On May 7th, which marked Queens Day in Albany, New York, visually impaired Dancehall artist Nigy Boy was a special guest at the New York State Assembly session.
He was invited by Caribbean-American Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, who revealed that Nigy Boy, born Nigel Hector, has been working for her as an office intern.
“I’d like to introduce you to Nigel Hector also known as Nigy Boy. … He’s been my intern and he hails from Springfield Gardens, Queens. So while we have him here, I’d like to introduce him. He’s a reggae superstar, and most weekends, he could be in Guyana, Jamaica, Bahamas,” she said.
She also pointed out some of his most recent achievements, including 550,000 Instagram followers, almost 250,000 monthly Spotify listeners, and “over 160,000 streams just last week alone for his newest song ‘Judgement’ on Spotify.”
House Speaker Carl Heastie welcomed Nigy Boy to the floor and thanked him for his “contribution to music and arts.” He also made note of his upcoming performance at the UBS Arena in New York on Friday. Nigy Boy will also perform in Palm Beach, Florida, for the first time at the Florida Jerk Festival during Memorial Day weekend.
“Continue your great work and know you’re always welcome here,” House Speaker Heastie added.
Nigy Boy, who was all smiles, received a standing ovation and round of applause from the state assembly members.
A viral sensation
The 23-year-old political science student at Stonybrook University in Long Island had been covering songs on Instagram and TikTok in recent years until he caught the attention of Jamaican GRAMMY-winning platinum producer Rvssian.
Nigy Boy worked with the producer on his popular Dutty Money Riddim to release the song “Continent,” which took the airwaves and social media by storm. The song has since racked up 11 million views on YouTube and over 2.5 million Spotify streams. Many dancehall fans regarded it as the best song on the riddim, which also featured artists such as Jada Kingdom, Govana, Sean Paul, Valiant, and more.
On another riddim by Rvssian — the Payment Plan Riddim — Nigy Boy released “Judgement” recently, which has garnered over 6 million YouTube views.
He is currently working on new music while studying to become a lawyer.
