A statement allegedly from top-selling dancehall artist Vybz Kartel, sent to World Music Views with instructions to publish, weighs in on the debate over the state of dancehall music and its ability to compete commercially with emerging trends in Afrobeats.
The message sent both via Instagram, and by email responds to comments made recently by music executive Murray Elias, Kartel acknowledged Elias’ criticism and even humorously suggested that there seems to be a personal motive for Elias’s attack on dancehall. However, Kartel highlighted the need for the dancehall community, especially legends like Shaggy he says, to confront significant issues mentioned by Elias.
“I don’t know this Murray guy; he’s definitely a hater (redacted), but he has a point, and Shaggy, as a legend, needs to address the elephant in the room,” the letter sent to WMV said.
Only yesterday Shaggy had chastised Murray for singling out Jamaican dancehall artists Shenseea, Skillibeng, Protoje and more as ‘flops’ and ‘one hit wonders’ who are of a lesser grade artistically and subsequently commercially than their Afrobeats counterparts out of Africa.
The unsigned statement attributed to Kartel pointed out a crucial factor (elephant in the room) affecting the weak sales in the dancehall genre—the lack of support from Jamaicans in the diaspora, including those in the USA, UK, and Canada. In his candid commentary, Kartel, who is currently locked up, expressed that many Jamaicans abroad tend to overlook and neglect their own musical talent, opting to support international artists. This, coupled with the disconnect between Jamaicans abroad and their cultural roots, was highlighted in the statement, lamenting the tendency of diaspora residents to download dancehall music for free or purchase mixtapes on street corners as contributing factors to the decline in official dancehall sales.
“Dem tun boasty slave n freeloader in ‘farin’,” Kartel stated, adding, “So instead of buying Shaggy n Sean Paul, they buy Justin Bieber & Ed Sheeran. Instead of buying Kartel n Movado, dem buy Drake n Kanye. Then them go buy dancehall pon mixtape on a street corner or download it fi free pon YouTube, lol,” he said.
Since being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in 2014, Vybz Kartel’s popularity has risen both locally and globally on the music scene. From behind bars, he has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association Of America for selling 500,000 units in streams and sales for the song “Fever” from the album “King Of The Dancehall“. He is the first and only Jamaican artist to achieve the milestone while being locked up.
The song is also certified Silver in the UK for selling 200,000 equivalent units in streams and sales in that country.
In 2021, when WMV reported that Drake was the most streamed artist in Jamaica, and it was carried by the Jamaica Gleaner, Kartel at the time via his instagram page called for Jamaicans to “stop worry unuh farin mind” and support local talent.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXC7Dy4Mg7Q/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Still Kartel says the support from white and non-Jamaican audiences has been a consistent driving force behind the success of various Jamaican artists, including himself.
“Who u think made Kartel sell Gold n Silver? White ppl! Charley Blacks Gold n Platinum in America n Latin America was bought by non Jamaicans. Plus all the jcan artiste that sell Gold n Platinum in America & Europe etc..white ppl support… That’s the fact,” the statement said.
The dancehall icon whose real name is Adidja Azim Palmer who has been granted an expedited hearing regarding his murder conviction appeal by the UK’s Privy Council, Jamaica’s final appellate court for February 14 and 15, questioned the paradox of having millions of Jamaicans in the diaspora while big Jamaican artists struggle to achieve substantial first-week sales.
“How we have millions of people in the diaspora but a big Jamaican artiste’s first week sale is 3,000 copy!!!!?” he said.
See full statement attributed to Vybz Kartel below:
