Grammy winning Jamaican artists Shaggy and Sean Paul, expressed their joy and admiration for Spice‘s remarkable feat of being the first female dancehall artist to surpass sales of 500,000 on a single she leads.
In a joint statement shared on social media, the two top selling dancehall artists commended Spice for her achievement on the lead single “Go Down Deh.” The caption read, “@duttypaul and I want to say congratulations to @spiceofficial!! For going GOLD with Go Down Deh. BIG UP YUHSELF GRACIE!!”
WMV first reported that Spice’s “Guh Down Deh,” featuring Shaggy and Sean Paul, has sold 688,000 equivalents in streams and sales according to data produced by Billboard sales tracker Luminate.
Sean, upon hearing the news while on tour in Australia, expressed his pride in the achievement but acknowledged that there is still work to be done within the music industry. He emphasized that music is a mission, not a competition, and applauded Spice for her success during the challenging times of the pandemic.
“Music is a mission, not a competition. I feel proud to always represent with great people from my genre. The song was done during the pandemic, and maybe that was the reason why it wasn’t as quick off the blocks in terms of streaming and selling. But it has proven itself that a good sound is a good sound. It will find its way to people’s ears someway or another,” Sean told WMV. Adding, “As other people put our songs in the pandemic and it didn’t affect their streams, it indicates that we still have ways to go in terms of promoting the genre itself.”
The multi-platinum Dutty Rock deejay urged the industry to focus on promoting the dancehall genre globally and encouraged younger artists and producers to broaden their horizons.
“The genre suffers from us not seeing what the international consumer likes or us not producing what the international consumer may want to consume. Proud of the world, but we have a long way to go. Big up Spice, big up Shaggy. I want the younger artist and producers to know that they need to broaden their horizons to help the genre,” Sean concluded.
Shaggy, also on tour in Australia is the executive producer of “Guh Down Deh,” the lead single on Spice’s debut album “10,” and he also shared his optimism about the record’s success, stating that he always believed it would surpass Gold and move towards Platinum status.
“I am happy that this record has surpassed Gold and is on its way to Platinum. I always knew it would. A lot of people who were naysayers think this record didn’t do what it should do at this point or that point,” The Billboard chart topping artist told WMV.
Having sold multi-platinum records since the early 1990s, Shaggy points to his past successes with slow-burning records to highlight the timeless nature of his songs and expressed confidence that “Go Down Deh” would continue to sell for generations.
“If you look at the history of some of my records, even Hot Shot, when it came out, it sold 17,000 and ended up selling 10 million. I have always been the type of person that makes songs that are timeless and will continue to sell for generations. This was no different. Sean did an incredible job, Spice did an incredible job, and I also did. We marketed it, we worked it, and this record will continue to sell,” Mr. Boombastic explained.
“To those who might say it’s Shaggy and Sean Paul; it’s supposed to be this and that. Look at how many artists out there. Some of our own dancehall artists have big features, and none of them have done anything like this. Congratulations to Spice; we look forward to doing a lot more together,” Shaggy emphasized.
As of February 4, 2024, “10,” released by VP Records, August 6, 2021, has sold 125,000 equivalent units in the US, including 21,000 in pure sales and 230 million on-demand streams, according to data provided to WMV by Luminate. The album has 276,998,778 streams worldwide on Spotify. It was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Shaggy explained what his intention was for making the album and how he came to work with the Queen of The Dancehall as the executive producer of her first project.
“Spice wanted to do just a new song, and I convinced her to let me help her to do a body of work. We went to VP to see how we could make this happen. She had a deal with VP, and she wasn’t very happy in the deal, so I sat down and worked it out with VP Records and delivered “10.” She did things that she never did before, and my thought was to do an album that will sell decades to come, an album that will be timeless, even as a catalogue piece,” Shaggy explained.
Shaggy’s latest project is executive producing dancehall artist Teejay’s debut EP “I Am Chippy” released by Warner Records.
