D’Angel, Carlene Smith Say Beenie Man Is An Absentee Father

Jamaican entertainers D’Angel and Dancehall Queen Carlene Smith are calling out veteran deejay Beenie Man for allegedly being an absentee father.

It’s a label that has haunted the King of the Dancehall over the last few years. He has verbally denied it, accented with family photoshoots and a restored relationship with one of the earlier accusers, his daughter Desha-Gaye Davis.

During D’Angel’s Live at 5 program with artist Razor B on Tuesday, Smith condemned absentee fathers overall but said avoidant fathers, who happen to be celebrities, are even worse. 

“It’s all said and done that one parent may be great, but it’s even greater when it’s two,” the ‘Butterfly’ creator said. “It makes a difference to give the children balance; it’s getting your views and the fathers views, so it makes a difference. Sometimes we feel like, oh, because we love them so much, it’s enough. It’s not, especially when you have a father that they can see but not get for themselves… To know that you have this iconic father or this public figure father and everybody else can talk about your father and you can’t, it is very devastating for the children.”

Smith shares a 24-year-old daughter, Crystal, with Beenie Man. Their story is one of the greatest romances in dancehall history, starting in the 90s thanks to Smith’s late sister Pinky, who played matchmaker. Though they broke up when Crystal was two, Smith said the ‘doctor’ was an active parent in the earlier years. 

“He was in her life; he still is, not as how he should be, but hey, different show,” she said. “It’s gonna get to the point where they no longer want that and then he’s gonna want them when they don’t want him.”

Smith has long been hailed as the glue of sorts in keeping Beenie Man’s kids connected. Desha-Gaye has often described her as a mother, and Smith would even care for D’Angel’s son, Marco Dean when he was a toddler. Having a relationship with several of his children, Smith spoke from an informed space on how his alleged distance affects them.

“When they hear things out there and they don’t know, they’re last to know, it affects them,” she said. “Both Marco Dean, Crystal and Moses (Davis Jr), I can speak for those three. I can’t speak for all of them, and Ikyra. I know back in the days it affected Desha-Gaye…”

Getting his name from his dad, Moses Davis Jr is a recording artist, though his rise to prominence came through his resilient story of thriving with sickle cell disease. Desha-Gaye stood out as a founding member of Ding Dong’s Ravers Clavers dance crew, for which she was the sole female. She’s since expanded to music production and event planning.

Smith and D’Angel have been supporting each other as single parents for a few years, after clearing the air on hearsay that caused tension between them while D’Angel was married to Beenie Man.

“We are women and we are intelligent enough and we are no longer with the man in question, at all,” D’Angel said. “Even if I was still with him, Carlene would not have any bad feeling against me because me and Carlene been a talk long before me and Moses separated because it’s all about the children…”

On that note, she said her 16-year-old son is suffering from a strained relationship with his father, for which she has to “stand in the gap.”

“A long time Marco nuh hear from him…” D’Angel said.

“Him not being the father him supposed to be. Wah day him album launch [ Simma ], I allowed my son to go because I will not pull away my son from his father, and not because he’s a public father, we nah sugarcoat or hide him under the mat… Moses need to realise that Marco Dean needs you, the children need you… You have to be a father in your children’s lives. It’s just the reality, yuh cya beat we fi that.”

The Stronger singer also claimed that a woman Beenie Man was with had told him to turn down shows with her, affecting her ability to provide for Marco Dean.

“A block my likkle bread because of your jealousy and insensitivity as a woman…and look at you now lady.”

Beenie Man’s last public relationship was with public speaking coach Krystal Tomlinson, with whom he shares a daughter, Xiah. Tomlinson also took pride in curating family moments for the artist, much of which was shared on social media.

The Simma deejay is currently dating entrepreneur Camille Lee.