Tanya Stephens is as fine a lyricist as they come in any music genre, made in or outside Jamaica. As if that is not enough to separate her from the pack, she applies the formidable talents to topics that are out of the same old, same old groove of dancehall.

So while 'Ms Stephens' is fond of deflating the male super sexual ego (Yu No Ready Fi Dis Yet) and challenging the complacent wifey, though not afraid to return substandard goods (Tek Him Back), her takes on infidelity in the breakout hit It's a Pity and Little White Lie are fresh.

But Stephens goes into unusual territory for Jamaican popular music with Do You Still Care, a piercing questioning of racism and anti-homosexuality (in the latter a tough guy is shot and abandoned by his friends before he was "rescued by a car with plates that said gay pride"). In I'm Still Alive Stephens spins the engrossing musical tale of a man infected with HIV by his wife, who tells the uncaring "I'm still alive, while you're digging my grave. I'm still writing pages of testimony".

She even goes into the spoken word a couple times, taking on the ability of Christians to forgive themselves on the first track of her free 2010 album 'Infallible'. There is another take on infallibility on the set, where Stephens speaks to her child ("And sometimes Mama don't make no sense but it is all love.")

Don't think that Tanya is some sort of goody two shoes of dancehall, though. Not the lady who loves off the Boom Wuk and declares herself a bonafide gangster girl in a Spragga Benz duet. Then there are the slow tunes - These Streets and What A Day ("Ébun dung everything and start clean!"). How about the dedication to the booze on Cherry Brandy and the plaintive Try Me, where she encourages her mate to take another look at her - not least of all because Joe Grind has taught her to ride.

Is long time Tanya Stephens bad, before Gangsta Blues (2004) and Rebelution (2006). From her 1998 Ruff Rider album (yup, it was even studded for extra pleasure), comes the a capella explanation of having three men:

"One a dem a half an' two a dem a quarter

So dem add up to one"

Did someone say pull up?

Link to Tanya's Yu No Ready Fi Dis Yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UHM9IO2vB4