Singjay Black Queen, who ticked off Gaza fans last year with her single 'Hot A Road', has released an emotionally charged song, 'Black and Proud', which celebrates the beauty of her black skin.

"I wrote this song from the heart and it comes from my observations of race and skin colour in Jamaica. It is amazing how many successful rastafarian artistes choose to have a browning they can model with, rather than a dark-skinned woman which should be more consistent with their Rasta beliefs, but it is something that keeps happening again. Just check it yourself, how many of these big artistes choose brownings as their main girl, just check it, everyone can relate to it, it's not attacking anyone in particular, it's just about our society," she said.

The single has poignant lines in the chorus such as: If you can't love yourself, then you can't love anyone else/don't blame us, it's not our fault/it's mental slavery playing its part.

However, it is the first verse which has critics raving about the song which was released to coincide with Black History Month. Check the hard-hitting lyrics that strike close to home.

She deejays: ... But since him go get a break and buss a ting, him go find himself a browning and a pure modelling/It don't mek any sense fi contradict yu ting/cause ah nuff ah oonu mek woman go bleach out dem skin/...you know we really need fi stop and check we meds/and tink about all the things we do and the tings we said/like how we cuss we pickney dem say dem ugly and black/that's why nuff ah we nuh turn out like Barack.

She also observes certain inconsistencies such as an overwhelming majority of light-skinned contestants in the annual Miss Jamaica World contest. She makes some personal observations about painful remarks made to her by neighbours while she was growing up, and explains why she calls herself a Black Queen.

controversial lyrics

"This is the best song I have ever done and it is a powerful message, and if it heals even one confused teenager, it will have done its job," she said.

She performed at last year's Sting and got a big forward for her controversial lyrics regarding hometown hero Vybz Kartel.

"That was perhaps my biggest performance, people in Portmore still compliment me about how strong and confident I was onstage," she said.

Black Queen is known for tackling controversial topics. last year she raised eyebrows with her single, Hot A Road, alyrical beatdown on rival female deejays, Vybz Kartel, as well asa few parting shots at Corey Todd and former key Portmore Empire members, Jah Vinci and Notnice.

Black Queen returned to the island last August after a promotional radio and club tour overseas. The singjay recently did a medley video for the singles Hot A Road and Good Husband, which was directed by Nordia Rose.

"The video got a lot of promotion on CVM, Hype and RE TV," she said in a release.

She plans to shoot a video for her Black and Proud single next month, given the initial response from disc jockeys here and overseas.