She rose to prominence after winning the 2013

St Catherine Dancehall Queen contest, but DHQ Nickeisha has ambitions of being

like another dancehall queen – Lady Saw. Though the latter hung up her secular

shoes in 2015, Nickeisha said she’d love to have her level of respect and

success in music.

“She’s my idol, and I like how she works, so of course I’m working towards being the next Lady Saw,” Nickeisha told BUZZ. “I don’t really want to be no ‘queen of dancehall’ enuh, but the stage where Lady Saw was at is where I want to be. Once you have confidence and talent, yaa mek yuh money, the people dem love yuh and yuh just a build yuh ting, title nuh matter.”

Years before Nickeisha emerged on the dance

scene, she was actually an aspiring singjay going by the moniker Miss Attitude.

“Back then I signed to Out A Road Records, me and Kiprich, and I was about 18/19,” she shared. “After I got pregnant with my son mi did kinda slow down on the music. Time ran off, and mi start do mi dancing ting and eventually put down the music because when it comes on to music, dem producer ya feel like dem can look everybody, and I’m not that type of person. Mi rather do it by myself or leave it alone, so mi just park it for a while and turned to dancing.”

She made an impressive return in 2016 with a

number of tracks that made the rounds, including Clean and Fresh featuring Marvin the Beast and Happy Life with Kiprich.

Marvin, with whom she welcomed a baby girl in 2019, has also collaborated with her on songs like Tek On The Beast, Beast Mode and Nuh Dirt.

Their former relationship became a hot topic

in July following the release of Nickeisha’s first song for 2020, Revenge. The J-Rick Entertainment

production sees the artiste throwing shade at a former spouse for his

effeminate ways and infidelity, which social media users immediately linked to

Marvin. But Nickeisha clarifies that the song was inspired by the wave of

domestic murders plaguing Jamaica in recent years.

“My song was written from me and Marvin live together. It wasn’t about Marvin,” she said. “I write that song couple months aback when the man dem did a kill off the women. If you notice how mi intro it, mi seh ‘mi nah fi poison a boy’, and mi say the girl dem can just f**k pan him. I had that song put down for a long time, so who waan tek it up pan dem head can do so.”

She’ll be officially releasing the song as a single soon, and she is also working on her debut EP.

“That project will be for J-Rick Records, as well as another song I have coming out called Mama,” she said. “Other producers have reached to me to do EPs, but I haven’t started those yet.”

Like other dancers, Nickeisha said the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted her livelihood but said she’s maintained by other income earned from promotions, her bar in Portland and her lash technician service.

“Otherwise, being inside is natural for me cause me always inside with my kids,” she said. “My son is here and him have him times when him play him games, other times him tek up him book. Mi have him timetable pon the fridge same way. We adjusted to the online learning when COVID just come, so you know school a come up in October it a go basically be the same.”