Don't be thrown off by the little frame and fair skin. Jerk-hot Jamaican Tami Chynn has a voice much closer to Patra's than Paris'. "People hear me on my records and they go to my website and half the messages are, ‘Oh my God, I can't believe you look how you look,'” says the 22-year-old Chinese, black, white and Cherokee blend.

Her brain game far surpasses the aforementioned blonde's as well. Filled with what she calls a vast volume of useless facts (e.g., did you know that a goat could eat a tennis shoe and still shit normally?), Tami would make a great Trivial Pursuit partner. With a bubbly debut of dancehall, R&B and pop entitled Out of Many…One, (Universal Records) slated for the summer, Tami already has reggae heavyweights Sean Paul, Beenie Man and Busy Signal lining up to collaborate.
Either she's that talented or her culinary skills—she proclaims to be Jordanesque 'round an oven—bring all the boys to the yard.

Racism isn't exactly an option for you based on your ethnic blend.
Here's the thing: On my mother's side, her mother is British. She's white, I think. My grandfather, he's Jamaican. He's black and something. A lot of people get it twisted, but Jamaica is very multicultural. People think Jamaican is a race, but it's a nationality. Being Jamaican doesn't mean I'm black or Afro-Caribbean or anything.

Your voice also sends mixed signals. Are people surprised when they hear yardie twang from a girl who could have played Kelly on Beverly Hills 90210?

Definitely. But once they get over the initial shock, we're back on track. I think it works in my favor. It's good to have a little shock factor in anything. But the next album, when they're over it, I'll have to find something else.

Continue reading this feature in the July/August 2006 issue of KING (#32).

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