Jamaican-born Grace Latoya Hamilton is a philanthropist, businesswoman, DJ, and singer-songwriter. She is among the most well-known Jamaican artists in the past ten years. She built a name for herself in the fiercely competitive dancehall reggae music industry after beginning her singing career in the church choir. She has also worked with well-known musicians like Missy Elliot, Mya, and Busta Rhymes.
Childhood & Formative Years
In the St. Catherine parish of southeast Jamaica, at the “Spanish Town Hospital,” she was born on August 6, 1982. She grew up in the Jamaican town of Portmore.
When she was nine years old, her father passed away. She spent a few years living in the UK with her grandparents. Her grandparents were residents of London, UK’s Finsbury Park. She returned to Jamaica after completing a portion of her education in the UK.
She enrolled at “St. Catherine High School” in Jamaica. She regularly attended the “Jamaica Cultural Development Commission” (JCDC) festival while she was a student at this institution. She received numerous medals from the festival over the years. She led the church choir while she was a student in Jamaica.
Her first goal was to become a certified public accountant. She did, however, ultimately choose to go into music as a career. She enrolled at Kingston, Jamaica’s “Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.” She attended the college and pursued a course in acting and music.
Career of Spice
While still in college, she started her music career. She began playing with dancehall music and picked up music mixing skills. She began performing at local gigs and making appearances at DJ parties.
Her first significant break as a singer and DJ was in 2000 when she was eighteen years old. She had the opportunity to play at the annual “Sting” dancehall music festival that year.
Despite being a relatively unknown performer, the crowd gave her a lot of praise for her performance at “Sting.” The festival-goers asked her to perform several of her songs again.
Professionals in the Jamaican music industry took notice of the audience’s reaction to her performance at the “Sting Festival,” as the event was renowned for its gregarious and outspoken attendees. She must have had exceptional talent if she could have attracted the unforgiving audience at the “Sting Festival.”
Following her triumphant debut at the “Sting Festival,” Earlton Clarke served as her manager for the next two years. She was discovered in 2002 while on tour in the UK by Jamaican musician Baby Cham, who then connected her with another Jamaican musician, producer David “Dave” Kelly. She began a fruitful partnership with Kelly when she released some singles produced by him under his record label, “Madhouse Records.” “Complain (Mi Gone),” her debut track for “Madhouse Records,” dropped. The instrumental “Bad Gal riddim” approach served as the basis for her next singles for the label. The hits “Hype” and “Right There” (with Toi) were two examples.
She worked with legendary Jamaican musician Jimmy Cliff in 2004. She had a cameo in Cliff’s song “I Want I Do I Get” off his album “Black Magic.” She made an appearance in the 2006 song “Hot” off of Jamaican reggae musician Beenie Man’s album “Concept of Life.”
2008 was a significant year for her because it saw the release of her joint hit “Romping Shop,” which she co-wrote with Vybz Kartel, a dancehall musician from Jamaica. Due to its graphic lyrics, the song was banned by the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, making it both her most controversial and first significant hit. The song was listed as one of the greatest “Reggaeton Choruses of the 21st century” by Billboard and peaked at number 76 on the “Billboard US R&B” charts. FM radio stations in the US also loved it, and they played it frequently on their networks.
She inked a multi-album contract with “VP Records” in 2009. The Canadian reggae charts saw her non-album single “Slim Vs. Fluffy,” featuring Pamputtae, peak at the top. She released her single “Jim Screechie” in 2010.
She and Gappy Ranks worked together on the song “Whatever We Like” in 2011, which was included as a bonus track on Gappy’s album “Thanks and Praise.” She released a remix of her single “Fun” starring Missy Elliot that same year.
Her single “So Mi Like It” was released towards the end of 2013. The song became incredibly well-known all over the world. Rapper Busta Rhymes included a remixed version of the song on his mixtape “Catastrophic 2.”
She debuted as an actor in the 2014 motion picture “Destiny,” which hit theaters on April 2. She also contributed vocals to the soundtrack of the movie for the song “No Push Over.” Her debut extended play (EP), “So Mi Like It,” which was inspired by her popular song from the previous year, was published in November 2014. There were five tracks on the album. One of the EP’s songs, “Conjugal Visit,” was written jointly by her and Vybz Kartel. When the music video was posted on the video blog “WorldStarHipHop,” it received two million “views” in a single day. Along with soca musician Bunji Garlin, she was featured on the song “Jolly” by American rapper ASAP Ferg from the mixtape “Ferg Forever.”
She released the single “Needle Eye” in May 2015. It was an homage to fellow Jamaican dancehall artist Shabba Ranks’ 1987 record of the same name. She worked with American rapper Kid Ink on his song “Nasty” in May 2016.
She announced the release of her debut album and dropped the single “Sheet” in April 2017. She and DJ Jax Jones worked together on the song “You Don’t Know Me” in June 2017. She appeared on the song “I Can Do” by DJ Charlie Sloth from his album “The Plug” in August 2017. She became a member of the cast of the seventh season of the reality TV program “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” on VH1 in 2018.
Honors of Spice
She took home the 2009 EME Awards’ “Female Deejay of the Year” title. She took home three “Youth View Awards” in that same year.
She received the “EME Award” for “Female Deejay of the Year” once more in 2010.
Other Commercial Attempts of Spice
She founded the Kingston, Jamaica-based boutique business “Spicey Couture” in 2009, and it currently operates branches throughout the island. She launched a sports lounge and bar in her Jamaican birthplace Portmore in 2010. In Kingston, Jamaica, she has also launched a beauty parlor called “Spicey Salon.”
In 2017, she agreed to an endorsement agreement with “Sperone Moscato,” an Italian vintner. The Grace Hamilton Women Empowerment Foundation (GHWEF) was founded by her in Jamaica in 2018.
Net worth of Spice
The estimated net worth of Spice is about $1 million.