Spice

Spice, born 6 August 1982 in Spanish Town and raised in Portmore, Jamaica, is a dancehall deejay, singer, and songwriter widely known as the “Queen of Dancehall.” She grew up singing in church and studied music and drama at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. She made her stage debut at the Sting festival in 2000 and released her first single, “Complain,” in 2003. Her first hit, “Fight Over Man,” came in 2005.

Her breakthrough was “Romping Shop” with Vybz Kartel (2009), which spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and was later ranked among the best dancehall songs of all time by Pitchfork. “So Mi Like It” (2013) became the most-viewed music video by a female Jamaican artist on YouTube. In 2016 she was the first woman dancehall artist nominated for the MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act. She joined VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta in 2017 and later became a main cast member. She also drew attention in 2018 by appearing to lighten her skin in order to highlight colorism in the Black community, releasing “Black Hypocrisy” as a follow-up. Her mixtape Captured (2018) debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. Her debut studio album, 10 (2021), included “Go Down Deh” with Shaggy and Sean Paul, which went Platinum in Canada, a first for a Jamaican female dancehall artist. She then left VP Records to release Emancipated (2022) and Mirror 25 (2024) independently through her own label, Spice Official Entertainment. She also runs a foundation supporting women through education and entrepreneurship, and has owned several businesses, including the clothing line Graci Noir.