Reggaeology Presents: Sister Nancy – The First Lady of Dancehall
At a time when Jamaica’s new digital soundscape had captivated dancehall, and on sheer tenacity and support from her brother Brigadier Jerry, Sister Nancy would cut her path to legendary status, but not without trials, sweat, and tears.
It can be argued that even in today’s dancehall arena. There is a little space for our female artist, the gritty testosterone driven ecosystem offers meager space for femininity, and even less affinity for gentlemanly courtesies in the 80s. It was just the same in the dancehall arena. A rough and tumble crowd vying for fickle discerning fans, at a time when Jamaica’s new digital soundscape had captivated dancehall, and on sheer tenacity and support from her brother Brigadier Jerry, Sister Nancy would cut her path to legendary status, but not without trials, sweat, and tears.
Born at home as Ophin Russell in Kingston, Jamaica, 1962. She was the child of a pastor in our household of 15 siblings and her elder brother, Robert, becoming the first of the pack to step into the dancehall doning the moniker Brigadier Jerry, Robert would begin his career on Jah Love, a unified soundsystem based out of the 12 tribes of Israel camp
Teaming up with Albert Ilawi Malawi, Brigadier Jerry made Jah Love, a formidable heavyweight in the early dancehall. And when his kid sister started showing inclinations for toasting, he was impressed and took her under his wing sometime in the summer of 1977, Ophin stepped up to the mic on Jah Love to a packed audience. and on that balmy summer night, her brother smiled from ear to ear, as his kid sister echoed across the lawn.
It was an unusual sight, a petite voiced, lanky framed teen girl with a strength of delivery and the lyrical consciousness way beyond her years, guided by her brother, Ophin would use her pet name Nancy as her first moniker, and by Christmas 1977, she would unwittingly become the first female toaster in Jamaican music history.
For the next few years, Nancy worked her novelty in the dancehall arena, as its only female MC working on soundsystems such as Chalice, Stereophonic, and Blackstar occasionally with her brother Brigadier Jerry on Jah Love. Though many historians note Winston Riley with her debut recording factually it was the Hoo Kim brothers at Channel One who have been denied the due credit when they placed her on the hitbound labels B side of Barry Browns 10 inch single “My Woman” in 1980.
The B side placement of ‘Ball A Roll’ would flip the script for Nancy and spawn her first street hit single, which she aptly followed up with ‘Jah Mek Us Fi A Purpose’, her monster collaboration with King Yellowman, produced by Henry Junjo Lawes on his Volcano imprint sometime in 1981.
She was barely an adult. But she had achieved her primary goal in music, to get her voice heard. Along the way, She had become a beacon for other early females such as Lady Anne, Lady G and Lady Saw while stamping her footprint as the pioneer of the female charge on dancehall. It would not go unnoticed as Winston Riley would capitalize on her newfound success with the album, ‘One, Two’ released in 1982.
As the story goes, she had nine tracks completed for the album and found the inspiration for the 10th from Yellowman’s in 1981 freestyle single ‘Bam Bam’ itself rooted in Toots and the Maytals’ 1966 festival hit of the same name.
When the final album ‘One Two’, hit the streets on the Techniques label, it would quietly become the single biggest treasure trove of dancehall singles, reaped from the 1980s, but Sister Nancy did not have a clue of this success. It would seem that the 20 year old singer was more focused on breaking barriers in dancehall then reaping her immediate monetary reward and Winston Riley made her none the wiser. Though the album was poorly received in Jamaica. Bam Bam was a slow burner. According to Winston Riley, but the singles, ‘One, Two’ and ‘Transport’ connected with the local crowd and delivered Nancy her first two charted hits in Jamaica.
She would regularly collect royalties for nine tracks from the ‘One, Two’ album, but with ‘Bam Bam’ being considered a flop. Sister Nancy was not surprised her earnings on the single were a tuppence or at times non existent. But she was eternally grateful for the opportunity Winston Riley had provided and never questioned the shortfall. But as the saying goes in Jamaica, “Long Run, Short Ketch”
Time moved too quickly, and by the mid 80s she had switched her career focus and turned her attention to her education, becoming a qualified accountant and earning a steady paycheck. She would marry in 85, and eventually migrate to the US. A decade later, further certifying herself in her field and entering the US banking sector in 1998.
Her new career and family obligations would slow her recording pace, but true to form the best was still yet to come. Let’s rewind to find out why. Sometime in 1993, Big Beat records, the US based label run by Craig Kallman and purchased by Atlantic Records in 1991 would license the ‘Bam Bam’ single from Winston Riley for a 12 inch release on its Big Beat reggae imprint. The single became an overnight success stateside powered by the marketing machinery and distribution reach of Atlantic Records and becoming a samplers paradise in the process. Run DMC, Fresh Kid Ice, Pete Rock, Main Source, Kriss Kross, Lauryn Hill and Sadé are just a few of the urban music emissaries of the 90s that sample the singles, for tracks that are now regarded as music collectibles, Afrika Bambaataa would breathe life into the Big Beat release, when it became a regular spin in his club sessions, sparking a musical remix and sampling explosion that resonates to this very day. Now let’s move back on the timeline. 1990 would greet Sister Nancy as a bonafide homegrown star. The new mother and wife would maintain her dominance on the scene as its foremost DJ, man or woman, a point she would prove with her performance that year on Sting, an event once considered the greatest one night dancehall event in the world.
By the late 90s. The single was a certified urban classic in the hip hop and house music arenas, and by 1998, it would take on a different carnation with its inclusion on the summer blockbuster cult classic movie Belly.
‘Bam Bam’ had become the most successful single of Sister Nancy’s career, but she was yet to reap a dollar of its financial reward. It was by chance on a late night TV binge in 98 that Sister Nancy would catch the film, and hear her single on the soundtrack.
Now, Nancy was in school at the time of the movie’s release, trying to gain further accounting certifications, so the unexpected windfall would have surely come in handy. A quick call to Winston Riley The next day, left her with the assurance she was well taken care of and set a date for Nancy to meet him the following week at Moodies’ Records on White Plains in New York, where she would wait for almost 12 hours, but Riley, never showed up. By the turn of the century, the single ‘Bam Bam’ would experience a second resurgence with artists such as Guerilla Black, Alicia Keys, Damian Marley, Kat Deluna, Kanye West and Groove Armada were just a few of the second wave of artists who sampled the single
But as the saying goes, God gives blessings and karma; He sends to collect his debts. In late, 2011, Winston Riley was shot in the head at his home in Kingston, an epilogue to a series of attempts on his life over the years, rumored to be rooted among his many shady royalty issues or a real estate dispute. Whichever it was the paradox could be on any side of the coin. In 2014, the song would appear in the soundtrack for the summers politically controversial blockbuster comedy, The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and yet again. Sister Nancy was left empty handed. You see, the cog in the wheel was that Winston Riley had registered himself as the writer and producer with vocal credit given to the ambiguous Nancy White which would later prove to be a songwriter moniker for Winston Riley legally and on paper Riley thought by some odd means no obligation was due to give Sister Nancy any of the earnings from the single, and his estates stood this high ground, until 2014 when Reebok’s the use of the single in its Skyscape commercial featuring Miranda Kerr would draw Sister Nancy’s final straw with Winston Riley’s ghost.
She would take legal action that very year to claim 32 years in back royalty and 50% of the publishing rights to the single. Winston Riley’s estate would do the right thing. Eventually settling out of court and paying her 10 years in back royalty granting Sister Nancy also her due to 50% of the single for perpetuity. In 2015, Nancy retired from accounting to finally enjoy the hard earned fruits of her musical labor, and the resurgence of our careers spawned by the countless samples of ‘Bam Bam’ that over the years had organically introduced Sister Nancy to a whole new generation of fans, the bookings started rolling in. To feed this new cult following, among them the millennial crowd, in the US, Canada, Europe and as far away as New Zealand. And at the age of 50. Nancy was performing more than she had ever done in her life
Now given her due as a living legend of Jamaican music. Sister Nancy has performed in 52 countries, and her music continues to inspire an entire generation of music creatives at home and abroad. Shenseea, Spice, Koffee, Rihanna, Jay Z, and even the queen bee herself Beyonce, who pays homage to the dancehall legend in her live performances. In a career spanning almost four decades. She has carved out an impressive catalogue of: 4 cult classic albums, 49 hit singles, 131 featured appearances. And to date, the single ‘Bam Bam’ has been sampled 125 times, it is without a doubt that sister Nancy’s footsteps can never be repeated. And her journey has helped build a bedrock for a bevy of female DJs who themselves have become stars in their own right. But we must never forget that Sister Nancy was the original blueprint. And when the last note rises from the Jamaican soundscape, Sister Nancy’s name will still be echoed as the first female legend of dancehall.
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