Minister Marion Hall, formerly Lady Saw, says she is done with the past, but fans will need to accept that even as a Christian, she will continue to deejay.
The former artiste drew mixed reactions to her recent Groovin in the Park performance, where he freestyled music that sounded like a clean version of dancehall music, something she said she was walking away from in 2015 in search of a Christ calling.
However, having returned to the world of performing for the first time this year, Hall says she is not fazed by critics who accused her of still entertaining with secular music. While speaking with TVJ’s Anthony Miller, Hall says deejaying is part of her personality even when she has walked away from the raunchy music.
“You know what, you can’t take that away from me. I tell people, I am heart. I’m reggae, I’m dancehall, I’m hip-hop, I’m rock, I’m funk, I’m everything,” she said.
Minister Marion Hall said that fans and the promoter had asked her to sing “Sycamore Tree”, a song that spoke to a man approaching her then-music persona, Lady Saw, to “bow” or give oral sex, and she ran him. Sycamore tree plays on a popular story in the bible, but the singer said, “I’m not going back there,” in response to the promoter.
Hall is booked for Reggae Sumfest on July 22, her first local performance in Jamaica since she got baptized and said she was a Christian.
While she says she has no regrets about walking away from the world of dancehall, she does say that she is grateful for her previous career, and it’s hard to change her fans supporting her.
“I can say, that’s not me, I used to be but everyday people say ‘Lady Saw!’… I’m not that but they say that’s who we know you as and you’re still our queen and every day is like that and I don’t want to be,” she said.
Hall said she is led by the spirit, and she has been directed to quit some shows and attend others.
As a Christian, she also says she believes in “clap back” even though that is not acceptable in the Christianity community.
“You have a lot of religious Christians [disagree]…they come up against that but I always tell them to go and look in the bible Ezekiel chapter 3 and you will see God tell the prophet, ‘eat the whole roll’,” she said.
Minister Hall says she’ll never perform her old songs again but isn’t passing up the royalties.
“No, did you know that when David go to war, God tell him to take the spoil? The bible said the wealth of the unjust is laid up for the righteous. At that time I was unjust…so wherever it come from, you bless it,” she said.
“I just got some money recently and it was some money that was stuck…when that money came it was right on time, I bless it,” she said, adding that they were used for the right reasons.
Lady Saw added that with her song “Underneath It All” going platinum, she has some more money to collect.
