Queen Of Dancehall Spice: The ‘Emancipated’ Interview

Just a little over a year since the release of her debut album 10 , Spice is on the eve of premiering her sophomore project—Emancipated. The nine-track set, which was predominantly produced by the Grammy-nominated entertainer, also features credits to Stealth Group and United Masters for distribution.

Originally scheduled to be released on August 19, 2022, the So Mi Like It singer was forced to push it back an extra week due to a demanding agenda and will be dropping the album on Friday, August 26, 2022, on all major platforms.

DancehallMag had an extensive conversation with the St. Catherine native turned international superstar about her latest project, the state of Dancehall, motherhood, and her hopes for her career as it moves into its third decade.

If you had to summarize the album, how would you?

Ummm, if I had to summarize this album I would probably summarize it by saying it’s gonna take you to a happy place. It’s a burst of energy. Very versatile; so it doesn’t matter what mood you’re in there’s gonna be a song on the album that can captivate your mood depending on what mood you’re in. So, I have energetic songs, I have something that is very calm, and mellow, something that is club banging, something that’s gonna make you get up and dance. It has all to fit your mood.

What are your hopes for the album?

My hopes for the album is for it to take me to a place that I’ve never been. And when I say that, I’ve been to a lot of places throughout this universe; but I’m trying to see if this can take me to a new market, a new level, new growth. It’s all about new, new for me so that’s what I’m hoping for this album…to take me to a place that I’ve never been.

It was supposed to be released last week, but there was a delay. Why did you think now was the perfect time to release it?

I feel like now is the perfect time, to be honest. I wanted this project to come out on the first of August which is actually Emancipation Day, but because of a lot of different reasons—my schedule didn’t allow me to do a lot of things because I’m always on tour, I’m always traveling I just came off an extensive tour where I was in multiple different countries so the time to balance doing a lot of stuff did not allow me. As you you, it’s a project where I’m doing independently and I wanted to make sure I’m hands on on most of the things so I had to push back from August first. We pushed it back two weeks, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough time. So I was like, no matter what happens, it has to drop in August. You know I’m an August baby my birthday just passed, I’m celebrating Emancipated so I just really wanted to have an August project and we ended up with a Friday which is this Friday and I was like yeah, let’s go for it.

I was looking through the list of songs, and I realized that there are no collabs. 

I personally feel like I’m celebrating me, so I wanted it to be about me. I’m also the producer for most of the songs. If you notice, it’s Spice Official Ent. Production, so, I just wanted to do a project that celebrates me and that’s really why I wasn’t big on trying to do collabs for this project. Maybe the other project I’ll have collabs, but this time, I just wanted to celebrate me and my freedom.

You were nominated for a Grammy for your first album. How did you feel about that nomination and what was your reaction when you didn’t win?

I felt like, it’s something I’ve reaped. It’s like I’ve sowed them seeds and I’m reaping one of the major benefits. It was a major deal to be Grammy nominated because whether I walked away a winner or not, I still have that attached to my name. You still have to say, “the Grammy nominated Queen of Dancehall” which is a major accomplishment. The fact that I didn’t win, even though I didn’t physically get the award, I felt like I still walked away a winner to be the honest. I was the people’s choice. I was the most talked about artist in that category. Everybody was talking about me. They wanted me to win, there was a big uproar and so I feel like I walked away a winner in the end.

Do you think that you will ever experiment with any other genres on future projects and not just stick to Dancehall?

Music is a universal language, so absolutely! I don’t think I’m gonna limit you say oh, only gonna stick to Dancehall. I’m sure in the future, if needs be, I’ll definitely dabble into another genre.

Do you have a favourite song on your new album?

Well, I have a lot of favourite songs. I was talking to Stealth Music and they asked me what song is that one song that we need to emphasize on pushing and I’m like, that’s a difficult one for me to choose because I feel like I have so many great songs on this project. So I will say to you that’s a hard question for me to answer. I can’t really choose one because there are so many of them that I like and because I penned all of them and I penned them from the heart I’m kinda super passionate about which one is better because there are all so different and have different meanings so I couldn’t choose which one but I love a lot of them.

With many entertainers, they usually have a huge amount of songs to choose from for an album, then they narrow it down. Was that the case for you?

I think I recorded quite a few songs. I kinda cheated when we were making the selections because (bursts out in laughter) when Stealth Music and I were coming together and they were like, OK, let’s listen to the songs; I already eliminated what I made them listen (continues laughter).

I recorded so many songs for this project and I was like oh my God, how am I gonna choose that and I sat down one day and I narrowed it down to 20 or 30 and presented that to them and now we have nine songs, but I had already chosen the songs that I really loved overall to come to this selection of nine.

Are you pleased with how promotion has been going for this new project?

I’m super pleased. I don’t think I can complain. To be honest, if they weren’t doing a great job I personally wouldn’t know because I’ve been a one woman army for 20 years. I’ve done everything for myself. This is the first time I’ve had a team of people who are really there for me like putting out this project correctly. Having a promotional team, a PR team, setting up campaigns and stuff like that. To have a team now, even if they weren’t doing pretty good (laughs) it would look like they’re moving mountains for me so I personally think they’re doing an extremely great job. I can tell that they’re passionate about this project and it warms my heart to know that.

How does it feel to be officially crowned as the Queen of Dancehall?

It’s another great moment. At the end of the day, Dancehall is a big genre with multiple talented artists so to be the head of that genre as a woman it speaks volume in a male dominated business. For me it’s a great accomplishment to be officially crowned the Queen. I’ve always been the Queen. There was nobody that can top the things that I’ve done in Dancehall and the historic moments that I’ve set in the past. To just be officially crowned was another addition onto the brand.

As the Queen, are you pleased with the trajectory that Dancehall is on right now? Not just in Jamaica, but on the global stage.

It’s making moves. A lot of new and upcoming talented people are making strides and becoming impactful. But sometimes, when I look on other genres, and other milestones that they’ve set, knowing the impact that the culture itself has on other genres, I personally feel like Dancehall should be at a place where it’s bigger than what it is. I’m hoping that in the near future we’ll get greater recognition and that more artists will be honoured on a global scale and it won’t be so hard for us to cross over because of looks and appearances. That is something I have been fighting for to show them that it’s possible and can be done. I feel like because Dancehall has influenced so many genres, it should’ve been bigger than what it is today.

Would you collaborate with any of the up-and-coming acts?

Absolutely! Skillibeng is one of the artists that’s doing extremely well in the music business right now. I’ve collaborated with him before [on Richer ]. I’m also doing a collaboration with Brysco right now who is a new artist from Jamaica and I’m in talks with doing other collabs. I’ve definitely collaborated with other major upcoming artists.

Pamputtae is one artist that’s another young female from Jamaica who’s been in the business for a while that I’ve collaborated with and Tifa…a lot of names. I’m definitely that type of person to always collab with people. I just did a song [ Werk ] with Karlie Redd who is also from Love & Hip Hop …gave her  her first number one Reggae song. It’s actually number one on the US Reggae iTunes Chart and I just also collaborated with Stefflon Don [on Clockwork ] who is also number one on the UK iTunes Charts. So, I have two number one songs. One on the UK and one on the US Reggae iTunes Chart simultaneously. That’s another historic, iconic moment.

When you were in studio working on those songs, did you expect them to be so successful?

Absolutely! I expected them to be successful because I never allow anything to leave the studio if I don’t feel it as a success or it’s a great song. I think I already have an open mind to know that it’s gonna be a great song because I wouldn’t allow it to leave the studio. I wouldn’t sign off on it.

Karlie Redd—if you watch Love & Hip Hop, you’ll see us going through a motion of emotions because I had her record that song maybe over 20 times and I’m not exaggerating and she couldn’t see why I was giving her such a hard time. But I explained to her: not because we’re friends, you have to know that I take my work and my craft seriously. So I’m not going to sign off on a song until it’s ready so it took her a lot of time to re-record the song until I thought that it was perfect.

You wear so many hats, and one of the major ones is that you’re a mother. How do you balance motherhood with your different career responsibilities especially now since it’s back to school time?

Well, you know I’m very dramatic when it comes to being a mother and the persona that I’ve created on stage as Spice and being a mom I actually literally wear two different hair colour so that people can differentiate. My fans who I call my best friends because I’m an open book to them, when they see me in black hair, they address me as Grace Hamilton or Miss Hamilton. I express to them oftentimes when I’m a mom or you see me with my kids, that’s a totally different different person from that image that I’ve created with you guys. I don’t allow my daughter to listen to the type of songs that I sing because I do lewd songs; it’s very evident that I do explicit lyrics. As a mother, I’m a totally different person. When I’m home, I’m just that country girl from Jamaica. I cook for my kids, I clean the house, normally I sing my church songs… I’m just like a totally different person than what they know as Spice. It’s completely two different personas (chuckles).

Thank you, Spice. That should be all. Unless you want to say something to your fans?

I just want my fans to know that, they know already how much I love them and care for each and every one of them. I just wanna say thank you to them for not giving up on me because being that I’ve been doing everything on my own they could’ve backed out long time. But they stuck with me for the past 10 years battling to be free and now that I’m free I just wanna say thank you to them and now it’s time to celebrate this Emancipated project, together.

Spice’s Emancipated will be released on August 26.  Clap Clap, the first single from the project, was released on July 22.