Gets Gangsta
By Odette Flemming

When Tanya Stephens hits the stage she gives it you just as she intended – straight up. Never known for biting her tongue, this outspoken artist combines honesty, intuition and lyrical fearlessness into some of the most insightful songs in recent Reggae Dancehall history. What sets Tanya apart from so many performers is her willingness to embrace the reality of male/female relationships. With barefaced accounts of life on both sides of the playing field, she examines the truth without bitterness or finger pointing. Her songs are rich with detail and so matter-of-fact that she takes you on an intimate journey with each cut. This is Reggae pure and simple. Tanya relates experiences to her audience the same way she relates to the world around her. Instead of trying to nice it up, she puts it out there in full view and dares us to turn away.

Vivienne Tanya Stephenson is on top of her game. She signed onto the VP Records roster late last year and her new project Gangsta Blues, produced with partner Andrew Henton, is set to touch the road this month. With the chart success of her single ‘It’s A Pity’, featured on Reggae Gold 2003, and her new single ‘Better Luck’ at number one on the VP Singles Chart, it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the Reggae community wakes up to the power unleashed by this prolific artist.

In a recent interview with CV, Tanya talked about the style of this album versus her previous Dancehall catalog. “Making it was a bit different for me because I am coming from a hardcore dancehall background and I got painted into a corner with that. For me it was stepping outside the stereotype of ‘oh you’re a dancehall artist’. I like my previous work, I just don’t think it should be the only thing I am allowed to do.”

In this very male dominated art form, where what female artists say means less than what they wear while saying it, does Tanya feel the need to prove anything to the dancehall fraternity, her peers, or even herself? “Well I feel very comfortable with my style and my focus is on my material not proving anything to my peers. Even if this sounds a bit cocky, I don’t really see myself having much competition among my peers in terms of material, maybe in terms of popularity, but not in terms of material. I am a lyric-based person, I am a material-based person, into concepts. Where those things are concerned I don’t really feel much pressure.

“One of my hang-ups with the way women are treated in dancehall is that we’re not taken as seriously as a man would be. A man can sing some mediocre lyrics and everyone is like, ‘bwoy that’s so deep’. A woman can sing something ten times more meaningful and only get half the ratings.”

While always candid, Gangsta’s moods move from the crude irony of “Tek Him Back” – a sister trying to give back the man that she stole because -- “Me nah love how your man perform” – to ballads of incredible sensitivity like “Little White Lie,” a complex tale of a “baby mother” lying about her “baby father’s” identity. Tanya’s take on Jamaica’s socio-economic state pours out in a plaintive letter to the current Prime Minister - “Mista, me nuh trying to diss ya/but everyt’ing ain’t so cris’ here/We just beg a little help, Prime Minista”. Tanya speaks boldly and with a voice that defies gender references. She is Reggae artist first and foremost, always straight-talking, and forever committed to the music.