He’s released a book, The Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto, elaborating his views on topics ranging from parenting and abortion to third-world debt. Musicians usually become engimas by disappearing or holding back, but Vybz Kartel has become one by being impossibly present through his incarceration. Others have even suggested certain songs were voiced by an impersonator. Many dancehall fans presume he must be recording in prison, covertly cutting vocals through a cellphone app. How, exactly, Kartel has maintained such productivity while behind bars remains something of a mystery. A tally of songs issued during his incarceration would total well into the hundreds. New music from Kartel turns up weekly more than 50 tracks this year alone have been released to iTunes, including the 14 on King of the Dancehall, his third LP in four years.
He’s as popular and influential as ever, and even more prolific. What appeared almost certain to be a career-ending setback, it turns out, has only reaffirmed Kartel’s hold on dancehall. He’s been in a Kingston prison ever since, the last two-and-a-half years spent serving a life sentence following a 2014 conviction for the killing of associate Clive “Lizard” Williams. In September 2011, he was arrested by Jamaican authorities for marijuana possession, and subsequently charged in two separate murder cases.
TORY LANEZ CONTROLLA TORRENT FREE
Yet this week, it has now been five years since Kartel – 40-year-old Adidja Palmer – was last free to enter a studio.