How Vybz Kartel, Shaggy Helped Ameila ‘Milk’ Sewell After Infamous Sex Tape Leaked
Dancehall Police: Vybz Kartel championed sexual immorality in dancehall with the introduction of “freaky” songs.
Plot Twist: He recorded those songs to publicly normalize oral sex so media personality Ameila ‘Milk’ Sewell could get back on her feet.
Unless you were living under a rock in the early 2000s, you’d know that Milk was the “it” girl on Jamaican TV. The former Hitlist show host had won over just about everybody with her vivacity, sincere geniality, and ability to make even the most reserved celebrities let their hair down. Her star trajectory was blighted on June 8, 2008, when a video of her performing oral pleasure went public, leading to a job termination and corporate blackballing.
In the midst of the nightmare and being homeless for three months, she got a call from the “Worl’ Boss” who said, “I am going to make this thing okay for you. Come and work for me. I’m going to make you the road manager. Anytime Lisa Hype, Sheba, Gaza Slim, or Shawn Storm goes away, you can be the road manager.”
Milk, who was speaking on this week’s episode of Sim Soul Sessions, added that he “created songs about the situation and that was my paycheck. He helped me a lot financially.”
Lo and behold, Kartel’s wildly popular and controversial Freaky Gal trilogy, which arguably paved the way for other artists to comfortably sing about the topic – a far cry from the Hands Up (Mr. Vegas) environment of the 1990s.
Kartel, whom Milk has long referred to as her best friend, also facilitated her return to TV through his 2011 Teachas Pet reality show which she hosted and served as the “substitute teacha”.
Another artist to stand by Milk was international superstar Shaggy.
“Shaggy was the first person to call and say, ‘Listen, keep your head up. You didn’t do anything wrong; people out there doing worse. That’s a man and woman business. Come and be in the Badman Don’t Cry video so people know that Shaggy is on your side and I don’t feel bad putting you back out there’.”
She sold marijuana for a few years before getting her first stable job in 2013 as the manager of the now-defunct Famous nightclub, thanks to businessman Gary Matalon.
“Gary Matalon called me and said, ‘Listen, I don’t care what anybody else thinks about you. You are the right person to manage this club with your personality. You have a party brand and I want you to bring that ‘party brand’ fan club to the club Famous cause it’s a lifestyle club, and I want you to be the face of Famous nightclub.”
Following its closure in 2015, she got the opportunity to work at Fame 95FM thanks to late broadcaster François St Juste. Sadly, if you’ve not noticed, she said women weren’t as quick to help.
“The only comfort I got was from God himself, and between me and God, we worked it out.”
She’s been in production since, working as production assistant to assistant director on foreign film projects including the James Bond franchise, but still has a soft spot for broadcast media.
“I want to get back before the camera,” she said. “I am so misunderstood in the business. I am one of the most creative radio and television producers that we have in Jamaica and I still can’t get a job.”
Milk’s affinity for media and entertainment is innate. She knew she was going to be a star at age three, and got her start on late broadcaster Errol Thompson’s children’s show on JBC, then moving on to do a radio drop for broadcaster Barry G’s program.
She completed high school in the States after becoming pregnant while attending Holy Childhood High School. Upon her return to Jamaica, she was a professional masseuse and esthetician, eventually getting into radio at ZIP 103FM. She then moved on to CVM TV to help expand the station’s entertainment offerings. She was a producer for the dancehall show The Party and co-producer for Onstage before getting her own music countdown show The Hitlist which ran for six years.
Milk currently has a Youtube channel which captures the adventures and spontaneity of her daily life.