Another response I thought of to Alan Whittle's post, and this quote: "Borrow and steal from what you can, it doesn't matter." Well it DOES matter if you are not interested in singing and performing a commercialised version of the form. Why else was Harry Belafonte being called the "King of Calypso" so objectionable to singers such as the Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody? Because he was performing in a different context and had no right to use that title. Being a king or queen of calypso is an honour that can only be achieved by performing in calypso tents and winning prizes at jump-ups during Carnival. Similarly, performing songs written in a calypso style is closer to what Belafonte and Irving Burgie (wrote "Jamaica Farewell") do - singing commercialised calypso- than what real, traditional tent calypsonians do.
And I don't want to be a Belafonte clone, the totally inauthentic "Queen of Calypso". Not that Belafonte songs don't have their place, but they're not what I want to sing.