Patra Shares How She Came Up With ‘Romantic Call’, Which Lady Saw Claims She Pirated

Queen of the Pack Patra took time out to highlight how she and rapper Yo-Yo composed one of her biggest hits, Romantic Call—the song Minister Marion Hall has accused her of ‘pirating from Lady Saw’ and then changing the title.

Patra shared an Instagram Reel on Monday (June 26) of herself and Yo-Yo discussing how the song came about and how they both decided on who would sing the first verse.

“I was saying you are going to defend the American guys and I said I would defend the Jamaican guys, and I came up with this ‘Romantic Call’, and you were like ‘yow, that’s it’” Patra reminded Yo-Yo.

“Romantic Call.  So all of you who are tryin to copy dat, listen, you need to clear it,” she said, adding moments later that there will be a Part Two to Romantic Call.

But, in January last year, during a three-hour long sermon, Hall, at one point, had turned the heat on Patra, accusing her of pirating her lyrics from a song titled Long Distance Call, using them to voice Romantic Call.

“There was a woman by the name of Lady Patra.  She said she was Queen of the Pack.  She stole a song from mi.  I wrote the song when I was in Canada: ‘I’m on a long distance call, I’m talking to my baby down a yard’,  and she stole it.  I almost slap har over one night at Sting for it,” the former Queen of the Dancehall had said.

“But I leave har alone.  When I look at her now…I see Chevelle praying for that woman all the time – and when I look, is like she’s lost.  She’s so lost, trying to come back so many times.  Come back to what Patra?  Go to God!  There is nothing for you to come back to.  You go gain di world and lose yuh soul?” she questioned.

That instance was the second time Hall has spoken publicly about Patra’s alleged siphoning off her lyrics.  Prior to that she had initially spoken publicly about it in an interview with Imperial Hip Hop in 2014.

“I was cool with her until she stole my song.  It was originally Long Distance Call.  I wrote that song in Canada.  We used to hang by Castro Brown studio.   My first studio was New Name music.  Castro Born was the producer.  All of us females used to hang there.  There was a mango tree there and I used to sit under it with my book.  So I went to Canada; it was my first trip; I was dating somebody and so we were on the phone you know, and that was how the song came about,” she had said at the time.

“When I went back to Jamaica, she heard me singing the song.  And she didn’t trouble that song till long after, because recorded it for Diamond Rush  Productions.  And she went away, came back to Jamaica and did it with Yo-Yo… I almost slapped her for that but I let it slide,” she added.

According to Hall, when she asked Patra, the Westmoreland native gave her some ‘weak excuses.’  She had also pointed out that at that time, she was not yet famous and knew nothing about copyright laws, and so the matter died there and then.

Romantic Call, which was featured on Patra’s Queen of the Pack album, peaked at No. 55 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The album, released in 1993, peaked at No. 1 on the Reggae Albums chart.

It was led by the single Think (About It) which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Rap Singles chart and No. 89 on the R&B charts.  Another hit song on the album was Worker Man, which reached No. 53 on the Hot 100.