Spice Says She’s The First ‘Hardcore’ Female Dancehall Artist To Be Nominated For Reggae Grammy
Still euphoric over her Best Reggae Album Grammy nomination, Dancehall diva Spice has pointed out that she was the first “hardcore” female Dancehall artist to be nominated for the award. This morning, Spice took to Instagram Live for a short interaction where she pointed out to her fans her new discovery that the nominees and winner, before her, were all Reggae albums.
“All of these people are Reggae artistes, Reggae artistes. So a first a Dancehall hardcore woman a get nominated fi Reggae album of the year. It has never been done before. Suh don’t gwaan like is a likkle ting. Is a big ting. Is a very big ting,” she said.
“Historic Moment in Dancehall. Ladies it’s possible Let’s goooooo we got this✊🏿 Big up my sisters who paved the way. Rita Marley 1992; Judy Mowatt 1986; Etana 2018; Koffee 2019; Spice 2022,” she then wrote in part on her Instagram page.
Her list though, mistakenly omitted Sister Carol.
Considered a foundation and cultural deejay, Sister Carol, a Rastafarian, was known to blend Dancehall riddims and conscious lyrics. She was nominated for Best Reggae Album 25 years ago (in 1996) for Lyrically Potent, which included a mixture of straight deejay tracks on some of the popular Dancehall beats at the time, as well as Reggae songs on which she sing-jayed.
The album included the Dancehall tracks Red Eye, Dread Natty Congo, Strong and Fit, and the Dancehall/Hip Hop-fused Can’t Stop Reggae, in which she deejayed, in the intro, that she’s “hardcore” with “lyrics galore”.
On Monday, for the first time in the 36 year history of the Best Reggae Album category, two women, one being Reggae songstress Etana and the other being Spice, were nominated simultaneously for the award. Spice was nominated for 10, while second-time nominee Etana, copped her a nomination for her album Pamoja.
The other nominations were Sean Paul for his Live N Livin album, Jesse Royal for Royal, Gramps Morgan for Positive Vibration, and American band SOJA for Beauty in the Silence.
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will take place at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Monday, January 31, 2022.
Apart from Spice and Sister Carol, only four other women have been previously nominated in the category, others being Koffee, who won in 2020 with her Rapture EP; Rita Marley who was nominated for We Must Carry On in 1991; Judy Mowatt for Working Wonders in 1985, and Etana for Reggae Forever in 2018.
Spice’s 10 is her first studio album and was executive-directed by Dancehall megastar Shaggy. Released by VP Records, the album includes Spice’s biggest hit So Mi Like It and Go Down Deh, which also features Shaggy and Sean Paul.