Beenie Man Shares How He Hid Child Star Success From His Christian Mother 

The Doctor, The Maestro, the Girls Dem Sugar — Beenie Man has worn many hats in his prime. However, it’s his earliest days as “The 10 Year Old D.J. Wonder” that holds some of the King of the Dancehall’s most priceless memories.

Chatting with Yendi Phillips recently on her Odyssey with Yendi YouTube show, Beenie shared a few of his child star highlights, which include hiding his early strides in Dancehall from his devout Christian mother until he needed a visa. By that point, he’d already recorded his first album, performed with several sound systems, and even impressed Miss Lou, but admitted that his “ardent Christian” mother was still none the wiser.

Sure of his purpose at just 7 years old, the hitmaker spoke on the unique distinction of four prolific decades in music. “When yuh do sumn weh yuh love enuh is not really a career, is sumn weh yuh do all of yuh life. Yuh cyaan stop do something that yuh love, it’s always with yuh, it’s always gonna be you,” Beenie Man told Phillips. After he won Tastee’s Talent contest, the Bookshelf deejay studied the greats, focusing on stagecraft and songwriting as he honed his budding skills.

“Mi did always plan fi buss enuh”, Beenie Man said, “and me ah come from di days of yuh mek di cassette and yuh go ah foreign. All yuh haffi do is deh pon di right cassette. Di man weh set up di tape come 10 o clock so yuh haffi hold di mic after dat,” he said of early dancehall video recordings pioneered by the likes of Jack Sowah.

He added, “When yuh mek di cassette dem time deh yuh go a foreign, an dat is where yuh want to go because yuh need to exercise yuh talent so other people can know you. Yuh haffi practice ah yaad before yuh go abroad.” Beenie said that during those times, he penned a song per day preparing for future greatness. He also linked up with veteran radio personality Barry G on his Wha Dat sound system, and appeared on the Jamaican TV version of Soul Train, Where It’s At.

By the time his first song hit the airwaves, Beenie got a hero’s welcome in his Waterhouse hometown — “fence a beat dung, bere tings”. But between his mother’s schedule and strict religious leanings, she was still clueless about his success. “Good ting mi mother did deh ah work cause she woulda find out dah day deh,” he joked.

The Grammy-winner’s hustler mentality was no doubt bolstered by his upbringing, and he said as much in the sit-down. “When opportunity knock enuh, mi ah opportunist, mi ah jump tru di door, mi ah tell yuh dat, nuh ramp wid me. Me get di opportunity weh me get cause mi mother leave mi wid people fi go work, and dem people deh own sound system and dem sumn deh, so she leave mi wid di best people dem, you see it.”

He continued, “My mother never know seh me a deejay til me ah bout ten year old enuh, when mi album release, cause mi mother is a ardent Christian. Me born come see mi mother ah speak inna tongues an dem sumn deh. Certain tings mi couldn’t do,” Beenie stated, adding that deejaying on a Sunday, her day of worship, was forbidden.

Things changed as his career took off; with the release of his album and pending overseas shows, Beenie, a minor, needed his mother in order to secure a Canadian visa.

“Di problem is when mi did fi get di visa,” he said laughing.

“Mi haffi come fi her fi she go ah di embassy go tell di people dem seh mi live wid her. Is not like di people dem nah gimme di visa enuh, dem jus seh mi haffi bring mi mother fi prove seh mi live wid her. So dat was di ting. So mi haffi explain to her why mi ah go foreign. Ah problem man. Trouble me a tell yuh.”

He continued, “Dem tell me di Friday seh mi fi bring her back di Monday, so mi have di whole weekend fi work her een. Me an her work it out. Ah think she woulda find out some other way but ah so mi did haffi tell her.”

Just last year, Beenie’s mother, Lilieth Sewell, suffered a stroke and died weeks later at the age of 63. Shaken by her passing, the artist fainted at her funeral, and has since struggled to cope without the woman he (like the Gully Gad Mavado) called his “best friend”.

He opened up to Yendi about her vital role, and how her words kept him feeling like his child star self, ‘The Invincible Beany Man’.

“Mi mother was mi best friend. Even though mi tell her late seh a me name Beenie Man,” the Dancehall icon began. “Otherwise, everything me an her reason bout because it’s kinda the only person weh listen an nuh have nothing fi say, yuh see it. She just listen, an when she have sumn fi seh, she jus call me an seh ‘listen man, put yuh head pon yuh body an stop gwaan like yuh ah eediot, cause yuh been through worse’ and yuh come out better.”

He’s since built her an elaborate grave-house in her Shrewsbury, St Elizabeth hometown, and told Yendi he’d been most grateful for her support through public and personal trials.

“Whole heap a tings happen to me and she give me the strength enuh. If yuh love yuh mother yuh ah go miss her in a way weh nobody nuh understand,” Beenie Man said.

Watch the full interview below.