Spice interview: 'I represent the entirety of Caribbean music. I’m standing out in dancehall and taking over the genre'

Hair is everything for the Queen of dancehall. “When I take on the persona of Spice, I have blue hair,” says the Jamaican star, whose real name is Grace Hamilton, flicking her mane. “When I’m Grace, I have black hair.”

Sitting in a nondescript hotel room in Shepherd’s Bush, and in character, Spice, aged 37, is a riot of colour: the fantastic blue wig, bright yellow nails, flaming orange dress. It’s hard to believe she’s come straight from a long-haul flight from Kingston, her journey delayed by a lengthy wait at customs. Not that it’s dampened her spirits.

“I represent the entirety of Caribbean music,” she states confidently. “I’m standing out in dancehall and taking over the genre. It means a lot to me to know that I’m going to represent here in London.”

She’s here for a headline set on the Red Bull Stage at Notting Hill Carnival, following a successful show two years ago. “It was a memorable performance,” she says. “But this time, it’s going to be mad energy. It’s going to be all my usual antics.” She grins: “And I won’t be wearing too much.”

Mad energy is right. Spice is one of the biggest musicians to emerge from the Caribbean in recent years, racking up tens of millions of views on YouTube with her vibrant videos, and feel-good, often ferociously sexually charged songs. She describes her music, tongue-in-cheek, as “songs for adult entertainment”. She laughs, mentioning her son and daughter, “I think I have a lot of explaining to do when my kids really find out what mummy is doing at work!”

Her success is all the more remarkable given she has little in the way of a usual team — “I have to make myself be 10 different persons. I act as my manager, I act as my entire record company” — and because she’s come out on top in a male-dominated genre. “I applaud myself for the amount of females in the business right now. I kind of gave them a confidence to step out,” she says.

It’s not been a straightforward claim on the throne. Spice has been grinding for more than a decade, including with larger-than-life appearances on VH1 reality show Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta and the single Romping Shop with Vybz Kartel in 2009. Her biggest moment, though, came with 2018 single Black Hypocrisy. The track saw her speak expressively on the subject of skin tone (“I was told I would reach further/ If the colour of mi’ skin was lighter”).

“My intention was basically to represent people with dark skin, and tell women they were beautiful,” she says. The accompanying publicity shot proved provocative, though, with Spice pictured with dramatically lighter skin and her wig suddenly bright blonde. The image went viral, sparking a race debate online, but while she “definitely never expected it to be so big”, she was pleased to have opened up a wider discussion. “I was happy that I was able to bring such a sensitive topic worldwide. Even if it was in a negative way, my mission was accomplished because I got people talking about it.”

This weekend, she’s focused on enjoying London, her “second home”. In her early teens she lived with family in Finsbury Park and she’s happily surprised to hear fellow Caribbean star Rihanna is similarly besotted – “She has a house in London? Hopefully I can get to do a song with her.” Watch this space — she’s promised an album next year.

For now though, Spice is set to light up the Carnival on Sunday, in a homecoming of sorts for the Queen of Dancehall. Long may she reign.