Nyanda, Of Brick & Lace, Talks ‘Love Is Wicked’ Going Viral Again, Label Troubles And Plans For The Future
In recent months, the Jamaican duo Brick & Lace has been figuring out how to handle their sudden popularity boom. Their music has racked up tens of millions of fresh plays and their once-shelved debut album, Love is Wicked, was finally released globally after fifteen years—albeit, without their knowledge. What makes this career resurgence all the more surprising is that the duo’s members, sisters Nyla and Nyanda Thorbourne, haven’t released much new material together in the last decade. In fact, Brick & Lace officially disbanded in 2013.
Such is the power of TikTok. The hook of their 2007 single Love Is Wicked has rippled through the platform, reeling in over a hundred million views, mostly on content where users poke fun at themselves and their relationship woes. “Tears on my pillow cah your love is wicked,” starts the chorus atop Steven “Lenky” Marsden’s infectious Diwali Riddim, forging a fitting soundtrack to people dancing and laughing their sorrows away. “They warned us,” reads the commonly-captioned refrain.
Nyanda was already juggling motherhood with her solo career when this renewed spotlight on Brick & Lace was flung into the mix. She dropped a four-song EP last year and was in the middle of pushing the project’s title track, All Fruits Ripe with Stonebwoy, when she got the call that Love is Wicked was taking flight once more.
Now, as fans new and old clamor for fresh music and shows, she’s faced with a dilemma: where to take Brick & Lace with Nyla, and what that means for Nyanda, the solo artist.
Read on as Nyanda discusses going viral again, label troubles, her new music, and plans for the future.
What was your initial reaction to seeing the song trending on TikTok?
My sister [Nyla] and I were shocked. First of all, we weren’t even really on TikTok. I had an account but wasn’t very active because I was mostly just working my Instagram and my Facebook.
So one day my artist friend, Melxdie, called me and she said, “Your song is viral.” And I’m like, “What?”
We were just flabbergasted. We saw how many millions of views people were giving to posts of our song and it was just crazy.
How did you take advantage of that viral momentum?
Nyla and I are finally active on TikTok and we’re getting more engaged with the fans. It’s a new fan base; a younger generation. It’s also some of the old fans that are starting to rediscover Brick & Lace. So the dots are connecting.
@nyandabrickandlace A Lill #Loveiswicked serenade fior y’all. This is actually @nylabricknlace ‘s part lol. So glad we are finally reconnecting ❤️🔥🎇❤️🔥 #fyp #loveiswicked #nyanda brickandlace. #wefoundbrickandlace
We also have a Love is Wicked clothing line that we’ve been working on, so now we’re starting to promote our merch. We had the line before, but now we’re giving it a harder push.
Also, we got a call from another friend that said, “Guys, your album is released on Spotify.” So we were like, “What?” The label didn’t even call us. This was actually a call from a fan, Kyle Warrell – Brick & Lace’s biggest fan from day one.
So our album had done well in parts of Europe and in Africa. But [the label] never released it in the U.S. Now with this explosion of the song on TikTok and everything, they were like, “Oh, you know what? Let’s just go ahead and release the album globally.”
This is fifteen years on now and it’s a classic album. It’s funny because a lot of the Brick & Lace fans know this album, and I’m very proud of it to this day. Some people think it’s just about Love is Wicked – that one song – but there are actually really good songs on the album for people to check out.
What was the label’s reasoning behind limiting the album’s release like that?
That’s kinda what we wanted to know, too. I think what happened at the time was the album and the song really exploded more over on the Europe side and the Africa side. But I guess it just wasn’t received the same way in America. I think DJs were telling us the Diwali Riddim was old, that they didn’t wanna play it anymore.
And they even had our Love is Wicked song at the label sitting down for quite some time before we were like, “Hey, this is a good song. Let’s go with Love is Wicked.” I think when you make it sometimes in other territories, the labels in the U.S. kind of don’t care. And that’s pretty much what happened. So they just shelved our album.
And now fifteen years later, because of TikTok, they’re like, Oh, let’s release the album. Go freaking figure.
So how did you move forward from that experience with your label?
We made the most of it. We toured Europe a lot, we toured Africa a lot. We focused a lot on those territories, and we still have strong fan bases over there. It’s funny because they know Brick & Lace in the U.S., but it’s kind of an underground, cult following.
But that’s what we had to do. We just had to work. As an artist, you just have to go where the people love you, you know? And where you’re getting that response.
After the success of Love is Wicked on TikTok, did you shift more focus to that platform over others like Instagram?
I’m still working my Instagram because I still have a following there. And I think you can multi-purpose your content and post a lot of the same stuff on all of these platforms.
But I think TikTok is a platform where you can have more fun with it and show other sides of your creativity than Instagram, Facebook, and others. So I think I’m just learning to have fun with it and not let it feel like a job or something that I have to do.
@nylabricknlace When your husband doesn’t even know the lyrics to your own song #loveiswicked #loveiswickedchallenge #couplestiktok #couple #jokes #nylabricknlance #nyla #loveiswickedbrickandlace #brickandlace
You released a different version of All Fruits Ripe with Pink Panda back in 2019, which had a house music feel to it. But you’d clearly believed in the concept because you went and re-imagined it in this Afrobeats style, which you released this year. So what was it about the original idea that made you come back to it and reinterpret it on this Stonebwoy collab?
So I initially did All Fruits Ripe on the Afrobeats version and that’s the song that Pink Panda heard. They really wanted to use it to make their own version, and that’s what we ended up releasing first.
I wasn’t really used to that genre, though. The Afrobeats was my original idea for the song, but I was like, Okay, let’s do it and let’s see what you guys are feeling. So we did that and I just reserved the right to use it in the Afrobeats style when I was ready. At the time, I might have just been promoting something else.
Eventually, it came back full circle with All Fruits Ripe with the Afrobeats track. I really wanted to get an Afrobeats artist for that song, but somebody who kinda understands the dynamic of our yaad vibes, our Jamaican vibes. So of course, that’s Stonebwoy. He’s so talented, so I was like, I want Stonebwoy to do a verse on this.
We weren’t physically together while recording, but we made it work through WhatsApp calls. I love what he put on it. I love the dynamic of his voice, the melody and the flow that he put into it.
Where do you want to take Brick & Lace and your solo career from here?
This situation [with TikTok] is teaching me to go with the flow because I’m thinking, okay so what do I do now? This is happening with Brick & Lace but I’m pursuing my solo career. Do I stop my solo work and do Brick & Lace?
I love what I’m doing as a solo artist, regardless. I know it doesn’t have the same success as Brick & Lace, but it’s like, whatever. I still love what I’m doing. I’m still proud of my music and what I represent as Nyanda.
I’ve been asking people for advice on whether or not I should put a pause on the solo stuff. It’s difficult to move with Brick & Lace right now because Nyla has two young kids. My daughters are a bit older, so it’s easier for me to move. Her daughter is one so this is a time of motherhood.
So I think I’m gonna work the two, man. I’m gonna work them two engines. I’m still gonna pursue my solo career. And I’m gonna do as much Brick & Lace as I can because I still love Brick & Lace. I’m a diehard Brick & Lace fan. That’s who I am. I built that as my brand as well, so I don’t wanna neglect that.
I think Nyla and I just need to figure out that balance as two moms. We’ll find a way to work it. As my song says, I got the juice, I got the, I got the, I got the juice. Brick & Lace got juice! Nyanda got juice! Nyla got juice! We got juice!