Govana Responds To ‘Batter-Ears Gyal’ Backlash, Says All His Music Has A Message

Govana’s music always has a message that you can take away. This is according to the artiste himself, who stopped by The Fix Podcast on YouTube to share a little bit about what he’s been up to and how his music has changed over the years.

Govana, whose real name is Romeo Nelson addressed critics who say that he has been derogatory to women through his music. He said that every song that he puts out has a message including gyalist tunes like ‘Bake Bean’.

The lyrics in that song that drew the ire of some people were: “National, we no wife batter-ears gyal. Bwoy, mawma man style, we no trace gyal.”

A ‘batta ears gyal’ is a derogatory term for a female, implying trashiness or tackiness, lower-class status, poor hygiene and other negative attributes, according to jamaicanpatwah.com.

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He told the hosts that even in this song he had a message, which was to warn young men to stay away from women who may negatively impact them because of their type of lifestyle. It makes little difference to him though as he added that he loves all the women.

Govana also took some time to speak about the delay in dropping his anthology Humans and Monsters are not the same (H.A.M.A.N.T.S). last year. Both his grandmothers died last year, one in April and one in June, and he was expecting his second son.

Govana added he made the time to be there for his new born son because he did not want to be a “sperm donor”.

He admitted that those personal factors had taken over and he was forced to focus more on himself. He also described the album as an anthology explaining that his vision for an album would have just one producer focusing on his contributions.

Besides losing his grandmothers, who he was close to, Govana said his life changed ever since he got shot in 2011 and that really was the beginning of him trying to focus on getting his life together.

H.A.M.A.N.T.S will finally be released tomorrow (January 10).  He hinted that there might still be some new music which he held back from the album that he’d probably drop this year.

There were struggles between which way he wanted to go in Dancehall as he said that sometimes he wondered if the “badman” tunes would help gain notoriety faster or if the “Gyalis” tunes would. In the end he said he chose to stay true to himself and that’s why he believes that all his songs have a message that can be taken away and used positively.

He revealed to the hosts that his personal top three songs are: No Complaining, Champ and Believe Me.

He also gushed about his admiration for the things that Koffee is doing and said that he always knew she would go to higher heights.  He shared a bit about collaborating with her in 2018 on the Rapture and said from the time Cocoa Tea introduced her he knew that she would go all the way and he believes that she has a lot more to give.

At the end of the day Govana said he just wants to put a smile on his fans faces.
“You see laughter and joy, it change so much and do so much for you,” he said.

Watch the interview below: