HAVING QUICKLY established herself as Queen of Dancehall, Grace Hamilton, aka Spice, gave an exclusive insight into her life through a wide-reaching A Conversation With interview.

Watch the full conversation exploring the difference between Hamilton, the businesswoman and mother, and her bigger, bolder Spice persona.

From discovering her voice at Sunday School in St Catherine, Jamaica, to the creation of Spice through live performances at Sting festival, her relationship with Vybz Kartel, reality tv appearances in Love & Hip Hop and addressing her instagram post denouncing colourism.

Filmed at Subterania in West London as part of Red Bull Music Festival London, the in-depth discussion with Grace Hamilton also features her protégé and rising UK Dancehall star Alicai Harley, Radio 1Xtra’s Yasmin Evans, Robbo Ranx, Becca Dudley, Jamaican DJ/Producer ZJ Chrome, DJ BoomBoom and host Sian Anderson.

Standout moments include:

• Spice on colourism: “In Jamaica, they make you feel like if you don’t have that complexion that’s on the screen, you’re not popping, you’re not hot… if you stay as a dark skinned black woman then you are [made to] feel inferior.”
   
• “All my life colorism has affected me. To this day it might have lessened since the song but you know I remember even two years ago you’d post a picture and the comments would be ‘Spice you can bleach your dark skin’, ‘Spice you have too much money to stay Black’.”
   
• Spice on her future goals: “I want to win the Grammys. I want to do, like you know, what no other female from Jamaica has done. Bob Marley did it for reggae, I want to do it for females in Dancehall.”
   
• Alicai Harley on Spice’s impact in the industry: “As a woman in Dancehall, I think that Spice represents power, bravery, being unapologetically sexy. She’s battled with colorism. She’s touched on black hypocrisy. And at the same time she’s given us amazing music.”

Watch A Conversation with Spice in its entirety on Red Bull Music YouTube: youtu.be/zLin71yin4g