06/01/2025
Legendary ska singer Derrick Morgan has shared the story of his relationship with his daughter Queen Ifrica, including their initial connection when she reached adulthood and later falling out over his booking fee for a Rebel Salute performance.
During an exclusive interview with DancehallMag, Morgan, 85, revealed that he first heard that he had a daughter through his good friend, Hopeton Lewis, a Reggae singer and promoter.
“I was going to do a show in Montego Bay and I came to the city and that is how I first met her in 1995. Hopeton (Lewis) used to tell me say ‘bwoy Derrick, yu have a daughter who come ah mi shop all the while’. I know of the girl, but I never met her,” Morgan said.
The Blazing Fire singer said that he had a ‘one night stand’ with Ifrica’s mother, who later showed up at his house claiming to be pregnant. “Is a one time ting that. One lick and then bout six weeks or seven weeks, she come by come tell me say she pregnant and mi run her, say she a joker,” the jovial octogenarian said.
“She went away and went to Montego Bay hills with her. Ifrica went to Hopeton Lewis’ shop and said her father name Derrick Morgan, and that’s how Hopeton heard about it,” Morgan added.
Ifrica, who would have been around 22 years old in 1995, made allegations of r**e against her father Derrick Morgan, during an Instagram live stream.
The 48-year-old singer, whose real name is Ventrice Morgan, explained that after she grew up without knowing Morgan, due to her mother’s efforts to keep them apart, she sought a connection with him. She recounted spending time with Morgan during his visits to Jamaica and alleged that the incident occurred during a sleep-over in Kingston, just as she was getting to know singer and Rebel Salute founder Tony Rebel. The two broke up in 2021 after 23 years together.
During her Live video, Ifrica claimed that the alleged experience inspired her activism for abuse survivors and, according to her, was also one source of inspiration for the 2009 song Daddy , which spoke out against sexual assault.
Morgan and his family vehemently denied the allegations, pointing out that the singer is visually impaired and physically disabled. They have since retained attorney at law Charles Ganga-Singh, to pursue legal action against Ifrica.
“It hurts me because a lot of media picked it up and they bashed me as a ra**st, dem ting de hurt me man,” Morgan told DancehallMag. “This act never happened. Her story don’t add up.”
According to Morgan, he first met Ifrica when she was about 22 years old. He recalled staying at a hotel in Montego Bay when Queen Ifrica first showed up.
“The security called me and say my daughter is here to see me and if him muss send her up, and I said ‘hold on, I am sending someone down’, and mi cousin go down and say ‘she look like mi mother’ and decide to take her up the stairs to me. Mi don’t see her, mi nuh know wah she look like all now. Everybody say she favour me, I take it for granted and say yes, mi daughter’, and that’s how I met her,” he said.
From that moment, he said he decided to ‘take her on as a daughter.’
Morgan said he has never done a DNA test to confirm the paternity. “No sah, mi not even know if ah mi pickney all now…and she tell such a lie pon me,” he said.
“Mi come back a Kingston and she come find me and ting and start come look for me frequently. When she come ah my yard, mi always have company. Mi always a lady name Beverley who cook fi me and mi have three daughters who live on the same road, who always there with me,” he said.
Morgan said his daughter would visit him at his home, and occasionally, she would sleep over. He added that Ventrice eventually met with her siblings in the United States.
Years later, Morgan said he became estranged from his daughter Ventrice for a period of six years after a heated conversation over a possible performance at the annual Rebel Salute.
“How me and her get to fall out, Tony Rebel call me up and say he wanted to put me on his show, Rebel Salute. He said how much would I charge him?’, I told him $200,000. He said ‘no Derrick, wah yu a gwaan wid?’. I said, well, give me 150, he said no. So I said ‘wah yu have in mind’, and him say ’50’. So I said ‘listen to me, take that and feed your crackhead friend dem’. Same so mi tell him and hang up the phone,” he related.
Morgan said that Queen Ifrica called him soon after that conversation.
“She said, ‘daddy yu let me down eh nuh’. I didn’t even know she was at Rebel place’. And she say ‘daddy, yu let me down. How oonu gwaan like yu so big and hype inna life? Yu too hype! One day, we soon get yu offa that.'”
Added Morgan: “This is a little pickney weh just grow up, she would be my last one.”
Morgan has been married for almost 57 years, fathering six children with Nellie Lee Morgan (sister of producer Bunny Lee), two of whom later died.
