Queen Ifrica showed in no uncertain terms why she is the leading candidate for female deejay of the year in the upcoming EME awards when she delivered a devastating performance this morning at the Tru Juice Rebel Salute at the Port Kaiser Sports Complex in St. Elizabeth.

When her name was announced, there was a thunderous roar from the audience, and he hit the stage attired in a bright yellow dress which flared off at the ankles, a yellow blouse with puffy sleeves and a red turban head-wrap. She sang the first few lines of the Down Sound Records produced Me Nah Rub, and was forced to pull up the song.

Barefoot and prancing, she extolled her hair doctrine deejay joyously that her husband stop sit down inna barber chair, and she channeled George Nooks who had performed earlier by doing a snatch of Forty Leg Dread, deejaying stop spread propoganda while the crowd cheered. She then segued into the single, Born Free. She then took time to big up Tony Rebel as a bredda mi love and respect.

Him stay true to the business, him love it, him loyal to the business, him say me sound like Garnet Silk, and him groom me into the wonderful artiste that the I dem love. I give thanks to the positive energy because it work, right Salute? she said.

And the crowd roared its approval.

This was Queen Ifricas ninth year performing on the 15 year old show, but this was arguably one of her most special performances as Tru Juice Rebel Salute 2k8 was very much the deejays coming out party, her coronation, her baptism, if you will, after which she has emerged as a firebrand for conscious reggae music everywhere. As she pranced on the stage defending her beliefs and 'burning' iniquity, depravity and evil, she exuded a rare species of confidence, and the audience was awed and humbled by a performer at the height of her powers. It was delicious to be consumed in her fire.

She struck an emotional chord with the song, Sometimes I Miss You Brandy, and oldies classic When Love Comes Knocking and got the huge crowd to sing along with her. She advocated the legalization of marijuana on Sensemenia, and got the women to wine their waists seductively as she did her breakthrough hit about make-up sex, Below the Waist.

She closed her set with her anti-incest magnus opus, Daddy Dont Touch Me There as fire torches stabbed at the early morning sky and flags waved in a sea of red, green and gold.

There were also brilliant performances from Tony Rebel, Junior Reid, Lutan yah, Jah Cure, Richie Spice, Tarrus Riley, Errol Dunkley and the overseas-based Leroy Gibbans.