Hate or like him, his artistic versatility and fierce lyrical bang stand out like a lonesome hill, setting him apart from his musical contemporaries.
Born in 1976 in Jamaica, Adidja Azim Palmer, better known to his fans as Vybz Kartel or World Boss, is a Jamaican dancehall maestro.
According to Rolling Stone, Kartel earned folk-hero status in Jamaica due to his dope, provocative lyrics, and mischievous, larger-than-life persona.
Kartel sprung to global fame in 2003 after unleashing a string of hit songs. This musical leap culminated in an on-stage clash with Ninjaman during the annually held dancehall festival Sting in Portmore, Kartel’s hometown.
Over his controversial yet decorated music career, Kartel has earned several milestones that have continued to inflate his fame bubble on the global musical stage. These include:
Stinging and Abrasive Feud with Mavado
The highly contested feud between Kartel and Mavado started crystallizing in 2006, after Kartel left Bounty Killer’s dancehall conglomerate Alliance and formed the Portmore Empire.
In 2007, with these two groups taking opposing sides, numerous dissidents were released, with cases of on-stage scuffles between Kartel’s Gaza and Mavado’s Gully members being reported.
The same year, 2007, with increasing friction between Gaza and Gully, the two artists were compelled to call a truce. They appeared at a police-protected press conference, apologized, and announced an end to their enmity.
However, in early 2008, the scuffle was revived again. This time, the antagonism climaxed during the annual Sting held in December 2008, where Mavado, dressed in policelike attire, and Kartel, in full camouflage, took to the same stage to square it out.
Based on this sting, Kartel then released the banger Last Man Standing, directed towards Mavado. To hit back, Mavado unleashed his dismantling reply, Dem A Fag, accusing Kartel of bleaching and homosexuality, calling him an atheist.
As if just waiting for Mavado’s reply to run cataclysmic, Kartel stomped the studio, releasing another song, Gully Girl, and terming Mavado a gangsta wannabe.
Eventually, in December 2009, having fueled numerous mob attacks in some of the inner-city neighborhoods of Kingston, Kartel and Mavado met with Bruce Golding, the Jamaican Prime Minister, seeking to end the feud.
Entrance into the Business World
As Jamaica’s most popular dancehall artist, Kartel used his knack for spinning his controversy-fueled stardom into several successful businesses, including a condom firm and a rum brand, amongst others.
In 2008, an American businessman, Corey Todd, partnered with Vybz Kartel to endorse an alcoholic brand, Street Vybz Rum.
Furthermore, Todd went on to acquire Asylum, Jamaica’s most popular dancehall nightclub, which became the home to their weekly event called Street Vybz Thursday.
For three years of association, Unlimited Daggering, the company that owns Street Vybz Rum, was reported to command 1-2% of Jamaica’s $65 million annual rum sales.
In 2011, Street Vybz Rum production was halted due to a disagreement between Todd and Kartel. However, the business partnership resumed in 2012 after the two settled their differences.
Cake soap and change of appearance
In 2011, Kartel launched Cake Soap, a controversial product developed from his intentional bleaching of his chestnut brown skin, a weird transformation initially celebrated in his hit song Straight Jeans and Fitted.
Fans all over the world were surprised by his headline-grabbing, dramatic alterations in his appearance, including a bleached complexion, numerous tattoos festooning his neck, face, and arms, non-corrective teeth braces, and hair extensions.
To defend his controversial stance, Kartel rationalized his bleaching, asserting that it was a unique tactic to enable him to pursue his true calling, that of articulating concerns for the poor in Jamaica.
According to showbiz enthusiasts and critics, Vybz Kartel decided to bleach because he believed being light-skinned would give him an upper hand, just like Bob Marley and Shawn Paul.
“There is no question that Bob Marley’s popularity comes from his image. If Marley looked like Peter Tosh and Peter Tosh looked like Bob Marley, whose music would have been more popular today?” Kartel’s fan, Kevin O’Brien.
Artist of the Decade Awards While in Prison
In 2023, during a ceremony held at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn, New York, Vybz Karel was unexpectedly awarded as the Artist of the Decade.
This was the inaugural edition of the Caribbean Music Awards, organized to recognize Caribbean dancehall and reggae artists, among other styles.
Most of his fans believe that Kartel deserves the award because, despite being in prison all the while, Kartel continued to release new music, having released over 50 new songs in 2016 alone.
Having been in prison for more than 10 years, Kartel celebrated this great award on his various social networks.
In addition, the event also featured the animation of the multi-award-winning Haitian rapper and actor Wyclef Jean.
This was to honor and celebrate the exceptional talent and creative prowess of artists from the Caribbean.
Life Imprisonment and an Unexpected Release
The World Boss was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 for the murder of his associate, Clive Williams, better known as Lizard.
Together with his co-accused, Shawn Campbell, Andre St. John, and Kahira Jones, Kartel always maintained his innocence. However, the court thought otherwise.
While in prison, to the surprise of many, Kartel wasted no time; he defied all odds and continued to release hit after hit. It was also during this period that he released one of his best-performing albums, The King of Dancehall.
After his first appeal in Jamaican courts went unsuccessful, Kartel then turned to the Privy Council in London, the highest court of appeal in Jamaica as well as other Commonwealth countries.
Fortunately, the Privy Council intervened, and finally, appeals judges in Jamaica agreed to discard the case. On a typical day, July 31, 2024, Kartel was finally set free.
Conclusion
Since his release, Kartel has continued to dominate the world of music, especially with his new, 19-track album, which topped the charts in more than 10 countries merely days after its release.
Together with his Turkish girlfriend, Kartel has been all over social media, allowing his fans to follow his daily activities. This fact has increased his online fan base, with some of his songs gaining millions of extra streams.
Now that he has announced an upcoming concert in December this year, his global audience is eagerly waiting to witness the World Boss on stage once again.
The highly anticipated concert is expected to be one of the most electrifying music events in history. For now, his global fans can’t help but be part and parcel of his recovery journey.
