NotNice Says VP Sent Him A “Cease And Desist” When Spice’s ‘So Mi Like It’ Blew Up

Dancehall producer NotNice says he had received a “cease and desist” notice from VP Records after Spice’s biggest solo song So Mi Like It, which he produced, blew up.

NotNice was speaking on the Let’s Be Honest podcast with host Jaii Frais, when he made the revelation after the interviewer suggested that the biggest song he ever produced was So Mi Like It.

Appearing hesitant at first, NotNice replied: “It depends pon what yuh call biggest still… Yuh know mi nuh check… Hear wha nuh.  Yuh si So Mi Like It still, was a learning part a my career weh – Suh Mi Like it was just madness.   Mi naw cuss no bad word.”

“It was basically a VP song.  When mi a produce di song, mi nuh know of VP inna di picture. An den when di song blow up, VP come a seh ‘yow Spice a fi dem artiste; cease and desist’.  Dem want di song.  Suh is like, dem seh is either mi gi dem di song, or shelf di song.  Suh mi a seh ‘alright den, mi caan teck outta history seh a me do di song’, so dat still deh deh.  Suh a just good name mi dweet fah man.  Suh mi still naw count Suh Mi Like it.  But mi name still deh pan it same way,” he explained.

So Mi Like It was a huge success for Spice in more ways than one, following its release in 2014. Back then, the Portmore native had said that she was on the brink of quitting music when the song became a hit.

In August last year, So Mi Like It surpassed 100 million YouTube views.   The track which first appeared on Spice’s So Mi Like It EP in late 2014, with other tracks like Conjugal Visit featuring Vybz Kartel and Go Go, was also featured on her Grammy-nominated album 10. 

In 2015, Spice had told The Star tabloid that while she had assumed Dancehall fans would like the track, she had no idea that it would eventually bring her the level of success that it had over the one-year period since it was released.  At that time, the official music video had scored more than 14 million views on her YouTube channel.

“I didn’t expect it to be so huge, but from the moment I recorded it, I knew it was gonna be a hit. I remember saying ‘if da song ya nuh buss, mi ago give up on music’,” she had told the publication.

She had also pointed out that So Mi Like It did not become a hit by chance as she had engaged in copious amounts of street promotion following its release.

In addition to the views, she also said that the song had also resulted in her getting booked for numerous shows “every week with two or three shows every weekend, in sections of Europe, South America and most Caribbean countries.

The song also resulted in Spice beginning to headline shows on her own, with as many as 2,000 people turning out to see her at clubs overseas.

In early 2018, Spice had threatened court action against VP, while complaining that she had signed a contract with the label from 2009 which happened to be “the worst decision” she had ever made in her life, as during all that time they had not released an album for her.

Spice had also explained in another interview, that she had financed her entire career by herself and was the one who promoted her own music,  “because the record company does absolutely nothing for me.”   

“Never sign a contract when you’re too young. Give it a few years, try to be independent and even put out your first album on your own. Do not sign away your publishing,” she had said.

During an interview in 2021, Shaggy, who stepped in to executive-produce Spice’s debut album, pointed out that not only was the singer young at the time of signing with VP Records, but she was also void of proper legal representation.

Shaggy said, too, that in fairness to VP Records, it only took a conversation to come to a solution.

“I don’t think she had the team at the time to have the conversation, and sometimes to have the artist have the conversation, especially if you are an emotional artist like Spice, that conversation won’t go well,” the It Wasn’t Me artist said.

“On the agreement at VP, every single record that she has put out on her own, they also have rights to, under that contract. So whatever it is that they paid her in the initial contract, they have made that over 10 times fold already,” he explained.

Shaggy recalled that all he then had to do was go in there and say, “Let’s create a win-win situation.”

“I happen to find a situation where all parties would win, and VP was very open with it, and we sorted her contract out and started to create a product.”