Spice, Vybz Kartel’s ‘Conjugal Visit’ Hits 100 Million Views On YouTube
Conjugal Visit, the 2014 hit song by Dancehall stars Spice and Vybz Kartel, surpassed 100 million views on YouTube on Monday (May 8).
It is Kartel’s first music video to crack the 100 million views milestone, with his 2011 video for Summertime not far behind at 98.5 million views on the platform.
For Queen of Dancehall Spice, it’s a hat trick! 🎩🐇.
Conjugal Visit is her third video to strut past the milestone, joining her 2021 track Go Down Deh with Shaggy and Sean Paul (a whopping 189 million views) and her 2014 track So Mi Like It (currently at 114 million views).
Produced by Linton ‘TJ’ White, the song, which appeared on Spice’s five-track EP So Mi Like It, was another wildly successful collaboration between Spice and Kartel since their 2009 hit, Rompin’ Shop.
The music video for Conjugal Visit, on which Spice served as Creative Director, succinctly captures the track’s raunchy vibe and drew inspiration from Vybz Kartel’s life as a then freshly incarcerated artist – even featuring a striking look-alike of the Gaza Boss.
In 2014, Spice revealed that the song was supposed to be a more timely follow-up to Rompin’ Shop.
“It’s a song that we did from 2009. It was supposed to be a follow-up to Rompin’ Shop, but we didn’t get a chance to release it because we came under so much [pressure] from the Broadcasting Commission,” she told Onstage host Winford Williams.
The pressure Spice referenced was a directive issued by the Broadcasting Commission, which banned Rompin’ Shop and other sexually explicit and violent songs from the airwaves. The ban, administered under the guidance of then Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, Hopeton Dunn, instructed: “There shall not be transmitted through radio or television, any recording, live song or music video which promotes the act of ‘daggering’ or which makes reference to, or is otherwise suggestive of ‘daggering.’”
Following the ban and widespread public discussion sparked by songs like Rompin’ Shop, Conjugal Visit was indefinitely shelved. That would change, however, when Spice’s So Mi Like It was released four years later.
“With So Mi Like It being such a popular hit, with almost 10 million views [since its release that year], mi affi go inna mi thinking cap… and mi a seh, ‘Wa mi ago do?’ Mi affi come wid something fi top da So Mi Like It song ya, and Vybz Kartel was the only person I could draw fa ‘cause yuh know seh a him still a run round,” Spice explained.
She added: “I called ‘TJ’ and I was like ‘Yuh see da song deh? Mi need yuh fi dust it off. Mi need it. Right now!”
Spice even disclosed the story behind the song’s name, indicating to Williams that it was an unnamed project, and was only named following Vybz Kartel’s incarceration.
“It didn’t have a name at that time, but because of the whole situation with Vybz Kartel being incarcerated, that’s the only name suitable for the song,” she reasoned.
Spice and Kartel’s collaborations also include Back Way (2019), Private Message (2021), and Worlds Apart (2022).