July 17, 2006 @ 11:00 am

Tami Chynn

Rob Kenner

Tami Chynn seems a bit alarmed to learn that her villa at Jamaica’s Grand Lido Braco Resort & Spa overlooks the nude part of the beach. Her team came here to find picturesque settings for a photo shoot, but right now she’s not loving the view. “Trust me,” she says with a laugh, “it’s not pretty.” Not that the 23-year-old Kingston, Jamaica, native is uptight, it’s just that she has somewhat higher standards. After all, this is the same songstress whose sexy shape was praised in Leftside & Esco’s dancehall smash “Tuck in Yuh Belly.” She’s toured as a dancer with Shaggy and collaborated with dancehall hot boys Sean Paul, Beenie Man, and Assassin. And with Chynn’s breathlessly sexy single “Hyperventilating” making the jump into mainstream radio formats, Universal Records is convinced that she’s the future of dancehall pop. Even with phrases like “the next Madonna” and “kicks Rihanna’s ass” floating about, the former Tammar Chin manages to remain disarmingly down to earth. “Growing up in Jamaica, I’m humbled every day,” she says, tossing the blond hair out of her eyes. “And that’s no joke. Once you’re old enough to recognize your surroundings, you’re humbled every day by what’s going on.” It’s no surprise then that Chynn reps hard for her homeland, even though her fair complexion sometimes gets her mistaken for a tourist. “She’s not a Jamaican,” she quips about the whispers she sometimes hears. In her words, Chynn’s a multiracial “mutt” who defies stereotypes and personifies the Jamaican national motto, “Out of many one people” (hence the title of her debut album, Out of Many… One). Chynn’s true heritage is musical: Her mother, the child of a white British woman and a black Jamaican man, played trumpet; her father, who’s mostly Chinese with a bit of Cherokee, was a drummer. “My family is too mixed up for me to discriminate,” she says. “Who knows who’s what and who cares—as if we all don’t bleed.” But don’t confuse Chynn with some sort of dancehall Britney Spears. First of all, she and her talented sister, Tessanne, are the ones writing tunes like the enticing “Looky Looky,” which bristles with a shamelessly catchy hook. Plus, she’s determined to push herself and her music beyond the usual creative (and commercial) limits. “Injecting something different into dancehall isn’t the easiest thing,” she admits. “But I want to see Jamaican music move out into the world, even bigger than it is now. And I love to toe the line. So hopefully, I’ll toe the line all the way to the top.”

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