Anyone who has been a fan of Vybz Kartel appreciates a curated servicing of explicit and lewd lyrics and his 9 track EP , X-Rated, released May 19, 2021 the King of dancehall debauchery did not disappoint. The project has so far sold 100 copies in the US and has 1.7 million Spotify streams. It’s his 44th most streamed body of work on the platform.
The incarcerated DJ’s rightfully up-plays his relevance with a skit intro filled with praises from fans including Instagram Jock Lava Sound who salivate on the impact of the EP.
In comes Kartel on track 2 in sonic unison with the baseline on “Stress Out, Stress Out”, an ode to Jamaican women doing what he does best; “make women feel good” as one fan said.
Kartel rides the beat like his 90s dancehall counterparts but with a modern vocal dexterity that separates him from the rest. He playfully switches from husky to a high pitched voice on tracks such as Energizer Buddy and Ski Trip.
Although this Ep. can hardly be seen as comedy, as the baseline thumbs up, Kartel answers each note with playfulness, braggadocios and enjoyable tone set in mid range musical frequency.
The only musical guest appearance comes with the track “Motion” featuring Savage Savo who croons gangster loving and spit metaphors that may require a double take to clarify whether he is at war or in love. Savage holds his own with Kartel on the second verse as he borrows Kartel’s vocal patterns.
The colorfully worded skits in between the nine songs heightens the imagination to the extent that if you close your eyes and listen to the project you might teleport to a strip club.
Until the last track, where Kartel talks about the life changing moment in his career when he first got booed. He soberingly recalls about how Hoggy the MC said “Dem yout yah mek DJ ting look hard” after he performed in a community dance. The graceless moment was enough motivation to push his career even further as a songwriter. He said that boo didn’t phase him as he went home a wrote about ten songs.
Kartel’s range and knack for story telling places him in the dancehall songwriter’s Hall Of Fame, if there was one. X-Rated, although underrated but fans based on the commercial numbers, will be among Vybz better projects that defined his process of his fame and the road he took to becoming the best lyrical artist in his genre.
★★★★☆
X-Rated is released by Adidjahiem Records
