Aba A Luke

Ja­maica has, for as long as many of us can re­mem­ber, been at the fore­front of Caribbean mu­sic with both its reg­gae and sub­se­quent dance­hall gen­res. From Bob Mar­ley and the Wail­ers, Pe­ter Tosh and Burn­ing Spear, to to­day's Vy­bz Kar­tel, Pop­caan and fe­male sen­sa­tion, Spice, much of what we hear across the ur­ban air­waves in T&T is de­pict­ed by the lifestyles, moods and thoughts of Ja­maican en­ter­tain­ers. While many adults see to­day's dance­hall lyrics as sug­ges­tive, lewd and de­struc­tive to the minds of our young peo­ple, one dance­hall queen is say­ing that while she knows her lyrics are sex­u­al­ly sug­ges­tive, the onus must be on par­ents to en­sure their chil­dren are kept in check, as it re­lates to what they lis­ten to and ab­sorb.

Par­ents, mon­i­tor your chil­dren

Spice is one of Ja­maica's most sought af­ter fe­male artistes these days. With a strong busi­ness sense, this moth­er of one ad­mits that her lyrics are ex­plic­it but adds, "there are many oth­er tracks that every­one can re­late to. My mu­sic isn't for mi­nors so par­ents need to mon­i­tor what their chil­dren lis­ten to. We as artistes can't come in­to the home and take away what your kids lis­ten to."

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian via tele­phone from Ja­maica, Spice, whose re­al name is Grace Hamil­ton said she start­ed off per­form­ing at stage shows in Ja­maica be­fore be­ing in­tro­duced to her man­ag­er, Supreme Pro­mo­tions' Ju­nior Frasi­er, bet­ter known as Heavy D. As the man be­hind the fa­mous Reg­gae/ Dance­hall show, Sting, which is brand­ed as the great­est one night reg­gae show on earth, Spice said she was thrown on stage at the event by the pro­mot­er in 2000. With not even a sin­gle to her name, the bud­ding fe­male en­ter­tain­er was called back to the stage four times. Since then, she said, she has main­tained her charis­ma, bat­tled some of the is­land's best, and con­tin­ues to stand above many in the dance­hall are­na.

Build­ing a Spice em­pire

Re­cent­ly signed to VP records, Spice re­leased a track in late June en­ti­tled Jim Screechy. In it, she speaks of a love tri­an­gle–a top­ic she be­lieves will draw great at­ten­tion among her fans. "The track has been out and every­one is lov­ing it," she said, in a tone that high­light­ed her eu­pho­ria. It's just a taste of the Old Brae­ton com­mu­ni­ty res­i­dent's am­bi­tions, for as she re­vealed, "I have three busi­ness­es. Spicy Cou­ture is my cloth­ing store I opened last year in the New Kingston Mall Plaza. The shop has one of a kind pieces and it's do­ing ex­cep­tion­al­ly well." She al­so has a sa­lon called Spicy Sa­lon, and in late June she launched 8 Ball, a bar and lounge in Port­more. Ex­hal­ing af­ter the rev­e­la­tion, Spice boast­ed, "I'm form­ing an em­pire." Since her first sin­gle, Fight Over Man, six years ago, doors have opened for her. But re­gard­less of her tout in the in­dus­try, she re­mains ground­ed. "I like to stay at home and try to cook Ital­ian meals. My sis­ters laugh at me but I like Ital­ian food, so I'm al­ways try­ing. I am a good Ja­maican cook though."

Caribbean Mu­sic Fes­ti­val a must

When it comes to mu­sic, the fe­male en­ter­tain­er en­joys hip hop and so­ca mu­sic. She high­light­ed that Caribbean mu­si­cians are in need of a Caribbean fo­rum for the show­case of their tal­ent. "We're not giv­en a fair chance on the in­ter­na­tion­al scene. The Caribbean needs to come to­geth­er to put on an in­ter­na­tion­al type of fes­ti­val in a unit­ed way so the tal­ent of all our peo­ple can be show­cased," she said. On the is­sue of crime, she em­pha­sised the need for youths to think be­fore they act. "Crime doesn't help at all. It doesn't pay. As a woman from the ghet­to, I un­der­stand that crime is stirred up from anger. "An in­di­vid­ual may have dis­re­spect­ed you in some way and anger leads you to think of killing them. But bear in mind that when that per­son dies, you still don't get what that per­son may have owed you. There's al­ways a bet­ter way."