This is the fifth in the Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk’s series for Reggae Month titled Princess Black.

THE thrust and parry of hardcore dancehall music was always the domain of male artistes, that was until Lady Saw made her entry into the space in the early 1990s.

The shy girl from the rural parish of St Mary made her case known in a most unmistakable way with the release and popularity of her breakout singles If Him Lef and Stab Up The Meat. This raunchy track, and the singles and performances which followed in quick succession, set her apart from her fellow female acts who were toeing the line.

Born Marion Hall, Lady Saw , while not the first female deejay as she followed in the footsteps of the likes of Sister Charmaine, Lady Ann, Lady G and Lady Junie, was definitely one to be noticed.

Determined to make her mark she often remarked that if the men were being raunchy and getting away with it, why couldn’t she?

Such was the performance at one staging of Reggae Sumfest that groups in Montego Bay threatened to have the deejay banned from performing in their city. In a twist of fate, Lady Saw would be crowned queen of the dancehall a few years later at that same festival.

That didn’t stop Lady Saw who would go on to earn a Grammy Award in 2004 for Underneath it all, a collaboration with the American group No Doubt.

A slew of hits have come in her near 30-year career.

Sycamore Tree, I’ve got your man, More than a woman, Give me A Reason, Serious Allegations, and Heels On.

On Monday, December 14, 2015, Lady Saw took to a bold step and was baptised in a private service at the Emmanuel Apostolic Church on Slipe Road in Kingston, by Bishop Everton Thomas in the presence of close friends and family about 8:00 pm.

“The Lord has been speaking to me for years and I have been dodging him,” she testified.

“Today I was at J Capri’s funeral and God spoke to me again and I said to myself I want to be a servant of God,” she told the Jamaica Observer. “I was always worried about money and how I would survive without music, but God said to me, ‘I have people and I will make a way’.”

Since then she dropped the Lady Saw moniker and started using her birth name as she launched a career in gospel music, while ministering via social media platforms.

However, Minister Marion Hall began grabbing headlines over the past two weeks critiquing current female deejays, including Spice and Shenseea, which has caused a firestorm of comments from all quarters.

Hall has since announced that she will no longer be ministering but it is yet to be seen if she will return to the dancehall arena.