Spice: 'When you hear mi songs, try not to whine!'

As Jamaica’s leading female voice in dancehall, Spice certainly knows how to make an entrance. When she stepped out at the Culture Clash soundclash at London’s O2 Arena in 2016, it was into the chaos of balloons, airhorns and baying ravers. She strode to the front of the stage, demanded a rewind from the DJ and silence from the crowd, then jump-dropped into the splits, calling on the rival team leader Wiz Khalifa, the posterboy for fragile masculinity (who is scared to eat a whole banana in public, for fear of looking gay) to “eat mi pum pum”. The crowd went insane. Her crew Mixpak (featuring Popcaan and Jubilee) were the bookie’s underdogs, but walked away with that year’s trophy.

Spice – Grace Hamilton when she’s off duty – grew up in Portmore, near Kingston, and wasn’t always destined for dancehall greatness. She was the middle child of five siblings and came from