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On November 19th, the season one finale for On The Riddim (OTR) was taped live at BRIC studio in Brooklyn, the same day as Strictly The Best 60 Live Concert. Reggae artist, Richie Spice was the first recipient of On The Riddim’s VP Icon Award to be awarded with the title in person, with a live audience.
The episode will air on VP Records YouTube page this week. The VP focused entertainment news review show has garnered over 30,000 views for its first two episodes since first launching in July. Previous VP Icons include Johnny Osborne, Gregory Isaacs, Barrington Levy, Beenie Man and Sanchez.
VP Records Director of Catalog Development, presented him with the “Down in Jamaica: 40 Years of VP Records” box set, which Richie is included in with “Marijuana”. A physical award will also be presented to the artist in New York in the Spring. In response to receiving the award, Spice stated “I like what VP has been doing over the years. They stand up for reggae music and keep on holding up the banner, much respect.” Richie Spice then chatted with OTR hosts Queen Bremmer and Kevin Crown about his upcoming music. Later that evening he performed at Strictly The Best Live 60.
The award comes at a good time, as Richie Spice has recently released his new single “Together We Stand”, which is also a feature track from Strictly the Best 60. Recently at Canex Jamaica 2019, Spice was presented with the Peter Tosh Pioneer Award by Niambe McIntosh, Director of the Peter Tosh Foundation (and his youngest child). They recognized the solid catalog of hit ganja songs he has produced throughout his career.
“Together we Stand” is a powerful anthem that tells a story of being united in a time when division is more prevalent than ever. The melodic song was written by Spice and produced by Clive Hunt. Richie Spice is currently working on new music and recently released “Beautiful Life” featuring Toronto based singer/songwriter Kathryn Aria in January.
“As an artist, it is my job to uplift the youths and teach them right from wrong,” says Spice. “I want to make music that empowers and educates as it entertains, insuring a better tomorrow for the youth.”
With over 111 Million Streams across all platforms and known for his core hit reggae songs “Earth A Run Red,” ‘Youth Dem So Cold,” “Marijuana,” “Brown Skin” and “Ghetto Girl,” Richie Spice has recorded 8 albums for VP Records in his career including his debut album Spice In Your Life which earned unanimous critical praise, Streets To Africa, Gideon Boot which debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard Reggae chart, in May 2008 and “Book of Job” in 2011.
Watch Most Recent Episode of “On The Riddim” here:
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About On The Riddim
2019 marks the 40th anniversary of VP Records, the world’s largest reggae and soca label in the world. Paving the way for many legendary reggae artists, the label has become an icon in the reggae music industry. To further enhance this status, On The Riddim, the series, aims to create a visual community for current and new fans alike to stay on top of the label’s recent news, while immersing into the culture with fun facts and interviews with artists.
The idea originated when VP Records Public Relations Manager Jennifer Valentin realized that there was an abundance of news coming from this independent label. A weekly newsletter distributed to media, which describes the various new releases (albums, singles, videos), events and event recaps and more, generally has more than 5 news items a week. That being said, the concept is to now keep the consumers abreast of all of the great things happening as well. This series will allow that to happen, every month. With a YouTube following of almost 1 million followers, VP Records hopes this will be the catalyst to expand its audience to a new generation of viewers. Their first foray into web content development they hope to create something that has never been done before as the leading distributors of reggae music for the past 50 years.