Lady Saw
Raunchy toaster Lady Saw says she is determined to change course now that she and reggae powerhouse label VP Records have parted company.
Saw told The Gleaner that she plans to record and produce other artistes for her Hall's Productions and Divas Record labels. Her labels sound, Saw noted, will be totally different from the bawdy songs for which she has become known.
"I want to make a turn now that I'm all grown up. I want to move away from the Lady Saw image," she said.
VP revisits that image on Extra Raw: The First Lady of Dancehall, an 18-track compilation which was released on July 14. It looks at Saw's years with the company which began with the 1994 album, Lover Girl. Her last studio set for the Queens, New York label was 2007's ironically titled Walk Out.
Extra Raw contains suggestive songs like Hardcore and Sycamore Tree, as well as the heartfelt No Less Than a Woman and the country ballad Give Me a Reason.
Without going into details, Saw said her 13-year relationship with VP, while fruitful, was "far from perfect".
More serious songs
The company is credited with promoting dancehall reggae to urban markets in the United States. It has had mega-success with acts like Sean Paul and Beenie Man.
Saw (real name Marion Hall) hopes to record more serious songs like No Less Than a Woman, which addressed her three miscarriages.
"I will do the old stuff if people ask, but I think as a 40 year-old woman I need to tone it down," she said.
Her debut set for Hall Productions, she disclosed, will be mostly live.
Already, she said she has done a song with Ali Campbell, former lead singer with British band UB40.
The St Mary-born Saw broke through in the late 1980s with the not-fit-for-airplay Stab Out The Meat and did songs of a similar nature for various producers.
But it is her conservative work that has been commercially successful.
Her toast on pop group No Doubt's Underneath It All, helped make that song a Top-10 hit in the US. In 1999, she teamed with American singer Vitamin C on Smile, which was also a hit stateside.
Lady Saw is scheduled to start a European tour in Milan, Italy on July 29.