Many speculated on how Vybz Kartel managed to record new music while serving a life sentence, with some claiming that he was releasing tracks he had recorded before his incarceration. However, Kartel has finally answered the long-standing question of how he continued to produce quality music, including his gold-selling hit “Fever,” from behind bars.
In a new interview with Cipher Sounds and Peter Rosenberg of Juan Epstien Podcast, he said, “Initially, that was true,” Kartel admitted. “I did record a lot of songs in the first year, and we had unreleased tracks. But eventually, those songs ran out, and we had to do what we had to do.”
Kartel revealed that technology played a crucial role in his ability to keep making music. “We used to record on the iPhone 5 Plus, and it has amazing sound quality. ‘Fever’ was recorded on that little iPhone.”
The Phone 5, which Kartel used to record his hit song, comes with impressive audio capabilities, including support for 16-bit/44.1kHz audio, ensuring CD-quality sound with clarity and detail. The loudspeaker performance, rated at 66dB for voice and noise and 67dB for ringtones, allowed for reasonably loud playback. Additionally, the phone’s audio quality ratings, with -91.3dB noise and -76.5dB crosstalk, helped minimize background noise and interference between audio channels. The battery of the Phone 5 offered an endurance rating of 51 hours, meaning it could last over two days on a full charge with moderate usage.
“No mic—directly into the phone,” Kartel explained. “They give you a mattress in the bunk, so I used it to imitate studio padding. I had the phone about three feet away from my face, wrapped the mattress around my head, and recorded while on my knees.”
“It was crazy,” he continued. “The beat was on a separate phone, so the vocals went into the iPhone as a cappella. Then, we had to send it to the studio for the engineer to work his magic.”
Kartel gave credit to his engineers, producers DunWell and Redboom, for helping bring his music to life. “Most of the time, we had to record at night, but sometimes it was around 12 o’clock when most of the officers were on lunch break,” Kartel shared. He added that even after recording, he would create a demo over the beat to guide the engineers in the final production.
