“Stop The Catfight!”: Lady G Says Female Dancehall Artistes Should Unite
Dancehall has been an obeah-themed drama series over the past two weeks, starring deejay Spice and spiritual advisor Nardo ‘RT Boss’ Smith, with supporting characters Macka Diamond and several female dancers. Veteran deejay Lady G, who is in a unique position as pal to Spice and Diamond, has had enough of female brawls.
“Me a talk to the females straight up, we need to stop this crab-in-a-barrel thing and we need to stop this catfight,” she said in a recent Instagram Live. “We need to unite, we need to put out some good music… I’m so proud of Koffee; look at Koffee come get the grammy. Let us all work towards that instead of trying to fight ‘gainst each other.”
She said the virtual throwdown supports the sentiment that the modern music industry lacks the unity that existed when she was a budding act in the 80s.
“I believe yuh supposed to use music and prove yourself,” she said. “When mi a come up in a dis it was about talent, creativity, and now me see it gone to stunting and social media…drama, and we nuh need all a dat… The music is like a big cake and there’s a slice there for each and every one of us, all you have to do is put out music.”
Being in the dancehall space for more than 30 years is bound to attract some contention, but the Nuff Respect singjay said she swerves negative energy and steers clear of fracas.
“Jealousy is like a thing where some people don’t know how to separate from respect,” she said. “Sometimes people mek jealousy tek dem over. Not to say I don’t feel bad vibes from other females…but mi just use love and conquer everything… Mi haffi be the more adult one in this business.”
With this outlook, Lady G embraces the new generation of female acts, naming Koffee as her favourite as she said the Toast hitmaker reminds her of her younger self.
“I also listen to Shenseea, Jada Kingdom, Lila Iké, Jah9, most of the new crop dem a gwaan good.”
Like most of her peers, she is concerned about the oftentimes raunchy lyrical content that pervades the “new crop”. She encouraged female acts to consider their legacy, adding that it is better to be a late bloomer like Richie Spice (with Earth A Run Red) than a fast-riser like Lady Saw, only to later have regrets about a racy catalogue.
“I believe in singing positive music… That is why persons like a Big Youth can still tour inna Europe all the time, Morgan Heritage can still tour, a Barrington Levy can still tour because they sing good music, nothing derogatory and dem still a sing bout love same way… A lot of these female artistes, I know dem have talent but dem trying to go the easy route but it only last a little short space of time. Do some music that is gonna last for years and years to come… Look at Marcia Griffiths… look how long this woman been touring all over the place.”