Staff Writer - Kerran Monroe
After watching clips of Vybz Kartel’s Reggae Sumfest performance, I have concluded that his talent is inside the studio and not on the stage.
Like every dominant artist, when he was introduced to the patrons, he received a very warm welcome. However that welcome gradually started to cool like hot tea put in the freezer, as soon as he started performing.
Some might disagree with me by saying that I cannot come to that conclusion from just watching a clip, as the person who made that clip might not have caught the entire audience and how they responded. However, as a consumer of music and especially dancehall music, I must say that, that musical performance certainly did not appeal to me and I would not pay to watch it.
If the promoters put so much faith in you to let you close the show, the least you can do is come prepared and look rehearsed, to show your appreciation to the promoters and most importantly the patrons who paid their money to see you.
You need to understand that you are not only performing for your loyal fans because, there are people out there who are not necessarily your fans but they actually really love and appreciated some of your songs, and this goes for a lot of other artists as well.
Some of these dancehall artists think that they are performing for their loyal fans so they do not need to put much into their performance, because their fans will love the performance anyway. THIS IS NOT SO! There are actually persons within that audience who pay good money to come and see you and want to see you put on a show or at least look like you are trying to entertain them.
Vybz Kartel needs to stop short changing his fans and so do many other
Black and white Vybz Kartel
dancehall artists. Even the fans are complaining, one fan commented on a Youtube video, of his
performance, saying “smh MI ARTIST YUH SHOULDA PERFORM WID A BAND DAWG!.. a dat mek di ppl dem seh yuh performance flop enuh… cause is like yuh never even rehearse.. NEXT TIME A DIFFERENT TING STILL…ONE BAD PERFORMANCE NAH MEK MI STOP SEH GAZA! gaza! WORLD BOSS MI SEH!”
Kartel needs to take a leaf out of Assassin aka Agent Sasko’s book, or rather a whole chapter.
I remember some years ago when Assassin’s performances were as bland as a wall without paint. These days his performances are to be talked about. In a recent interview, he made mention that performances were not his forte, he however worked on it and it is indeed showing on the big stage.
If Vybz Kartel puts half as much effort into bettering his performances as he puts into stirring up controversies, he would probably be one of the best performers in Jamaica. Addi, show we she yuh worth di first half a yuh name an’ put a likkle ‘vybz’ inna yuh performance dem.
Agree or disagree a jus so me feel.
Link to one of the youtube clips with Kartel’s performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP3zCytnfgU
