Fantan Mojah talks naked truth, tight pants and welcoming all fans
Published:Wednesday | June 2, 2021 | 12:09 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Rastafarian singer Fantan Mojah was once hailed as one of the new wave of contemporary reggae singers whose songs were infused with positive lyrics and themed with praises to Jah, respect for women, and a desire to stay away from all that is unrighteous. Formerly signed by Downsound Productions, Fantan had people listening when his début album, Hail the King, was released in 2005. It featured popular tracks like the title track, Hail the King, Nuh Build, Great Man, featuring Jah Cure, and Corruption. Fantan claimed the title of breakout artiste of 2005.
Fast-forward to 2021, and Fantan Mojah, who also scored with the 2011 single, Rasta Got Soul, is said to have lost his soul. He seems to have undergone a metamorphosis and has spiced up his catalogue with hardcore girls’ tunes. But Fantan told The Gleaner that the only thing that has changed is his fan base, as he is now trying to embrace younger fans and dancehall audiences. “Rasta always got soul,” Fantan declared. “My real fans will always support me and know that I will never change.”
The entertainer, whose recent musical sojourn has seen him eschewing his former garb of righteousness, to a degree, in exchange for a dalliance with risqué dancehall, has once again come under intense scrutiny from purists. While two songs — Fire King and Touch That Body — have been the source of fierce debate, it is the accompanying visuals that have condemned Fantan Mojah to the land of the damned. He has even been dubbed a ‘freaky Ras’ and received a veiled death threat.
One of his followers on social media recently wrote under one of Fantan Mojah’s posts, “When we hold yu freaky [Ras] a dirt.”
“Death threat, my fans check, all because I sing about girls, only God I fear,” was Fantan Mojah’s comment.
And, to all who assert that he has lost his soul, Fantan Mojah counters that it’s unfortunate that people cannot digest the naked truth. “Which woman doesn’t want her body to be touched by that special person? Yes, I have nice girls in my videos, but what is wrong with that? I am not disrespecting any woman; I am not singing about using any girl’s mouth as an ashtray. All I am singing about is the women in a complimentary way. It is all about the naked truth,” he said.
The entertainer seemed to be poking fun at his detractors as he took an almost perverse delight in emphasising the word ‘naked’, having had coals of fire heaped on him for the gyrating, string bikini-clad girls who populate his recent video.
The comments online are evenly balanced, but Fantan prefers to focus on the positives and has the soft words that turn away wrath for the player haters.
Among the comments are: “This rasta lost himself, Muta fi bun you again. GIGOLO.”
“Gawn Ras gawn... Touch dat Body, yes.”
“Hey RASTA[?] you are going through the crisis of the fifties. So sad to see you like this. REMoooOve ya.”
“I like it nice vybz. Live yah man the bible said all man are sinners, guh through natty.”
Fantan Mojah is quite proud of Touch That Body, a soca-flavoured single which he says shows his versatility.
“Any style me come with the people love it. A king never get honour in his own country, and that is true. When Fantan Mojah go to Africa, him sell-out stadium, 30 and 60 thousand people. But true in Jamaica, dem don’t want to give me what is due, so I just ignore them and continue to do my thing,” the Ras told The Gleaner.
Fantan is enthusiastically set to release a single, the title of which is what some would call the colloquial version of the word ‘vagina.’ “Scratch Perry have a song with the same title, and people don’t have a problem with it, Sizzla sing she ‘pump up her [expletive] and nobody don’t have a problem, so what if Fantan sings about the same thing? The important thing is that Fantan respects woman, and my message is that these men need to respect their mothers and sisters so that they can respect the woman who they live with,” he stated.
According to the roots reggae singer-cum-edgy dancehall artiste, the same people who are bashing him now will soon be following in his footsteps, in similar fashion to his tight-pants-wearing saga some years ago. Fantan received a lot of flack when he debuted his pants that sucked to him like a second skin. “All who use to seh this and that ‘bout Fantan and him tight pants, dem same ones ah wear tight pants now. Me love my tight pants and me nah stop wear dem,” a defiant Fantan Mojah told The Gleaner.
Fantan has never shied away from the ‘sexy Ras’ moniker and has compared his love for women to that of the legendary Bob Marley. “Yuh nuh see seh a bare pretty girls Bob [Marley] go for?” he quizzed, having gone on record previously to state that Bob Marley also wore tight pants.
Hell-bent on stirring up controversy, Fantan, whose début album opened up the doors to three consecutive European tours, and has since been fully embraced by fans on the continent, told The Gleaner that he has gay fans and that there is absolutely nothing he can or would want to do about that.
“Me is not like some of dem other Rasta artiste who go round and ‘bun’ gay people yuh nuh. I don’t call them name in my songs, so me can go anywhere inna Europe and all over the world and perform and sell out stadium, and nobody not stopping me,” he stated.
His philosophy is “each man to dem own, as long as dem nuh bring that to me”.
“If a gay fan come to me fi a autograph, wha’ me must do? Run him? No! Me a go sign it,” declared Fantan Mojah, who totally shuns the box that people want to place him in.