Mehka defends pregnancy prank - Encourages persons to remain childfree until they are ready

Dancehall artiste Mehka, who 'revealed' on April Fool's Day that she was pregnant through a 'maternity shoot', shocked supporters moments later, after instead dropping a controversial single titled Childfree.

She told THE STAR she had the song before April 1, so the pregnancy shoot was "to have the belly in front of the video". The belly would disappear in the second part of the song.

"But while we were there after the video shoot and we started to edit, it came to me and mi a seh 'Wait, April Fool a come up and wi get some bad picha. Suh mi a seh maybe wi fi do a likkle April Fool prank wid di pictures first and then di videos afta," shared Mehka. She said she tussled with the idea of doing her first official musical publicity stunt, fearing backlash.

"But then I thought it would be funny and cool to give di people dem a likkle shock and get their reactions as well. Since everybody a normalise getting pregnant without a [plan], mek mi see how unu woulda react if me pop up wid a belly now," she laughed.

She awaited the wrath of the public, some of whom viciously criticised every aspect of the shoot, while others shared "congratulatory" messages. The post became viral, racking up thousands of likes and shares. Mehka then uploaded a preview of the video from the photoshoot where she tugged the padded fabrics - imitating a pregnant belly - from beneath her skirt and tossed it while the fiery lyrics from Childfree blared in the background. The singjay said though she felt guilty at first, she has no regrets, even after losing some of her followers, as controversy sells.

"I didn't want them to think it was a prank for too long. Because even people close to me, weh know seh I'm not pregnant were still kinda shocked. They're like, 'What? Like, how Mehka fi pregnant and she not even tell me?' [But] I didn't want them to really believe it. I just wanted them to more like wonder, like, 'Is this true or not? Is it because it's April Fool's?' Yuh nuh, give dem something fi talk about," she said.

"[ Childfree] is just to motivate everybody overall, even if you're older and you feel as if you don't want kids or you're not ready for them; it's okay. You don't have to listen to society and have two to five kids to fit in...do what's best to for you. Because at the end of the day, kids are going to be born and it's just best to wait until you're in the spot where you can take care of them properly. I also said in the song it's good to marry before [having kids] ...which doesn't mean that you won't end up being a single parent but I just think that it lowers the risk," she added.

Despite the hate and negative comments, Mehka remains optimistic about the song, adding that the remaining constructive criticism she received from mothers and young, ambitious supporters are reassuring. The singer further stressed that her intention was never to "disrespect motherhood" as some comments implied, as she even made sure to "big up mothers/parents and their tremendous roles in the full song". She also encouraged young males that are on the 'gelding truck' to be proud of themselves "because it's best to wait until you find the right woman to have a child with".

However, Mehka said in reviewing sections of the song that enraged fans, she made changes to insinuating terms and lyrical compositions in order to convey the intended message for the upcoming official release. Childfree will officially be released soon along with its visuals, but for now, the artiste plans to create a TikTok challenge for the single, to spread the word while zooming in on more strategies and musical content "to ensure that my career take off before my belly".

Touching on concerns expressed about Jamaica's declining birth rate, Mehka said she believes young adults especially should be given "more opportunities to grow and less encouragement to have babies".

"I'm not telling young people to not have kids...I'm saying wait until you're ready," she said. "If poor people keep on having a lot of kids and there's no help for them or these children, then this just gonna cause poverty or up the poverty rate...I don't think any child deserves to be brought in this world to face poverty."

"I fully agree that kids are a blessing, but some parents a curse. Suh if you encourage these people to go and have kids when they're not ready, mentally, physically, it's like, you basically just a spread trauma," she added.