Devils In Dancehall: Queen Ifrica Says Music Industry Overrun With Sexual Predators
Queen Ifrica has painted an earthshattering picture of Jamaica’s Reggae/Dancehall industry being infiltrated by a set of reptilian villains, who prey on young girls with impunity.
Making it clear that there were many men in Jamaican music who would never sexually abuse women and have no inkling of thoughts of debauchery in their heads, Ifrica told veteran entertainment journalist Anthony Miller that the situation was nonetheless, very grim.
“There are very good men in this industry who would never think to trouble a girl who come around them because let mi tell you suppm yuh know Anthony: da industry here not as nice as it look enuh,” Ifrica explained during an interview aired on Friday night’s edition of The Entertainment Report on Television Jamaica.
The Far Away artist then made some damning revelations about the sordid state of the minds of some men in the music industry, where being a ‘gyallis’ has historically been celebrated, and numerous reports in the public domain of many women aspiring to be artists and even female fans being sexually and physically abused and later jeered by even some of the island’s most revered artists.
“There are a lot of predators in our industry – in our society in general but in music industry, di music industry full a predator. Some serious, demonic one dem to. Like do some dirty things to some likkle girl and some likkle bwoy out yah,” Ifrica noted, pointing out that in many cases not even little boys are pardoned.
“And dem have a society weh a protect dem. So they don’t feel like they should have any form of remorse or they should answer to anybody about it,” the Montego Bay native added.
Taking no prisoners, Ifrica, a longstanding defender of women and children against all forms of violence, said that the abusers in Reggae and Dancehall runs the gamut of young and old artistes alike.
“A lot of dem artiste yah weh wi look up to, some big grey tone artiste man and middle age artiste man and all different age group artiste man weh wi look up to inna dis industry- nasty!” she declared.
“Dem nuh pardon likkle girl and some a dem nuh pardon likkle boy needa. Dem come around dem and dem deh round dem and because a di love weh dem have…,” she said.
She said that some of the artists have taken their reprehensible acts while on tours overseas, where they take advantage of young, impressionable female fans, who are simply star-struck and want to be in the presence of their favourite artists.
“I tour di world. Queen Ifrica ‘been around di world and I, I, I’ have seen where young girl come backstage just to be around Jamaican music and see these artists and to be a part of it – and before the night is over they are molested,’ she said.
“And they can’t believe because it is their favourite artist that did it to them. And you come on the road and you meet them up and they will be like: ‘so you know this artiste’ or ‘do you know that artiste? He is not a good person’. And sometimes you quiz and yuh hear what he did and somebody else was watching an all that kinda stuff,” Ifrica said.
“So these guys are not as innocent as a lot of them making out themselves to be,” she added.
The Fyah Mumma said that on many occasions artists while on tour, in their little cliques, start eyeing and picking out which women they wanted out of a bevy of adoring fans, who in most cases, simply love their music and have no thought of sex on their minds.
“We have artiste you know, when wi go to overseas and yuh pull up pon di hotel scene and di yard full a people, weh deh-deh fi si whicheva artiste dem love, yuh hardly find a artiste weh a guh just seh ‘wow some nice people’ – yuh hear dem a talk: “a which one a fi fi yuh, rae’; ‘a which one a fi yuh dawg?’’ she said.
“Yuh hardly find a person weh can just si some really nice girls out in di yard and just know seh: ‘yeh, this is how big we are and all type a people love wi’. These men teck it for granted and feel like dem (the women) just come fi di artiste; di artiste big and di artiste a guh get dem and before di night done, dem have dem up and down. And then dem leave and these ladies are left behind to figure it out,” she added.