{"id":135566,"date":"2025-10-21T07:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135566\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T07:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:41:13","slug":"he-did-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/135566\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He Did the Right Thing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA little over 40 years ago, Sister Nancy \u2014 widely considered the first female dancehall<\/a> DJ \u2014 released a song that would transcend genre, her home country of Jamaica and time itself: \u201cBam Bam.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBuilt around a sample of Ansell Collins\u2019 \u201cStalag 17\u201d riddim, \u201cBam Bam\u201d is arguably the most sampled and recognizable dancehall song in music<\/a> history. From Jay-Z<\/a>\u2018s \u201cBam\u201d and Ye<\/a>\u2019s \u201cFamous\u201d to Ms. Lauryn Hill<\/a>\u2019s \u201cLost Ones\u201d and Lizzo<\/a>\u2019s \u201cTruth Hurts,\u201d Sister Nancy\u2019s commanding timbre \u2014 as well as the song\u2019s infectious melody and alluring brass \u2014 has proven irresistible to generations of musicians across genres and regions. In 2024, Janelle Mon\u00e1e<\/a>\u2019s The Age of Pleasure, on which Sister Nancy is both featured (\u201cThe French 75\u201d) and sampled (\u201cWater Slide\u201d), earned a Grammy nomination for album of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSister Nancy\u2019s breakthrough hit initially appeared on her 1982 debut album, One, Two, garnering far more notoriety internationally than in Jamaica. Though not a chart hit upon its release, the song has grown into an indisputable classic around the world, a perennial musical announcement of summer\u2019s arrival. Since 1991, when Luminate began electronically tracking music sales, \u201cBam Bam\u201d has garnered over 185.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 329,000 digital downloads. Sister Nancy relocated to New Jersey in 1996 \u2014 and didn\u2019t put out another album until 2007\u2019s Sister Nancy Meets Fireproof \u2014 but the undying legacy of \u201cBam Bam\u201d helped influence several new generations of female dancehall DJs, including icons like Lady Saw (now Minister Marion Hall), Macka Diamond, Spice<\/a> and Shenseea<\/a>. By 2016, she retired from her accounting job to return to the stage and her pursuit of music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA few decades removed from the release of \u201cBam Bam,\u201d Sister Nancy, 63, finally seized the opportunity to tell her remarkable story on her own terms, resulting in a new documentary titled Bam Bam: The Story of Sister Nancy. Written and directed by Oya Media Group founder Alison Duke, the documentary follows the arc of Sister Nancy\u2019s life and career, culminating in her victorious battle to win back years of unpaid royalties due to unauthorized samples, through tour performances, interviews, reenactments and archival footage. The film, an official selection at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, is yet another innovative step forward by Sister Nancy on behalf of all women in dancehall, a physical space and musical genre that can be flagrantly misogynistic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf it\u2019s mine, I am going to fight for it,\u201d she stresses to Billboard. \u201cIt\u2019s either I win or lose, but I have to try. And I implore all women to do the same thing. If it\u2019s just sitting there and you haven\u2019t claimed it, you\u2019re going to lose it. And I\u2019m not going to lose.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this year, Sister Nancy teamed up with iconic dub music producer Mad Professor for her newest album, Armageddon. The eight-track offering arrived on Sept. 12, a few months before the dancehall innovator is set to headline The Brooklyn Monarch on Dec. 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Sister Nancy speaks with Billboard about her new documentary, why she \u201creally appreciated\u201d the way Jay-Z went about sampling \u201cBam Bam\u201d and her hopes for the genre\u2019s current iteration.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen did the idea of a documentary first come about?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMy longtime agent was insisting that I write a book, and I was like, \u201cMi nuh have time for it. Mi nuh write no book!\u201d Then he said I should give someone the opportunity to write about me, and mi seh, \u201cWho? Who yuh fi get fi write bout meh?\u201d He said he could get someone, and he introduced me to [Oya Media founder and Bam Bam director] Alison Duke \u2014 and she fell in love with me. [Laughs.] She told me, \u201cI\u2019ve been listening to you in basement parties, I never thought I\u2019d get a chance to meet you!\u201d I felt comfortable with her and knew [the whole endeavor] was worth my while, so I just went ahead with the documentary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like to finally see the final cut of the documentary?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery time [Duke did] something different, she always showed it to me. And she traveled the whole world with me, so I had an idea of what the film would look like before it was finished. It\u2019s just a plain documentary; everything you see is one take because I don\u2019t repeat myself. I don\u2019t like that. Catch me when you can!\u00a0 I have the documentary on my phone so I can watch it every day. It\u2019s very nice and it\u2019s all about me, so it\u2019s good!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s your favorite scene?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I sprayed the perfume between my legs. [Laughs.] I was in my bedroom and this guy kept following me. I said, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to follow me everywhere, I\u2019m going to the bathroom! You\u2019re going to come in there?\u201d And he said, \u201cYes, Nancy, I\u2019m going to come in there.\u201d When I put my clothes on in my bedroom, I always spray my hair. This time, I did a joke and sprayed it in between my legs too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s your favorite song that samples \u201cBam Bam?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t[2017\u2019s] \u201cBam\u201d<\/a> by Jay-Z [and Damian \u201cJr. Gong\u201d Marley]. The reality of him taking me with him to shoot the video in Jamaica was amazing. I really appreciated that. Everybody has sampled the song, but he chose to take me with him. Jay-Z is my No. 1. He did the right thing. Everybody else was cheap; they didn\u2019t even think about me. At the time, I had just left my accounting job at the bank, so it meant a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen did you first hear an unauthorized sample of \u201cBam Bam\u201d?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMany years before I even came to live in [the United States], I heard \u201cBam Bam\u201d on Kris Kross\u2019 [1993 song] \u201cI\u2019m Real.\u201d<\/a> I\u2019ve been coming here since 1980, but I migrated here in 1996. When I finally arrived, the first place I heard \u201cBam Bam\u201d was in the 1998 Belly movie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t[The legal fight for compensation] started in 2014 after I heard the song playing in a Reebok commercial<\/a>. I was in my bedroom, my daughter was in the living room, and she said, \u201cMommy, look at this!\u201d I saw this Australian girl [model Miranda Kerr] all over the television, and I thought, \u201cThey\u2019ve been doing so much with my song, and I can\u2019t even buy a pack of cigarettes.\u201d I couldn\u2019t even buy a Heineken, which I used to love so much.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWorking my 9-5 at the bank was rough, and my daughter was in high school at the time. I had to depend on my mother so much as well; I\u2019m so sorry she\u2019s not here to reap what she sowed \u2014 because I didn\u2019t sow it, she did. 2014 is when I decided to fight for what is mine. And nobody complained, because they knew I deserved it. They basically just gave me what I was owed.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was that moment like when you got that first check?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs soon as I get it, it finished! It was 90,000 pounds, man. My attorney talked to the publishing company, and the process wasn\u2019t hard. They knew I had never been compensated for 32 years. I have to give thanks to Almighty God because without him, it wouldn\u2019t be possible for me to stop working and do the thing I love best, which is performing. I know I\u2019m a great performer; I love to tour the world. Di people dem love me!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere\u2019s your favorite place you\u2019ve ever performed?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t[Outside of] Jamaica\u2026 California and Rome. I love those places.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy do you think overseas audiences initially latched onto \u201cBam Bam\u201d before Jamaicans did?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ve never really heard it played [in Jamaica]. The only time I heard it was when I did it live at Sting in 1990. I ain\u2019t never hear \u201cBam Bam\u201d really played. They like \u201cOne Two.\u201d \u201cBam Bam\u201d is not my favorite song on my first album, but it\u2019s a song that has made a way for me and I really cherish it. It\u2019s my signature song, but it\u2019s not the best song for me. \u201cRoof Over Mi Head\u201d is my song.\u00a0 My mom is the breadwinner, so I love it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you actively mentor any younger female artists in the dancehall space?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery single one of them. Some will not tell you, because women are like that. I even mentor men, because I have a lot of men I used to listen to when I was younger.\u00a0 But I was there. I did it in that dancehall, so all the women after me could do it like that. They have to listen to Sister Nancy at one point or another.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMy mentor was my older brother, Brigadier Jerry. I also used to listen to Muma Liza. She was the first [woman] I heard on the radio. She and my brother are the ones who made me want to do this. I\u2019ve never met her because she was not in the dancehall; she was a recording artist. It\u2019s so bad she didn\u2019t get what she deserved. Some of us don\u2019t have the ability, some of us don\u2019t have the drive, and some of us don\u2019t have that ting in us to fight \u2014 but I was born a fighter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you think of the current dancehall space, what words come to mind?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s never been 100% the way I wanted it from 1982, but it\u2019ll never be the same thing. Everybody haffi do their own thing. Whatever helps you gain is what I think they\u2019re going to do. If the artists and the DJs choose to do profanity music, they do so because it works for them. I can\u2019t tell them not to do it. I just know I won\u2019t do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t[Dancehall] music is going a way that I don\u2019t like sometimes, but that\u2019s why I am here: to make sure it stays focused and to make sure it stays the way I like to see it with the roots and the culture at the center. You can\u2019t have everybody leaning towards one thing. The music right now doesn\u2019t bother me, people will see which one lives longer. Too much of one thing is good for nothing. And I\u2019m here as a testament to that. I am still here. All of these ladies come and go, and Sister Nancy is still here. I\u2019m the beginning, and if you start it, you haffi finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n \"Billboard
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