GRAMMY-nominated singer Spice has ascended the throne, to be crowned the queen of dancehall reggae for this generation. However, she could also be called dancehall’s first lady due to her unprecedented accomplishments over the course of her 25-year career.
Known for her numerous risqué hit singles, creative videos, bawdy stage shows, social media savvy and bold fashion sense, Spice became the first hardcore female dancehall artist to receive a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Reggae Album category. At the 64th GRAMMY Awards, she received the nod for 10, her 2021 debut album, which includes the hit “Go Down Deh” featuring Shaggy and Sean Paul. Spice is also the first Jamaican artist to be a featured character on an American TV series (VH1’s “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta”) and the first Jamaican female dancehall artist to reach 1 billion collective views on YouTube.
Spice is the Founder/CEO of Spice Official Entertainment, through which she will release her third studio album, Mirror 25, on Aug. 9. In another first for a Jamaican artist, she unveiled the album cover on “GMA3.”
The album’s 25 tracks include forays into Afrobeats, soca, R&B, country and, of course, hardcore dancehall. On the album’s first single, “2085 Tea,” Spice ingeniously adopts the persona of a gossip-mongering granny who’s spilling the “tea” on herself. “I’ve gone through trauma, heartache, pain, betrayal, so I didn’t want this gossip to be about other people’s lives,” Spice tells GRAMMY.com of the song. “I wanted it to be about my experiences.”
Born Grace Hamilton in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Spice came from very humble beginnings. She grew up singing in the church and developed a love of performing while still in school.
In 2000 Spice made her first appearance on a major Jamaican stage show, Sting, when Ninja Man, one of the greatest, most feared opponents in verbal clashes, spotted Spice’s talent. When Spice was handed the mic, she did not disappoint. A few years later, dancehall star Baby Cham introduced Spice to his mentor, maverick producer Dave Kelly, for whom she recorded her first hit single, 2005’s “Fight Over Man.”
In 2009, Spice’s career accelerated with her feature on Vybz Kartel’s “Ramping Shop.” With its catchy refrain, raunchy patois lyrics, and the undeniable chemistry between Spice and Kartel, “Ramping Shop” became one of the biggest and most controversial dancehall hits. Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission issued a directive to halt its play on the island’s airwaves but the ban only increased its popularity; “Ramping Shop” spent 15 weeks on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart.
Since then, Spice’s has released numerous explicit singles accompanied by imaginative videos including “Sheet,” “Needle Eye” and “So Mi Like it” — each of which can be viewed as liberated expressions of female sexuality or “slackness” (vulgarity). However, Spice’s music also addresses topical issues such as sexism, on “Think Like A Man”, and corrupt policing on “Po-Po” inspired by Black Lives Matter and featuring an impressive verse from Spice’s teenaged son Nicho. Among Spice’s most impactful songs is “Black Hypocrisy,” prompted by a derisive social media comment about Spice’s dark complexion.
Spice has survived poverty, homelessness and in 2022, a health scare that almost brought her remarkable journey to a premature end. Ahead of the release of Mirror 25, which she calls “a raw open diary of her triumphs and tribulations” Spice reflected on her life, career, and spilled a little more tea, with GRAMMY.com.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Congratulations on your 25th anniversary. Does it feel like 25 years have passed since you started?
It feels like it was just yesterday; I can vividly remember each year as I struggled to make it to this point. I remember in 1999, when Bounty Killer handed me the microphone in my community so I could go onstage and showcase my talent; in 2000 when I did my first major performance on Sting in Jamaica and Ninja Man helped me make a name for myself by calling me onstage; when Baby Cham helped me to get my first hit song, “Fight Over Man,” by introducing me to Dave Kelly.
But I’m always reminded of my struggle, it has not been an overnight success. I’ve been through a lot to get to this point; to become a GRAMMY nominated queen of dancehall was not a walk in the park.
Tell me about the songs, the topics that you’ve written about on ‘Mirror 25’?
As the queen of dancehall, I want to make sure that I represent the genre as authentically as possible, with that hardcore dancehall sound, so the listener will know that’s a girl from Jamaica. On tracks [such as “Gangster” with Chronic Law, featuring Ireland Boss] you can hear the sound system, the bassline, you can almost smell the ackee and saltfish and jerk chicken.
I have a song that could go on the R&B chart. I have a song about what happened in my past relationship [“Ex Boyfriend”], which will be very relatable to women because that song asks, why do men do the things that they do to women? They can’t live without us but treat us in a manner that is degrading sometimes.
There are dancing songs [and] collaborations with Jamaican women; we’re singing about our power as women. My fan base has grown tremendously so there’s an Afrobeats collaboration and we are going into the Indian market. I give all praise to Him after my near-death experience, so there’s a little bit of worship, too.
Towards the end of 2022 we heard rumors that you weren’t well and possibly were in a coma. Please explain what happened.
I was in the Dominican Republic, I had breast augmentation. While I was there my hernia erupted and sent my body into a sepsis shock.
I felt like I died because of what I went through. At one point, I had an out of body experience. I saw pictures of the sepsis that had eaten away at my skin; I shared the pictures with my fans. I was literally laying there with an open stomach, without skin. It was a traumatic experience but through the grace of God, somehow, he brought me back to normal.
Did you fear that you wouldn’t be able to resume your career?
Oh, absolutely. This happened in November 2022 and for the rest of that year, and throughout 2023, I was in and out of the hospital. The sepsis also affected some of my organs. I did surgery to fix another hernia that they caused when they opened my chest up to save my life. By the grace of God, I completed my final surgery, and the hernia was repaired.
Watching you perform on stage now, you twerk, “wine up your waist,”do splits. If we didn’t know what had happened, we would never guess you have been through such an ordeal.
God is good, I give Him all the praise.
The first single from ‘Mirror 25,’ “2085 Tea” is so cleverly written and delivered as you get your jabs in about certain people including your children’s father, “Love and Hip-Hop Atlanta” castmates and your back up dancer who allegedly had an affair with your now ex-boyfriend. How did the song come together?
It started when I figured out what I wanted to call my album. When I look in the mirror, I do a lot of self-reflection, thinking about my past, the things I’ve managed to overcome, and I wondered, what will I be doing when I get older? So, the album’s name, Mirror 25 birthed the idea of putting myself in 2085 and talking about what I’ve been through. And if I’m in the future, obviously, I’m going to be an older person, so I started talking in my granny voice and I thought, oh my God, that’s an idea.
I love the way you are styled for your portrayal of a granny in the video: gray wig, pearls, long skirt, and the vintage TV set, the room’s décor looks like a grandmother’s home. Were all of the things we see in the video your idea?
The ideas are all me, but I have a team of people that execute them. I called my makeup artist, Nosworthy Creations and asked, “How can I make my face look more wrinkled, like an older person?” She said “you can use a prosthetic, they do that in movies.” So she reached out to someone who works on movie sets and they told her what to put on my face; that process took six hours to apply then dry on my face to make it appear wrinkled.
JD Production and [director] Spex found the old TV and the place that looked like an older person’s home. Empress the Glam did my hair although I’m mad at her because I wanted a little blue in the gray hair because even when I’m old, I’m going to be wearing my blue. [Laughs.] I was so happy with the outcome, but it was a very long process.
Busta Rhymes is featured on the country/dancehall/hip-hop track “Round Round.” In June 2023, the BET Awards celebrated hip-hop’s 50th and honored Busta; he invited you to perform as part of the tribute segment. What was that experience like?
I was excited to celebrate in that moment, it’s one of my greatest memories with Busta and within that segment with other Caribbean artists, I made sure I represented the Caribbean in a way that’s true to myself. Because it was BET, some people thought that I shouldn’t [dance] in the style that I usually do.
I’m not sure if people understand that before you appear on TV, your song and performance have to be approved. It’s not like Busta called me up from the audience; anything I did on the stage that night was rehearsed, approved. There were mixed reactions to my performance, like oh my God, why did she dance like that? Because that’s the way I dance and as the queen of dancehall, I’m always going to authentically represent dancehall culture.
Tell me about recording “Round Round.”
“Round Round” is a country western dancehall blend. [Jamaican producer] YowLevite, who put the riddim together said, “There’s too much going on, the riddim sounds like country, it sounds like dancehall.” I said, “Give me the riddim, I’ll know what to do with it.” I stayed true to myself as a dancehall artist, but I sound a little country, too. It’s unique and I thought, who else is that unique to bring the elements of hip-hop, country and dancehall together on one song? Busta was the only person who came to mind.
I recorded my part, sent it to him, and he said “Boss lady, it’s a big tune”; that floored me because I didn’t expect that response, he loved the track. Working with Busta, an icon, is humbling to my spirit because he is such a sweetheart, always encouraging, always pushing our Jamaican culture. I’m very honored to collaborate with him on “Round Round.” People want to dance to it, it makes people happy and that makes it more fun for me.
How do you handle criticism like what you received about your dancing on BET, the disparaging comments on social media, even the bashing from other artists?
I call my fans “besties” because I make them feel like they are my best friends; my besties say I don’t deal well with criticism, I need to leave certain things alone. But sometimes when these criticisms get too much, I will go live and say, “Come besties, let’s talk about it.”
I address many things because if you leave many things, people will believe many things. If someone spreads a rumor about me, or if something comes out that I need to clear up, I will clear it up. It’s been 25 years, like I said, it wasn’t a walk in the park to reach here so I’m not going to sit back and let anybody tarnish my brand.
Read more:The Women Essential To Reggae And Dancehall
How has dancehall changed in the 25 years you’ve been doing it?
Dancehall has evolved drastically: the creative process has changed, and new sounds were born. More people are discovering the genre on a larger scale. More artists, especially females, have a voice now.
Technology has modernized our releases, whereas in the past, I used to print CDs, walk around and hand them out to taxi and bus drivers to promote my music. Today, I’m on TikTok and Instagram with the touch of a button.
How have you changed as an artist?
My fans also know me as an entrepreneur, I’ve been a businesswoman for many years. I have my clothing company, Gracie Noir, which is leisure wear, specializing in track suits for travel. I recently released a book, The Navigational Yearly Planner; I’m trying to help my fans become more organized, more business savvy, learn financial literacy. That has helped me with my record label where I have to write out everything that has to be done when releasing music.
I’ve also grown more spiritually, professionally, mentally. I’m a better person in a better state of mind, I have more knowledge on the business of music. I was stuck in a contract with VP Records for 10 of my 25 years, they didn’t release my album (hence, her debut album’s title, 10). My [2018] Captured mixtape addresses that, because I felt like I was captured.
I’ve learned so much about publishing, releasing music, getting it out to the DSPs. That’s why I’m so excited about Mirror 25 because I’m releasing it on my own label, Spice Official Entertainment.
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