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Controversial Jamaican Dancehall Star Vybz Kartel Takes On His Critics

'The way I deliver the lyrics makes up for the rawness, the slackness, of what I'm talking about,' he says

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Vybz Kartel
Scott Gries/Getty Images
By Baz Dreisinger
June 13, 2011 4:55 PM ET

Look up "controversy" in the Jamaican dictionary and you might find a photo of Adidjah Palmer, a.k.a. dancehall star Vybz Kartel. The 35-year-old launched his career over a decade ago as a ghostwriter for Bounty Killer and has since dominated Jamaican airwaves with outré, tongue-twisting tunes about everything from X-rated antics to ghetto politics. He's dominated gossip columns, too, whether for his much-hyped feud with fellow dancehall deejay Mavado, which ended in a meeting at the Prime Minister's office; the name of his crew Gaza, a name he also bestowed on the neighborhood outside Kingston in which he grew up; or his chameleon-like appearance: Kartel's ever-lightening skin has generated plenty of angst about so-called "skin bleaching" in Jamaican culture. On June 21st he releases Kingston Story (Mixpak Records), a collaboration with Brooklyn-based hip-hop/electro producer Dre Skull. The no-holds-barred artist talks music, business ventures and cultural politics with Rolling Stone.

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How did you and Dre Skull come to record an album together?
A while back, he had a track sent to me, asking me to voice on it. And it was a bad dancehall track authentic. I thought he must be a Jamaican living abroad. When I spoke to him and found out that it was a white man from New York, I couldn't believe it I was awe-struck. The track became a single, "Yuh Love," and he offered to do an album together. So he flew into Jamaica several times and we recorded it. It's different from every other album I've done.

Because many of the tracks have as much a hip-hop feel as a dancehall one?
It's Dre's interpretation of dancehall music, so it has American influences it's a fusion. And I love that fusion. It affected me lyrically it opened up my vocabulary and made me want to say more than just gun lyrics or just talking about F***[ing].

You're especially known for controversial tunes about that last topic.
Yes I am. But there is an art to the sex track: As raw as it is, I deliver it in such a way as to be palatable. Take, for example, [the Billboard-charting single] "Ramping Shop." The melody, the flow it's smooth. The way I deliver the lyrics makes up for the rawness, the slackness, of what I'm talking about.

Thanks to songs like that, you're often criticized for having a negative influence on Jamaican society for promoting sex and violence in a country with an extraordinarily high murder rate.
In a third-world culture like Jamaica, crime and violence is rampant because of lack of social infrastructure for ghetto youth. There is corruption on all levels of society, from political corruption to corruption within the police force and the overall private sector, and all of that has led to the [decline] of society. Then society wants artists to take the blame, and be scapegoats labeled as role models? No, man, F*** that! I don't want that title.

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So you see yourself as a scapegoat?
Let me break it down for you. I live in [the wealthy Kingston neighborhood] Norbrook. The kids in Norbrook listen to the same Vybz Kartel lyrics that the ghetto youth listen to, so why aren't the kids in Norbrook behaving like the ghetto youth in Tivoli or Jungle? It has to do with social upbringing it's society. And it starts with the family, which is why I always say "family first." My kids listen to my lyrics and I don't see them running rampant. It's the fault of society, of postcolonialism, of politicians and then people want to blame artists. I refuse to take that blame.

If you had to compare yourself to someone in hip-hop, who would it be?
Jay-Z, because I am a lyrical prodigy and I am also an astute businessman. I have done things business-wise that no other dancehall deejay has even tried to do.

Such as?
I started Street Vybz Rum, and I have a club in Kingston, The Building. For the future, I am working on a new tonic wine, which will hit the streets by Autumn. Vybz Wear is my clothing line and it will launch for the summer: belt buckles, limited edition t-shirts, sneakers called "Addis," dogtags but we prefer to call them "Gaza tags." And I also have my cake soap brand a face soap that lightens the skin and removes blemishes.

NEXT: Vybz Kartel responds to criticism of his skin bleaching