Last year, Spice vowed that in 2018 she would shake things up by adding more hip-hop to her catalog. Her first video and single of the year, ‘Duffle Bag’, was released on Friday, and pointed out that if international acts can use dancehall and reggae to their advantage, Jamaican entertainers are also free to use other genres to make hits.

“I am trying to fuse dancehall with rap and hip-hop. The artistes overseas use our dancehall style all the time and capitalize on it, so I don’t see anything wrong with me using theirs,” she said. “After listening to the song it birthed an idea, and I now want to create a new genre called ‘dancehop’, where I will do dancehall styles on hip-hop or trap beats.”

Spice told THE STAR that she has always wanted to do more in music, and creating a new genre has become her main focus for this year.

“Sometimes you have to think outside of the box,” she said. “Trap came from hip-hop, and it’s basically the new sound that’s running the American scene right now, so I’m thinking I can create ‘dancehop’ out of dancehall as a strategy to break dancehall some more on to the international scene.”

Although she will still be doing dancehall, Spice believes ‘dancehop’ will merely give her an opportunity to be more creative.

“Of course I think Jamaicans will always love dancehall more. Those our roots and I’m not trying to change that at all,” Spice said.

“I’m doing this for the wider audience, trying to break on to the international scene. That’s why I’m using the sound that they are used to, then dropping my dancehall style on it. Sometimes as artistes we get too comfortable where we are, and I believe in creating and reinventing, so that’s what I’m doing now.”