," which was somewhere around 1964 and which has been providing him with a living since then to now.

Offering his observations on the genre he has perfected over several years, Duke said, "it is not what it used to be but it has lost a lot of its weight and does not hold as much power as it did before but is still there." Explaining further what he meant by this statement he said: "Its popularity, strength, everything... most of the calypsos now do not have the strength they used to have before, they are watered down. The lyrics, the melodies are not the same."

Further reflecting on the departure of the art form Duke said, "When I started doing calypso you would hear, like how we're sitting here, somebody humming a melody walking down the road, or whistling a tune or singing a calypso melody that does not happen anymore and that tells you."

The Duke revealed to The Scene that he has been visiting Guyana courtesy of "Eddy...one of the masters" on and off since 1960. He noted that back then he and an entourage of calypsonians such as Sparrow, Melody, Cipher, Fighter, and Canary among others toured the coast going all the way to Bartica and even Linden travelling by train. He recalled this was, "before Kitty burned down and all that I've been in and out all the time over the river, up the Essequibo and so on, I love the river."

The artiste in his illustrious career has travelled to a number of glamorous venues and shared some of these with The Scene. "I've travelled to several places in the Caribbean, the continent, played in a host of places like the Royal Festival Hall, London, the Kennedy Centre, Washington and one of top places Boa Vista." All the time he has been promoting authentic calypso through which he earned parts in movies filmed in T&T.