Review
Tanya Stephens- ‘The Gangsta Girl’
By Avery Gray

RT

Jan 3, 2005, 12:35pm

If anyone have heard one of Tanya Stephens’ songs, they should know the skill and talent, the storytelling artiste posses. Skilled in lyrical rhymes and blessed with sultry vocals, this Jamaican ‘Gangsta Gal’ deserves to be treated with respect.

Tanya Stephens

Born Vivian Tanya Stephens, in the rural Parish of St. Mary, Tanya attended St. Mary High School. After leaving school, Tanya decided to pursue music, writing love songs: although too shy to vocalize.  She utilized her keyboard at home, formatting musical notes, then finally recorded some songs on a cassette and contacted Penthouse, who referred her to New Name Music.

There she met Noel Brownie who was impressed with her voice and soon took her under his wings. While nothing big came of that association, she got a lot of valuable experience. Soon after, she met producer Barry O'Hare and recorded "Is This For Real" which didn't create any waves on the music scene. Tanya took a break to give birth to her daughter ‘Kelly’, but refused to throw in the towel; returning to the music scene in 1995 with ‘Man Fi Rule’ and ‘Gangsta Girl’. She quickly followed up with ‘You Nuh Ready Fi Dis’, which thrust her into the spotlight and "the rest" they say, "is history."

‘Gangsta Blues’ her album from VP Records, captures, the artistes’ style, flavour, rhythm and flow, combined with some hardcore lyrical poetry. The album, features tracks such as "We a 'Gangsta Gal" (with Spragga Benz), "This Is Love" (with Wyclef Jean) and "What A Day".

Produced by Andrew Henton of Tarantula Records, the compilation holds 17 tracks, 16 of which were co-written by the ‘Gangsta Gal’ Herself.  The album opens with an introduction, thanking her fans for their support while blessing her enemies “who gives me the motivation to stay strong.”

The Intro is followed by an historic trip on a musical journey  ‘Way Back’ to Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, when James Brown was still occupying a throne, before creativity, before MTV.”

‘Boom Wuk’ and ‘Good Ride’ speaks for itself, while ‘Damn’ offers a narrative story of dinner and after; the experience of a woman who thought she had met the perfect guy, only to take him home, and find out he only last “10 sec flat, leaving her hanging with no means to get down.”

‘Little White Lie’ like ‘Teck Him Back’, ‘What’s Your Story’ and ‘Can’t Breathe’ give a full heart felt sagas, weather it regards to the paternity of a child or a cheating husband, the lyrical content is simply amazing.

Not one to sit silently on the topic of social justice, Tanya tackles the government and other leaders on tracks such as ‘Sound Of My Tears’ and ‘Turn The Other Cheek’ asking for chance at survival “fire up the oven unuh need fi start bake, and Rema man dem need a slice a di cake, you know things must really be wicked, when your pay check nuh higher than you speeding ticket, Mistah, yuh know mi nah try fi dis ya, but everything nuh so chris yah, mi just a beg a little help prime minista”.

The album is great, a good piece of artwork, which deserves to be admired (a collectors item).

“And it came to past in the glorious days of charts
That the music hailed
And we danced to it and threw a party
But in our hearts we knew the musicians failed
And then came along brothers Napster and Aimster
And though they were definitely wrong
I think its worse to be forced to buy a whole bullshit album
Just to get that one good song
Can I get an Amen (AMEN!!!)”

                                                    Tanya Stephens