By Kenrick Josephs

The dream of becoming a mortician is still alive in the mind of Carlene ‘Dancehall Queen’ Smith who said she also wants to perform autopsies. In an interview on the pool deck of her Lady Musgrave apartment, Carlene confessed she still wants to pursue this dream. She wants to do “facials” on the deceased to make them look the way they were, while alive. “Not because they are dead doesn’t mean they have to look that way,” she said.

As for Dancehall, Carlene says she doesn’t do that anymore. She has proved her point – that dancehall is not just a downtown or ghetto thing – and she has moved on. Dancehall, to her, was not to make money; it was a way to express herself… in dress and otherwise.

Growing up in Ravinia, St. Andrew, people often classified Carlene as ‘di uptown girl’. In her early days, she danced at school fetes or wherever she heard hits such as Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. The culture back then, she claims, did not promote reggae music and dancehall. It was the American culture that was fed to the young. The ascendance of reggae post Bob-Marley and visits to the United States changed Carlene’s thinking however. After Marley died, she realized that “everybody was talking about reggae music” and her own consciousness was therefore raised.

The first real exposure to dancehall for this “uptown girl” came at seventeen. It was a session at House of Leo that she attended and much to her surprise; she was free to wear “skimpy clothes”. Well, from then on, it was no turning back. “We couldn’t wear these clothes when we were going to disco clubs or social events as they did not offer this freedom,” she recalls.

So dancehall, for Carlene was a get-a-way and she soon developed a reputation for “skimpy dressing.” To the point where people thought she and her crew did not wear underwear with those skimpy clothes. She remembers going to the once swinging, Frontline Club on Red Hills Road with her friends and people calling them the ‘No Panty Crew’ as the crowd was not used to thongs and g-strings.

Fashion clash
In 1991, Carlene visited a fashion show at Cactus Nightclub in Portmore, St, Catherine, where she met and made a proposal to club owner Andrew Williams. She wanted a fashion clash between uptown and dancehall girls and Williams agreed to host the event.

L’Antoinette Stines was the choreographer and Carlene’s brother-in-law; Leroy Reid was their manager at the time. Carlene drafted Erica Aquart, Ms. Jamaica World 1990, and they competed in pairs against hardcore dancehall girls. Well, you know how the story goes…with the audience as judge, Carlene won, hands down and was dubbed ‘Dancehall Queen’.

“Queen” mother
Carlene now has a lovely baby girl from her former relationship with ace DJ Beenie Man. The couple’s relationship soured in May 1996 after an intense 11-month affair, but they later reconciled and the union produced the child. She is presently engaged to her new partner PNP activist and contractor Danhai Williams.

Believing strongly in safe sex, Carlene does promotions for Slam Condoms as she feels that this is just her small input. Her picture can be seen on the condom wrappers and boxes. She has also appeared in numerous commercials for the Courts furniture stores.

Presently, she is working on a talk show with Lisa Hannah, former Miss World. The show titled ‘Our Voices’ will begin airing on April 7, 2003 on CVM television at 9:30 p.m.