Tanya Stephens’ command of the English language and deft ability to tackle deep social issues with powerful messages with the simplest of phrases has gained her fans across many walks of life.
From the hallowed halls of higher learning to street corners, from political chambers to executive suites her messages are clear, concise, powerful and prophetic. We had the opportunity to sit with Tanya over the summer a few short weeks before she gave a show-stopping performance at Reggae Sumfest 2007 that brought the house down.
“For the FIRST time in the history of dance hall there's a woman who expresses a breadth of lyrics that deals with the sweet and bitter realities of love and life in Jamaican (and likely Caribbean) society; nuff respect to Tanya!!!
Interestingly, many men only hear the bitter, but if you know Tanya like I know Tanya (#1 fan), the sweet is definitely there, and when yu finish wid di man and 'oman business, she spouts prolific lyrics on authentic socioeconomic circumstances that other female artists have decided to leave behind!!!! Although I compare her to female artists here, I can say, without gender or other qualification that Tanya is one of the GREAT artists of our time.”
Kisha Mitchell
Assistant Professor of Pathology, Yale University
On Her Music
Ocean Style: Do you write your own lyrics?
Tanya Stephens: Yes. Except for I Am Woman by Helen Reddy.
Ocean Style: What serves as the inspiration for your music?
Tanya: Life, especially people. Humans are the stupidest animals and so they inspire me.
Ocean Style: Where do you go for inspiration?
Tanya: I just live. There is a story in everything and it is just all about real life and experiences.
Ocean Style: The Caribbean is a very conservative, close-minded type of environment, and by addressing certain topics and being brutally frank about them, you are going to alienate some people. Do you feel like you are missing out on some of your audience?
Tanya: My music is not just dancing music for partying. It is listening music so people can have discussions, and if my music starts a conversation, I feel like I succeeded.
Ocean Style: What is the message you want your music to convey?
Tanya: Live and let others live. Live simply so others can simply live. I tried to inject that into everything that I do. Examine things carefully from every angle before you make a judgment. Everybody is a unique individual, and everybody has a different thought process, and everybody has a different experience.
Ocean Style: I hope you are able to get more people to do that because I think it is a fantastic way to think.
Tanya: Something needs to change. We need to change it. There are many, many people who are working to change the mindset that is already here to something that is more respectful of life and the process of life.
On Sexism
Ocean Style: Some people think your lyrics represent male-bashing.
Tanya: I analyze relationships between the different sexes. I spot the problems, I highlight them, and I suggest ways to fix them. I would not call that bashing. I will call that providing community service. (Laughs)
Ocean Style: Why do you think some people consider your lyrics sexist against men?
Tanya: Because some men don’t like to hear my perspective on this old problem. Apart from a few men who are willing to fix their attitudes, others will always have problems with my lyrics.
On Race
Tanya: I honestly believe that we are taking more steps backwards than forward. I am not one of those people who obsess with my blackness. It is incidental that I am black. However, I would advise that the people, who make a huge issue about color, first start advancing the race by not bowing to the “bling” and other superficialities in life. There is more to black people than that degenerative materialistic view.
Ocean Style: Some people say that while some are making great strides, many more black people are being left behind.
Tanya: I think many of them elected to stay behind. I come from extreme poverty in Jamaica. I did not get very many opportunities, but if I can do it, so can everybody else.
Ocean Style: Do they need people telling them that in a more forceful manner or is it that they need to awaken collectively and figure it out for themselves?
Tanya: It would be best if they could figure it out for themselves, but everybody can use a little help. I have had help along the way. Opportunities are rare and people have facilitated me being able to move. However, it is up to the individual to decide if they want to be silent or if you want to move. The rest is easy.
On Social Responsibility
Ocean Style: What social responsibility do you feel as a singer?
Tanya: I kind of have mixed feelings on that. In a perfect world, I guess we would look out for each other, but I do not think that it is the responsibility of any entertainer.
My thoughts are centered on my daughter. I cannot shelter her from everything that life is going to throw at her when she becomes an adult, and I do not want her to face it by herself without having been made aware of it in my presence first. It is not the entertainer’s job to determine what is right and what is not just like I do not think it is the responsibility of the drug dealer to make sure you don’t become an addict. I think it is your responsibility to not buy the drugs in the first place.
Ocean Style: But there are some who are weaker than others. Does society have some sort of responsibility to help them?
Tanya: It is all collective responsibility. However, we have to take on more individual responsibility for ourselves. All of us make up the society, but if everything begins with the individual, then I think I should place the biggest responsibility with myself.
I try to help other people, but I do not feel it is my responsibility to become Mother Teresa. I would not want to concern my life with leading other people, who all have the same opportunities that I did, but just choose not to use them. It is not fair that I should have to deprive myself to raise other people.
On the Music Industry
Ocean Style: The music industry is going through some very interesting changes. We have seen more digital downloads and less compact disc sales. How have those changes impacted you in your own personal business and your growth as an entertainer?
Tanya: Well, first and foremost, for the last two albums I have been on VP Records. I do not know how many copies I sold, though. I cannot figure out the gibberish of the statement they send me, so digital downloads have not really affected the figure in my mind. I know that I sold a lot, but I have never figured out what “a lot” means.
It is the record company who will sets the formula like if my song is released as a mini-single. Honestly, as a consumer, I do not feel that I should have to buy a whole album to get just one song. In my opinion, that is robbery. However, I do not think most record companies are interested in just selling music. I think they sell whatever they think groups will buy.
Ocean Style: Did Rebelution do well?
Tanya: Everywhere I go, people have it. I am in the process right now of having somebody figure out what “done well” really means. I am working on an album right now, which should be complete before the end of the year, but we do not know if we are going to release it this year or early next year.
Ocean Style: Have you signed with another label?
Tanya: No. I have done both albums with VP, the Gangsta Blues and Rebelution, and we completed them on our own anyway. It was already finished by the time VP got it. We just have not decided where to go. We have not started to shop around or anything. We are just making it first.
Ocean Style: And what label is that going to be on?
Tanya: With Tarantula which is our own label. So what we really need is distribution. I do not think I could be signed to a label. I am not really that type of artist. I am not really into the marketing and stuff. I am more into the product and the making of it.
Ocean Style: I think that is happening a lot in the market now. We have seen a lot of artists either doing it on their own label, or signing with smaller labels.
Tanya: Because you get more specialized attention and not just somebody who treats people as statistics and not as people. They feel like if they do the right thing in terms of marketing, then it must sell even though that has never worked. Even though they have like a 15% success rate, most record labels still think that is the way to go.
Ocean Style: Are you going to tour sometime soon?
Tanya: Yes. Last year we toured Europe and there was a U.S. tour which just got cancelled. A couple of people walked off it so they have to redo it. I do not know whether we have a U.S. tour planned, but I am going back to Europe for some festivals.
Ocean Style: In terms of Caribbean music, soca and reggae are the most popular, but do you see it having to change to adapt to what the world pays to hear?
Tanya: I do not feel music in terms of genre. I feel music on an individual basis. I only judge based on if it is a good song, and then you can start putting more attention and more importance to the production.
On Rihanna
Ocean Style: Some people argue that Rihanna is a function of the marketing machine rather than the music. Does that dispel the notion that it is about the music itself versus the personality?
Tanya: I do not see Rihanna as Caribbean at all because she has not been marketed that way. She is a part of the industry machine. So I would not really use her to reflect on what the Caribbean is doing. It is nice that somebody from the Caribbean is based on a major label, but I do not see her as a reflection of anything Caribbean at all.
Ocean Style: So we will not see Tanya Stephens going that route?
Tanya: It is not something I am dying to do. I am not going to lie and say I would never. I never say never to anything, but it is not something that I am actively trying to do. I have already been signed on a major label. I was on Warner for two years. It never worked out. I realized that I like politics when it is pertaining to politics but not when it is in music. It is not all fun and games. It is very superficial. It is very materialistic. It has nothing to do with the music at all. Music takes up about 5% of the business of music. Everything else is about the money. People who spend the money are the ones who get to make all the decisions, and these decisions are not based on anything pretty.
On Politics
Ocean Style: You touched on politics. What are your thoughts on what you see happening in Jamaica?
Tanya: Jamaican politics is not logical at all. The only good thing that happened recently is that we have a female prime minister. I say “good,” not from the sense that I think that she is a good prime minister, but in the sense that we are looking past some of the mindsets that we used to have.
Jamaicans are not good with politics at all. We are not good with taking care of our people. Nobody is safe. What we have is a few people living with the illusion of safety where we really are not safe at all. We have not provided good education for our people at the cost that they can afford. We have no healthcare. The roads are just being fixed now at a cost that my great-great-granddaughter and son will still be paying for it, and nobody asked my permission to spend that much money. In fact, it is awful. It is very awful. I do not see that we have an alternative that can be better. I do not know that would work. We just have such a bad political system in place that I think anyone who goes in will be corrupted by it. Nobody is going to fix something that actually benefits them, so we cannot start benefiting the whole. We have not been socialized that way, so I do not really see any good change coming either. It is sort of pessimistic but it is reality.
Ocean Style: So you think there is nothing on the horizon to suggest…
Tanya: No. To fix this, we need something really radical, but I do not see anything like that coming right now to be honest.
Ocean Style: Jamaica is also well known for very violent elections unlike anywhere else in the Caribbean.
Tanya: Yes. We seem to head the list in the violence thing. But it is not as bad as what is presented internationally. The media make it seem that the entire island is blown up in smoke, but it is usually limited to very select bureaus which are more politically volatile.
Ocean Style: So you live and operate out in Jamaica?
Tanya: Yes. Although, I actually spend more time outside of Jamaica than in it, but it is where I live.
Ocean Style: Your travels stick mainly to Europe or the U.S.?
Tanya: U.S., Europe, and Caribbean. I toured Japan for awhile. Until a few years ago, I was really very afraid of flying long distances. I have lots and lots of support from Japan, it is just the really long plane ride that bothers me.
On Women
Ocean Style: Your songs deal with relationship issues as well as women empowerment. Your no-excuses type of attitude says take responsibility for your life. But do you see that happening with women today or women in Jamaica, the Caribbean, around the world? Are some making strides while others are held back?
Tanya: We are making strides in both directions. Some are looking significantly worse and some are really much better. There are still some people with such poor standards of living that anything can get violent. The good thing is that the women who have made progress seem to be more group-oriented. They want to teach and they want to influence by spreading what it is they are achieving. You will always have some women who are really smart, and you will always have some women who are really not. Then, you have some who are kind of in the middle. You have some who are over-achievers. There is no one word that can practically differentiate any group of people.
I do not mind teaching some of the stuff that I have learned. I teach anybody, male, female, boy, girl. I do not mind. I think humans are too segregated. They are separated into legal groups. I think we should abolish that. I like that the women are moving, but I do not care if the women are dumb.
Ocean Style: Is there a correlation between women excelling and families falling apart?
Tanya: I think a general evolution is taking place. My grandmother never did anything, but she was smart, and my granddad worked. She raised like 11 kids. That will never do for me. She was very unhappy. She was a suppressed adult woman and she made her kids suppressed. It was so bad for all of us.
Thank God, our generation values the individual. We do that so nobody is left behind due to too much compromise. Compromise is not a good thing. It means you have to give up some part of you. So, we are getting new values which are more practical. If we cannot co-exist, we move on, and if the family falls apart, it is not the woman’s fault.
On What Moves Her
Tanya: I really love discussion. I love to read topics that people are afraid of. I love to play Devil’s Advocate. For me, life is education on purpose and if I have a forum, like music, that is the kind of thing I use when I talk to people. I feel like it is my personal obligation to use it.
Ocean Style: What sort of topics interest you?
Tanya: I think every topic can be examined from many different angles and you get a whole different story from it. I am still very into politics and interpersonal relationships.
Ocean Style: What do you do for fun?
Tanya: I watch people a lot, including myself. I love to fish, but I think I need to stop telling people that because I have not gone fishing in years. I read a lot, though I am not really into suspense novels anymore. I love self-help books and educational reading.
Ocean Style: What are you reading right now?
Tanya: I am reading a few books. I am reading Retire Young, Retire Rich by the Rich Dad, Poor Dad guy. I am trying to finish that one before the movie comes out. I am behind on a few other books. Besides that, just health stuff, activities of the body. I really like that.
Ocean Style: Any favorite places to visit? Do you go on vacations anywhere?
Tanya: I have never been on vacation. If I go places to work and travel with my family on vacation, I am too busy to enjoy wherever I am.
On Her Restaurant
Ocean Style: What is your favorite?
Tanya: I love Thai food.
Ocean Style: Do you have Thai food in Jamaica?
Tanya: No. A few people claim to be Thai, but the food is not like Thai. We have Indian food, though. We are opening a really great restaurant. It’s the Jamaican take on international cuisine. It’s going to be exciting food.
Ocean Style: When is that supposed to open?
Tanya: Later this year.
Ocean Style: Are you very involved in the recipes?
Tanya: Oh, you do not want me to be involved in recipes. I just conceptualized it. It looked easier before we started. It is hard work.
Ocean Style: What is the name of the restaurant?
Tanya: We have not decided on one. It is kind of a relaxing place to get some really nice things to eat.
On Jamaica
Tanya: I would not want to live anywhere else. Jamaican people are so close. I used to make a conscious effort, while I was growing up, to say something nice to other females because girls never say “You look good” to each other. So, I made a conscious effort to say that to my friends.
