Honey B brings hard-core dancehall and roots reggae to Jamaica stage

Honey B’s turn at Original Dancehall Thursday landed as more than another live-date stop. On the weekly Kingston platform where foreign artistes rarely get a look in, the American singer’s appearance on May 28 made her one of the night’s standout names and gave the crowd something unusual to talk about inside the dancehall.

That mattered because Original Dancehall Thursday, better known as ODT, is built on local energy and veteran presence. Honey B shared the bill with names that carry real weight in the space, including Terror Fabulous, Lady G and Snagga Puss, and she said the clash of styles, the crew’s onstage forwards and the show’s chaotic, character-rich pace made the night especially memorable. The response to her lyrical approach and stage presence appeared to land with the audience, giving her Jamaica run a clear stamp of approval.

Her visit was not a one-off cameo. Honey B completed 11 performances during the trip, using the run to push songs such as Not Easy and Rootsy across Kingston’s community circuit. Alongside ODT, she passed through Caveman’s Rub A Dub Garden, Beat Street Fridays and Kingston Night Market, and another June 2026 account says she also touched Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith’s Inna De Yard gathering. That string of dates framed her as part of the current scene rather than a visitor dropping in for a single photo opportunity.

The production trail behind her music adds to that story. Not Easy was produced by Lloyd Shaw for Issachar Muzik out of Los Angeles, while Rootsy came through Red Lions, another Southern California operation. Shaw’s Issachar Muzik was started more than 40 years ago in Kingston, which gives Honey B’s catalog a direct line between Jamaica’s roots and the West Coast reggae network that has carried her recordings.

Honey B’s own path explains why the fit felt believable rather than forced. Raised on the sounds she first heard as a child in Hanover and Westmoreland, and later shaped by time in Jamaica as a teen with her schoolteacher mother, she has long drawn from hard-core dancehall and roots reggae. Super Cat, Brigadier Jerry, Bunny Wailer and Sister Carol sit among her key influences, and earlier work with the Roots Radics confirms how deeply she has studied the foundation.

That is why her ODT appearance registered in Kingston. It was not simply a foreign artist passing through. It was a rare booking on a deeply local stage, and Honey B used the space to show she knew exactly how to move in it.