Screenshot of an image from the music video for Shenseea song “Loodi”, featuring Vybz Kartel
The debate over the potentially harmful influence of the dancehall culture on youths and whether it fuels crime and violence is nothing new in Jamaica, but nowhere is this more starkly illustrated than in the life and career of Adidja Palmer. Better known by his stage name, Vybz Kartel, he was convicted for the 2011 killing of an associate, Clive “Lizard” Williams, after being acquitted of an earlier murder charge. Palmer was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 after a 65-day trial and will not be eligible for parole for 35 years.
Yet, Kartel’s popularity (some call it a cult following) among Jamaican youths has not waned. Kartel continues to release new music, which is played regularly at parties. His album, King of Dancehall, topped the reggae music charts in the United States upon its release in June 2016 and was the highest-selling album in that genre for the year. His book, “Voice of the Jamaica Ghetto (Incarcerated but not Silenced),” co-written by Michael Dawson and published in July 2012, has reportedly been placed in Princeton University’s library. In February 2017, the glitzy, fan-based Youth View Awards nominated Kartel in eight categories by popular vote; he won in five.
Imagine the outcry then when Lisa Hanna, the country’s former culture minister and current member of parliament, suggested that there may need to be “less of a democracy” when it comes to trying to instill values in youth — values that are at odds with the messages they hear from the music being played on the radio. Even though Hanna did not call his name, she singled out Vybz Kartel when she spoke about “persons we know are incarcerated … persons we know have questionable value systems.”
Her comments soon went viral, provoking an extreme and vitriolic backlash that included death threats. This social media response has caused the greatest shockwaves in the public arena. Some have accused both Hanna and the prime minister of hypocrisy.
Columnist, comedian and poet Michael Abrahams added:
“I support freedom of artistic expression, so I defend Kartel’s right to express himself. Even if his songs were to be banned from the radio, our youngsters would have no problem obtaining them from the Internet. What we need to do is look into ourselves and take responsibility for creating an environment in which a dancehall artiste who often spews violent lyrics, and is incarcerated for murder, has one of the greatest influences on our youth…”
However, many young Jamaicans agreed that the impact of dancehall on crime and violence is overstated. One shared his personal Twitter poll, in which followers thought politicians were by far the greatest contributing factor.
