Tanya Stephens Hails Dave Kelly For Her Big Break, Educating Her About Royalties

Dancehall singjay Tanya Stephens has expressed her admiration for iconic producer Dave Kelly, for not only his production prowess and for propelling her to stardom, but for being one of the first two people in music to educate her about artist royalties.

“Dave Kelly is a musical genius because Dave Kelly came up in a time when everything was supposed to be just ‘so’.  I would say Dave and Tony Kelly both.  And they weren’t afraid to step outside of that box; step away from the status quo – the musical status quo; step away from everything that was supposedly ‘normal’, an jus do weh dem a do an neva care.  An a love it,” Tanya said in an I Never Knew TV interview.

“Mi love it seh it meck a lot a people mad, and they neva stopped.  Just kept pushing the envelope.  As far as the beats, as far as the way they do business, dem revolutionary inna many ways.  Dem deh a di two first people weh meck me know seh royalty exist!   That in and of itself is revolutionary,” she quipped, chuckling. 

Added Stephens: “And I think it is genius to motivate people like that, ‘cause you know, encouragement sweeten labour.  An when yuh come an yuh si Tanya Stephens as a up and coming artiste an  shi a do di work, yuh like har enough fi a record har.  An yuh pay har yuh know shi a come back a work tomorrow… an shi a guh work harda.  Dat genius too, but the musical input, oh gosh dem jus work.  An dem allow dem inspiration fi lead dem.”

Dave Kelly, who ruled the 1990s, is recognized as the greatest Dancehall producer of all time. 

He created a slew of seminal beats in the 1990s, including Pepperseed, Showtime, Joy Ride, Stink and Dugu Dugu, as well as numerous other legendary riddims such as Bogle, Arab Attack, Heartbeat, Return, Haunted, Heartbeat, Backyard, Fiesta, 85, and Bruk Out from which many Dancehall hits were birthed.

Tanya had featured on Kelly’s monster 1996 juggling riddim Joyride, with her breakout song Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet, which was the only song she has ever recorded for the Madhouse producer.

The 10-track Joyride production spawned all hits, the others being How it ago go by Buju Banton; Sycamore Tree by Lady Saw; Bashment Girl by Wayne Wonder; Hunting by Spragga Benz; Rubbers by Frisco Kid; Silent Violence by Beenie Man, Funny Man by Baby Cham and Mr. Easy Fresh off the Block by Alley Cat and Get Smart by Silver Cat.

In another interview with Muscle on The Entertainment Report Podcast, Tanya, in speaking at length about Dave Kelly, said she had met him after a mutual musical colleague told her that Dave had a riddim and wanted her to voice on it. 

She said that she was surprised at the request from the iconic, but reclusive Dancehall music producer/songwriter, but had gone to Madhouse studio with some amount of anxiety, due to preconceived notions of what to expect from him.

“I went and when I heard Joyride riddim.  First of all, there were so many misconceptions that I had based on things people said.  Because when people talked about Dave, they used to seh, he hogs all the praise and the credits and he doesn’t let anybody write; he was this and he was that… And I thought how was this going to work?  I like to write for myself…,” she explained.

Much to her surprise, Dave, who seemingly wanted a song from a woman’s perspective, was not about to write a song for her but wanted her to pen a track herself. 

“When I went to Dave, I was like ‘let me not be choosy because he puts out so many hits and he makes good music, and at the end of the day, I want to make music.  So let me just go.   And I went, and I was prepared for him to write something for me but he said ‘I want you to write,’” she recounted.

“And then, I was listening to the beat and I couldn’t come up with something.  And he gave me the riddim to take home and he said ‘listen to it overnight’.   And I was like ‘what’!?  Because people told me that he never let anybody out of the studio with a beat.  So these were two things which were already incorrect by the time I met him,” the It’s a Pity artiste added.

Stephens told the interviewer that after going home and listening to the beat, she “couldn’t come up with anything,” so she went back to Kelly to explain her dilemma. 

“So I came back to him and I was like ‘yow, the beat felt odd to me’. It felt like it was between two keys – like there were two different keys and I couldn’t figure out … it felt like it was off-key.  And then it felt like it was off-beat.  And I couldn’t figure,” she said.

She said she told the producer that she did not want to miss out on voicing on the riddim and suggested that since she could not come up with a song, he write a one for her.  However, Kelly insisted that he wanted to hear what she “had to say”, and asked her, “if you could write on it what would you have said”?

According to Tanya she told him her idea would be to write about men and how braggadocio they, in many cases were, about their libido and their ability to “last all night,” which was not the reality, based on her experience.

She said Dave Kelly’s reply was: “Suh you woulda seh di man dem nuh ready fi dis den?”

She responded in the affirmative and Dave replied with the melody and the line: “yuh nuh ready fi dis yet” and told her: “That’s the hook,” and the rest was history.

“That was one of the best introductions any artists could ever hope to have into the music industry and there will never be anything in my career that can possibly equal that.  That was like my maiden voyage into popularity,” she said in recounting how massive a hit the song was.

“That was like an explosion.  Nothing could prepare me for that.  That was phenomenal,” she added.

Stephens’ latest album is Some Kinda Madness, released on September 2 via Tads Records.