Lady Saw

When Saw gets raw, as on her sure-shot crowd pleaser "Stab Out the Meat," she can stand with any X-rated DJ from General Echo to Yellowman to Shabba. Slackness is hardly her only mode, but her sexual frankness does get results. Check out Saw's intimidating cover photo on her new album Give Me the Reason (V.P. Records): She's sheathed head-to-toe in black leather, rocking a bald dome and a riding crop! <br><br>

Offstage, though, Lady Saw still sometimes sounds like the innocent country girl from the parish of St. Mary's who used to stand outside the dancehall gate, listening to Youthman Promotion sound when it passed through her area. Back then, the star attraction was Tenor Saw (killed in his prime, but best remembered for the extra-classic anthem "Ring the Alarm"), whose ghostly, warbling voice the young Lady Saw would emulate at hometown dances, eventually moving beyond imitation to origination. <br><br>

Lady Saw's been banned from events due to her X-rated material-even as equally slack male artists continue to get play. Her solution for setbacks? Writing songs that deal with the double standards. Uncompromising lyrics are both her damnation and her salvation: From the lifesaving advice of "Condom" to the sister-empowering sentiments of "Name Nuh Stand fi Sex," Saw tells truths that dancehall's testosterone dons overlook.