BROOKLYN-BASED, up-and-coming dancehall artiste Mace said his career is poised for take-off since ‘rebranding’ his image.

“Last year, I released my debut and sophomore singles and got very little recognition. I’m now seeing different results with the changes I have made to my physical appearance,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The changes of which the 19-year-old singjay speaks include skin bleaching, which he started last year.

“It wasn’t a planned thing or I wasn’t trying to get a hype. I love tattoos and I wanted them to show, so I bleached my skin,” he said.

However, after that, he embarked on the controversial procedure of getting his eyes ‘inked’. Shortly after that operation, he was forced to check into a hospital after his sight became blurred and his eyes burned.

“When I got my eyes coloured, I wasn’t following Alkaline either, as some persons thought. It’s very common in New York and he wasn’t the first person who had done it. I just wanted to look different and I knew such a movement would be ‘eye-catching’. When my eyes were normal and my skin was black, the attention wasn’t this much,” he continued.

He said since tattooing his eyes, he has been receiving threatening telephone calls from members of Alkaline’s camp, but said he is totally focused on his career.

“I just want to do music…that’s all,” said Mace.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jamaican parents, Mace relocated to the domicile community of Portmore in St Catherine after completing high school. He got his first break in 2013 with the recording of Gyal Dem Bad.

Under his new image, the singjay has recorded tracks Oh Father and Wine Ya Gyal. Both singles, produced by Noel Parks, are scheduled to be released officially this week.

— Simone Morgan