So Mi Like It, the 2014 track by Queen of Dancehall Spice, is now certified Gold in Canada.
Music Canada announced the certification on Monday (July 29), marking the sales and streaming equivalent of 40,000 units sold in the country.
The raunchy breakthrough track was recorded on producer NotNice’s Boom Box riddim, which also featured songs such as Alkaline’s Gyal Bruk Out and Scumbag and Beenie Man’s What Is This. It served as the lead single for Spice’s similarly titled debut EP, released in 2014, and was later included on her 2021 debut studio album, 10.
Reflecting on the song’s inclusion in her debut LP, Spice told previously told DancehallMag, “I was asked to pick one song from the past 10 years to go on the album. It was a hard decision, but ‘So Mi Like It’ just hit different.” She added, “You have to wine when you hear it. You have to just enjoy yourself. It gives you that burst of energy.”
The song’s music video, released in January 2014, has amassed over 124 million YouTube views. It features Spice and her dancers performing some of their most acrobatic stunts over the booming riddim, which still gets fans hyped up from the record-scratch intro. Since then, Spice has truly become the successful siren she plays in the video, with an ongoing reality TV stint, hair, make-up, and clothing lines, a Grammy Award nomination, and an unbroken string of hit singles to this day.
Ironically, Spice’s career-defining track emerged from a challenging period in her life. In a 2020 Instagram post, she shared that she was “broke AF” when she wrote the song.
“Home with my kids and told myself if this song don’t buss big I’m done with music. I drove to every party to get this track played myself,” Spice had revealed. “I burned CDs with the little money I got and drove around to give them out. I promoted this with all I got. Big up EVERY SELECTOR. Too much to tag. I took to the streets and never looked back. God is always right on time.”
And, despite initial hesitation about a particular lyric, Spice ultimately embraced it.
“I wanted to take out “Skin out mi p— p—line so bad. I was shamed and embarrassed when I said it at first 😂😂😂 But that f%*king line made me rich so I will be skinning out my p— p— right through bye,” she said.
So Mi Like It is Spice’s second Canadian certification.
In February, her collaboration with Shaggy and Sean Paul, Go Down Deh, achieved Platinum status for sales and streaming equivalent to 80,000 units.