Tanya Stephens

Tanya Stephens was born Vivienne Tanya Stephenson on July 2, 1973, and grew up between the parishes of St. Mary and St. Ann. She became a mother as a teenager, giving birth to her daughter Kelly in 1994, and began recording professionally in the mid-1990s, working with prominent Jamaican producers Dave Kelly and Philip "Fatis" Burrell.

Her breakthrough came with the 1996 single "Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet," produced by Dave Kelly, which delivered sex-positive, unapologetically feminist taunts aimed at men and immediately marked her as a distinctive voice. By 1998 the Washington Post was naming her alongside Lady Saw as the top female artists then working in the genre, even as Stephens resisted being reduced to a single feminist or "slackness" label.

She built a substantial catalogue: her debut Big Things a Gwaan (1994), followed by Too Hype (1997), Ruff Rider (1998), the pop-leaning Sintoxicated (2001), the critically acclaimed concept album Gangsta Blues (2004, which reached #10 on Billboard's Top Reggae Albums chart), Rebelution (2006), Infallible (2010) and Guilty (2013). In 2006 she sued rapper Lil' Kim for plagiarism, alleging that Kim's song "Durty" borrowed lyrics from her own track "Mi and Mi God." In 2019 the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association honored her for her contribution to the industry as a songwriter.

Stephens is remembered as a fearless, socially engaged lyricist who used dancehall's platform to confront sexism, homophobia, HIV-related stigma, and political corruption at a time when the genre's mainstream was dominated by braggadocio and violence. As a woman writing frankly about sexuality and gender inequality in a genre long criticized for misogyny, she is credited with widening the lyrical and thematic possibilities available to the artists who followed her. She remained active into 2024, marking the 20th anniversary of Gangsta Blues with a live anniversary album.