Dancehall

Beenie Man Says Spice Is Not The New Queen Of Dancehall

Beenie Man says Spice is not the new queen of dancehall music at least not yet.

Earlier this tear, Spice crowned herself the new reigning queen of Jamaica’s dominant music genre, dancehall, a title previously held by Lady Saw who is now a gospel artist and a pastor. In 2015, Lady Saw relinquished her crown to become a Christian and she never looked back. She struggled with the transition for years before finally making her break-through. Since then no one stepped up to set on the throne at least not until this year when Spice stepped up to the plate.

There is no doubt that Spice has been a force in dancehall for the past few years, but is it enough to wear the crown for the queen of the dancehall? Beenie Man answered that question during an interview with Winford Williams on OnStage last weekend. “Well the queen of dancehall baptized now… Marion Hall [Lady Saw], the queen of dancehall baptized,” Beenie Man said. “So I am here to see the next queen to come.” When asked about Spice crowning herself, Beenie said, “Well she is the one that stepped up to the plate but that’s not how you become the queen.”

“Because if you’re going to take Lady Saw crown then you have to do what Lady Saw did like no disrespect, you can’t do less work and [want to be the queen],” Beenie added. The dancehall king lamented that Spice will have to elevate her career to the same heights as Lady Saw in order to gain the respect of the fans. “Becomes that artist that you know… she is Spice in Jamaica, she is Spice everywhere Jamaicans is, she is Spice everywhere Caribbean people is, she needs to be Spice where American and British people meet,” the Doc continues. “I am not talking about watching Instagram and talking about song, reaching the people ears the right way, being that artist that we can sit down in Jamaica and look on you on MTV and look on you on VH1 and say alright she has done it and she has reached that point. Because Lady Saw did it and she reached that point.”

Beenie Man added that Spice is more like the queen-elect, but still has more work to do to elevate her career to the next level.