It certainly hasn't always been the case, but these days it seems Jamaica is producing one female music talent after another. Last year both Jah9 and Xana Romeo still released gems, and now it's Kerida Johnson aka Hempress Sativa's turn. Sativa is the daughter of Doris Ray Ricketts and Albert 'Ilawi Malawi' Johnson, and grew up in Mona Common, Papine, just outside Kingston. Her father, drummer and selector for Jah Love Muzik, already familiarized her with Jamaican sound system culture from an early age, a story Sativa retells in the autobiographical 'Rock It Ina Dance'. In her biography Hempress Sativa names artists like Lauryn Hill, Dezarie, Burning Spear, Ijahman Levi and Sade as her main influences (the latter is also briefly mentioned in the lovers tune 'Black Skin King'), but if you pay attention to the lyrics of songs like 'Rock It Ina Dance' or 'Boom (Wah Da Da Deng)', you'll realize it were actually deejay-pioneers like Brigadier Jerry or Charlie Chaplin and their female peers Sister Nancy, Sister Carol and Lady Ann. In fact, Ranking Joe, the only guest vocalist on 'Unconquerebel', nicely completes that list. Having been nicknamed Unconquerebel Lioness, Sativa decided to name her first long player 'Unconquerebel'. Even though Kerida's stage name might suggest otherwise, the track list only contains a single ganja tune: the poetic 'Twisted Sheets'. The majority of the tracks on 'Unconquerebel' were produced by Chris Lion of Conquering Lion Records, but with the aforementioned 'Boom (Wah Da Da Deng)', literally a boom tune and also our favorite track on the album, the track list also contains a production by Italian producer Paolo Baldini, and for 'We All' Sativa joined forces with Dubrobot. Slowly but surely women are seizing power in Jamaica, something you won't hear us complain about!