Shabba Ranks’ Mother ‘Mama Christie’ Dead At 81

Multi-Grammy Award-winning Dancehall artist Shabba Ranks is mourning the death of his mother, Constance Christie aka ‘Mama Christie’.  The hardworking mother of seven children reportedly passed away after a long battle with illness at 81 years old.

Word of the Seaview Gardens community stalwart’s death spread like wildfire on social media.   She was the woman honored in Dexta Daps‘ hit song Shabba Madda Pot (2016).

Several persons have shared their condolences, including Daps who said he was heartbroken and in disbelief in an Instagram post this evening.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLqGiQRphPu/

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, has expressed deep sadness at the passing of Christie.  Minister Grange along with Clifton “Specialist” Dillon had managed Shabba Ranks’ career for many years.

“Shabba would talk about ‘Mama Christie’ at every opportunity he got. She was a beautiful soul who supported her son in all his endeavours. She was his biggest cheerleader. In fact, it was Shabba’s public display of love and affection that led to so many younger artistes singing about their mothers,” Grange said.

Ranks, whose real name is Rexton Gordon, has always lauded his mother’s influence on his life, name-dropping her on at least two Dancehall songs, and on numerous iconic performances where he bigged up ‘her techni-color rice and peas’.

In her youth, she was a driver employed to the now-defunct Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) which was wound up in 1983.

“I was always the head of the house. You look at me now, you have seen an old woman but when I was young, I was very active. I was a driver, one of the first female drivers that came out from JOS. That 35 ft that you see the men pushing down, this little old lady that you looking at did it,” she told the Jamaica Star four years ago.

While she didn’t want to say too much about the relationship she shares with Shabba fearing that the other children may get a little jealous, Mama Christie admitted that the two shared a bond, even saying that “Shabba is mentally connected to her”.

“I never have to call Rexton for anything. Whenever I’m in need of something, Rexton always know about it, even before I say it to him,” she told a reporter.

Shabba was one of seven children, two daughters and five sons, conceived between Ivan Gordan and Constance Christie. The couple never married but had joint aspirations that their son Shabba would be a pilot.

Mama Christie was known as one of the mothers of her Seaview Gardens community, and as a giver, as evidenced by Dexta Daps’ hit song.

Although Shabba Madda Pot painted a gritty picture of disputes that lead to violence in the community, Dexta Daps likened those heated incidents to Christie’s ‘ever-hot’ pot. In the song’s video, Mama Christie made a cameo appearance, wearing a Dexta Daps T-shirt that also pays tribute to her legacy with the picture of a steaming pot.

“The whole community eats from her hands. Dexta Daps knows exactly what he is saying because her pot ever hot. That song is a tribute. Mama Christie is a legend because she gave birth to a legend. I just want God to continue blessing my mother,” Christie’s youngest child, Leopold Hartley, told The Gleaner in 2016.

“The pot ever hot. Who nuh know bout her pot nuh come from bout yah. All when me nuh get no food, the pot still smell good and still hot,” Daps told the newspaper.

The pot was referenced in music again when UK-based deejay Stylo G compared it to his track Too Hot (2020).