Patra is back

The world now knows her as the ‘Queen of the Pack’, but before she became the first woman to have her album reach No. 1 on the Billboard Reggae Chart, Patra was just ‘Mummy’ from Whithorn, Westmoreland. Back then, her days consisted of the typical chores that accompany a life in rural Jamaica: river trips with her cousins and her first love, cooking. But now, after more than 30 years in the music industry, Patra says she has finally regained her freedom.

“The predominant emotion in my life is freedom,” she told The Sunday Gleaner at the Altamont Court Hotel in New Kingston. “I’ve been working towards this for more than 20-something years. I’ve managed to navigate my way through feeling happy, free and healthy, of course. But also more businesslike. All those things were the things I was lacking all along. So now that I find myself with the right temperament, [for] me, it is like I’m continuing where I left off.”

In the 1990s, Patra caught the eye of a member of Shabba Ranks’ team, and through the exposure she gained from that association was signed to Sony Records and soon moved to New York City.

She said that though her country-girl sensibilities left her a little culture-shocked, she found joy in the vibrance of the city. “Everything I want was at my fingertips. I could walk downstairs and get everything and then run into so many Jamaicans in Brooklyn, [and the] Bronx. It’s as if I didn’t leave Jamaica. So for me, it was like ‘Okay, mi can fit in very fast’, and that’s exactly what I did.”

She also gained a community of Caribbean people who not only helped her to stave off loneliness but broadened her horizons. She explained, “Dealing with my Caribbean people, ‘cause you know we have friends from The Bahamas, Trinidad, Barbados, everywhere. So for me as a young girl it was the first time I had ever been around so many people from the Caribbean, from all over the place, so it was not just a culture shock but a beautiful shock for me. I didn’t feel like I was alone.”

‘The thing that makes me very happy’

Though Patra had gained international fame and elusive crossover success, she had begun a battle with depression that would last over 20 years behind the scenes. She said during that time returning to her first love helped her channel some of the creative energy that she had bottled up. “That’s the thing that makes me very happy,” she said, referring to cooking, beaming. “I would put cooking over music, one hundred per cent.”

She explained that though music is a collaborative effort, food is something she enjoys because she has full control over every aspect of it. “With cooking, for me, I have to come up with all the ideas and implement them accordingly in order to make sure that it becomes a masterpiece.”

Her restaurant, Chateau 7 Gourmet Jerk Centre, grew out of a desire to share those masterpieces. “I wanted to share not only my love [with] the people, but to have some ideas from [my] hands and to [let people] taste the flavour because I used [a] combination of everything – from Africa, Asia, all the places I’ve travelled around the world, and I remember certain flavours. What I did was mimic [those flavours], but make everything original by using all local seasoning.”

While that venture closed its doors in 2022, she told The Sunday Gleaner that in the near future she will be returning to the kitchen after retiring from music. “I do not want to stay in the music business till I’m old. I want to be happy. So I think food makes me happy.

“It’s sexy food, and I’ll be reopening next year early, and the cooking show will come with it. I will love for people who cannot cook and want to learn how to cook in the future to come and learn something,” she went on.

In the meantime, Patra says she has healed the parts of her that were hurt by the industry. “The real Patra is this jovial, down-to-earth girl from country who’s spiritual and stuff, and it’s just me. But the other Patra is when you gimme the microphone, and I’m on the stage. Now that girl there, she has been healed.”

She continued, “What my fans have done is not give up on me. They still continue to talk about me. They’ve given me the space in order for me to go through this and to come out on the bright side to tell you guys these stories.”

Now that she has regained her masters, Patra says she is back and ready to reintroduce herself. One of the first stops on this leg of her journey has been to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Caribbean Music Awards in Trinidad and Tobago.

Ahead of collecting the honour, Patra told The Sunday Gleaner, “The Caribbean Music Award is a beautiful thing because as an island girl, all the accomplishments that I’ve had have to do with coming from an island. So for them to acknowledge me, after all these years, for the things that I’ve done, it’s good.”

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com