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Queen of Dancehall Spice is reliving the moment she was left fighting for her life.
While speaking exclusively with PEOPLE on Monday, Jan. 19, the Jamaican musician, 43, revealed that her newly released gospel song, “God Don’t Play About Me,” was inspired by the health scare she experienced in the Dominican Republic back in 2022.
Spice (real name Grace Latoya Hamilton) is mom to son Nicholas, 18, and daughter Nicholatoy, 14, but was on her own on the Caribbean island at the time. She describes surviving sepsis as a “miracle” as she recalls her sister rushing to her side.
“One of my intestines opened up and sent my body into sepsis shock,” Spice tells PEOPLE. “I had to do an emergency surgery to perform a hernia repair. They had to cut my body open from top down.”
Spex Photography
“The sepsis was attacking my lungs and my organs, lungs, liver, and all of that,” she continues. “My body was becoming poisonous.”
While asleep in the hospital, Spice says she could hear her sister playing Jekalyn Carr’s song “You’re Bigger.” The mother of two now credits the gospel hit for bringing her out of the life-threatening illness.
“I’ve always had a close relationship with God, and my near-death experience just brought me closer to Him,” Spice tells PEOPLE. “The word tells you that you have to taste and see to know that He’s God. My testimony blew me out of the water because even the doctors themselves were calling families to tell them to come say their goodbyes to me. So not even they could believe the miracle that happened.”
The Love and Hip-Hop: Atlanta star underwent seven surgeries to save her life amid the illness.
She says it wasn’t until 2024 that she went under the knife for the last time, as after each procedure, doctors had to wait a few months before they could operate again.
She continues, “There’s a timer on my phone that goes off when to pray and when to have my alone moment with God. During the time of my procedures, the surgeons would tell me that my alarm kept going off.”
Spex Photography
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The singer, who grew up in Portmore, Jamaica, but now lives in Atlanta, reveals that her follow-up surgeries took place in the U.S. rather than the Dominican Republic.
She admits that she’s surprised her body is now “perfectly healthy.”
“Even the doctors said that things would have happened,” Spice says. “[But] whatever they said, it didn’t happen. The sepsis ate my entire skin from my belly area. I’ve shared those images with my fans because I wanted them to see the goodness of God.”
“Doctors called in a plastic surgeon, saying that I would need skin grafting because of how damaged my skin was,” she continues. “Thanks be to God, my skin grew back to its normal form, and I didn’t have to do any skin grafting.”
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Spice explains that her new song isn’t just a reminder of her near-death experience, but of all the times in life when her faith has been crucial to her.
“It brought me closer to God and I have a more spiritual connection,” she says of the life-altering illness. “I read my Bible more, I worship more, I pray more. I’m more strict with how I show up when it comes to worshiping.”
“I want people to just wake up and praise God in their homes in the mornings,” she adds, referring to her song. “Every morning I get up, I play gospel, but I’m a very old-school type of gospel girl where it’s going to be loud singing and clapping and tambourines and stuff, so this is why I chose this type of gospel where it’s just worshiping God.
“I have a large platform and I want my fans to be able to get up and worship God,” she concludes. “Part of me wants to see them worshiping God the same way they would get up and sing any of my other songs.”
