IT'S A SHAME!!!

Well you would have to be living under a rock to miss the fact that Adijah “Vybz Kartel” Palmer has recently been charged for murder after investigations were sparked by a dead body found in a house that he owns. This is the latest in a looong list of controversial and negative publicity that has surrounded the artist in recent years and in my opinion, it is a real shame that an artist as talented as he is has become his own downfall.

There is no way that anyone can deny Kartel’s talent and his overwhelming presence in the Dancehall scene especially since his break from the Alliance. Since then, he joined Deva Bratt’s Portmore Empire and eventually took it over and renamed it the Gaza. Again, no one can deny how viral the Gaza Movement was a few years ago. Under his leadership, the Gaza movement crossed every border imaginable. Although it was plagued with controversy and acts of violence, the Gaza Movement seemed almost unstoppable in Dancehalls all over the world. From that movement we got Blak Ryno, Jah Vinci & the new sensation Popcaan, to name a few and the Gaza Movement propelled the careers of these artists. Kartel is also undoubtedly one of the major factors behind the success of the producer Stephen “Di Genius” Mcgregor. Kartel’s songs on Di Genius’ riddims never failed and propelled them both into dominating roles in dancehall music. After Kartel beat Mavado at Sting 2008 (although he wasn’t voted the winner), he climbed to the top and became a Hit Machine from 2009 straight to halfway through 2010. It seemed as if Kartel was at the top of the world… and that’s where it all began to fall apart.

Kartel’s hold on Dancehall and the people worldwide seemed to go to his head and soon as that happened the man started to move “a way”. Many of the antics of Kartel and the Gaza got him banned from many islands in the Caribbean as well as some countries in Europe. But, even with his Visa troubles, he seemed to persevere locally. After the “Lisa Hype” internet incident went viral, Kartel decided to put out another picture with another girl performing the same act. It was then that Kartel started to lose the respect of his many fans, especially the ones overseas. The biggest blow to his image came when he began to openly bleach his skin. Originally he stated that his skin lightening was due to his use of “Cake Soap” which is popularly used in the islands for laundry. Kartel then showed how much he didn’t rate the people who defended him by going on TV and saying that the people are “sheep” because they believed anything he said. He then came out and admitted to bleaching his skin which caused a great deal of his international fan base to “lose offa him”.

Since the summer of 2010, Kartel’s song/hit ratio has gone down considerably. He peaked in 2010 with the mega hit “Clarks,” and since then has been sliding behind with hits. Veteran Beenie Man & newcomer Khago took the summer and the rest of the year with their songs on the One Day Riddim and I-Octane unloaded a barrage of hits making it the best year of his career. Although Kartel remained at the top of the charts, his domination was over. This year then brought the biggest blow to “Di Teacha’s” career, when his extremely lucrative partnership with Cory Todd came to a sudden and volatile end. Kartel boastfully took credit for the production of Street Vybz rum, which was the biggest ting a road due to his endorsement. It wasn’t until Todd came out and exposed that he was the money behind the Rum and every other business moves that Kartel boasted about that any one knew who he was. Kartel, who is known to answer every and anyone calls his name never responded to Todd. He only released a convoluted statement about how he’s doing these outlandish things to “fool Babylon” which made no sense. Since then, he’s adopted the moniker “Worl’ Boss” which is ironic since he’s not able to travel due to his visa circumstances.

I want everyone to overstand that this is not a Kartel diss or an attempt to label him worse than everyone else. Buju Banton is in jail for 10 years for Cocaine… If a did weed it woulda betta… and we all know how much Bounty love him hammer. None of these should be overlooked and any artist who does something stupid or irresponsible deserves to be chastised by the public. Whether they want to admit it or not, as public figures they ask for public attention and are therefore subject to public opinion. So when they do wrong, they need to be chastised...simple. But Kartel’s situation is different than these artists and many more that I didn’t mention. Kartel’s situation is more the Pride coming before the Fall situation. This man has limited himself and his career because his own hype went to his head. An artist with his potential should be much more respected and sought after and because of his antics and self-hype, he’s looked on by many as a disgrace to Dancehall. I was a Kartel fan especially in his early days because I saw that he was talented enough to change Dancehall and take it to the next level. Unfortunately, one of my favorite artists has limited himself because of his own delusions of grandeur. I hope that he is able to beat the murder case and bigger than that, I really hope Kartel can sort out him tings before he buries himself and it’s too late to recover. His brand of talent might not be seen again when he’s off the scene.

RRRRRRR