Reggae Sumfest 2023: Minister Marion Hall Urges Montego Bay Scammers To “Find Another Job”
Unlike in in her days as Lady Saw in 2015, where she hyped up lottery scammers in Montego Bay, before lyrically turning the tables on them in her Scamma Man song, Minister Marion Hall frontally rebuked the city’s ‘chappas’ and called for them to stop practicing Obeah, during her performance at Reggae Sumfest.
In the first few minutes of her closing performance at the Reggae festival on Sunday morning, Hall had declared that she was ready to “teck back di whole a Mobay” as unclean spirits “must run away”. Moments later, she asked for the scammers in the “choppa hotbed”, whom she said were her brothers and sisters, to heed God’s words.
“Weh di chappa dem deh? Weh mi chappa fren dem deh? Yuh know oonu a mi bredda an mi sista, right? Suh yuh think mi woulda leave di chappa dem out?” she asked the audience.
“Chappa, chappa, chappa tappa: find anada job! Caw right now yuh get Maasa God mad! Dash weh di dutty guard ring weh yuh have! Dash weh di dutty obeah ring weh yuh have! Caw dat caan keep yuh outta body bag!” she deejayed in the cautionary freestyle.
Back in 2015, Hall’s Scamma Man song, had come in for much condemnation by persons who did not listen to it in its entirety. In the first verses, she had adulated the scammers in song, expressing her desire for a Montegonian man involved in the practice to be her lover, promising to give him her body on a daily basis in exchange for his loads of cash.
“Mi want a scamma man from Mobay. Cah mi hear sey dem money set a way, mi woulda gi him my body every day cah mi know sey money afi pay… Mi want a big money thief, caw mi want a big money jeep. Mi love money bad mi nuh cheap, and my scammer man him haffi bleach”, she had sung.
But in the final verse of Scamma Man, the St. Mary native had lyrically changed course, cautioning that scamming is a crime, noting that she had just changed her mind, that she was already wealthy, and that scammers would inevitably face incarceration.
She sang:
“Yo know wa, mi just change mi mind
Because when mi check back scamming is a crime
Me too hot fi go do nuh prison time
Mi work hard fi mi money suh mi fine
“Mi a money gyal
Mi nuh come cheap
An mi nuh business boyt a bwoy who a bleach
Suh scamma, yuh deh pan yuh own”
In 2015, The Star had reported that radio stations shunned the Scamma Man single which was recorded on the Hot Steel juggling riddim, which also featured songs by Capleton, Bramma, Ffurious, Da’Plan and CeeGee.
According to the tabloid, the track had been sidelined by some radio DJs who believe the song was “too controversial for the public”.
The Star had also reported back then that the producers of the song Digital Vibez Entertainment, producers of Chronixx’s Odd Ras, had claimed that “radio wants no part” in the promotion of Scamma Man.
According to The Star, the label had also complained that the song had been “misunderstood” and that only Jamaican radio personalities are against it.
The Star had quoted said Gary ‘Shanguly’ Samuels of Digital Vibez Entertainment as saying that “the song is just a fun song that’s taking too seriously” and that it was “just Lady Saw being herself and putting a twist on a controversial topic”.
“If you listen to the song from start to the end, you would hear that she’s just playing around with a controversial topic. To also add, the song has no issues with any other radio stations worldwide just in Jamaica,” Samuels had told The Star.
Lady Saw, at the time, had also said that she was “simply having fun with a trendy topic and does not condone scamming.”
“I record the song Scamma, because scamming is a big thing right now. I came up with the title after performing at a show in Mobay. It was funny and it is a joke, I knew it was going to be controversial, but it was all about fun, it’s not anything serious, simply fun,” she had said.