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Rude girl power
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Rude girl power

Tanya Stephens
Courtesy VP Records
Tanya Stephens isn’t the usual sugar-coated musical snack-bite that record companies seem so fond of. She’s too honest — and too outspoken — for that.
Her trademark voice, coarse yet undeniably sexy, simultaneously shocks and titillates, as she tackles issues other dancehall artists run from. Her combination of bold lyrics and explicit street talk, in classics like Ninja Bike and It’s a Pity, is respected by her peers in the industry and lapped up by her audience. No one examines the urban reality of Jamaica and its male-female relations with more fire.
Big Tings A Gwan, the title track of her first album, was popular on the dancehall circuit back in 1994, but her real breakthrough came in 1995 with Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet, a fierce anthem with a forthright message for her male listeners: you may think you rule the world, but you’d better treat your woman right, because “Yuh haffi know fi handle it when gal a gwaan rude”. She’s not anti-male, but as her lyrics make clear — “mi know we haffi play it by the stupid rules of men” — she’s critical of their unquestioned position, particularly in macho Jamaican society, and isn’t afraid to say it.
From sex to motherhood to financial independence, Stephens fearlessly speaks her mind, and her message more than holds its own in the male-dominated dancehall world. Female fans cheer her on, and her male listeners sit up and pay attention, wondering if they’re ready for this yet.

Dylan Kerrigan
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Buzzworthy

E. Nigel Harris
Courtesy the Morehouse School of Medicine
Harris c. . .