Vybz Kartel

From Waterford to the world

Adidja Azim Palmer grew up in Waterford, Portmore, St Catherine, born on 7 January 1976. He won a place at Calabar High School in Kingston, but was expelled for truancy and later finished his schooling elsewhere. By his late teens he was writing and recording, first under the moniker Vibes Cartel (from a short‑lived trio of the same name), before refining it to Vybz Kartel. Early progress came inside Bounty Killer’s Alliance, where he wrote for the Warlord and others and sharpened the style that would come to define his solo work.

In 2006 he left the Alliance and formalised his Portmore Empire, the ‘Gaza’ camp that nurtured future stars including Popcaan and Jah Vinci. A fierce rivalry with Mavado’s ‘Gully’ faction then dominated the culture; by December 2009, violence linked to the feud prompted a government‑brokered truce at Jamaica House between the two deejays. That uneasy peace is now the foundation for a very different chapter: the pair will share the bill in London and Malta in September 2026.

The records that stuck

Kartel’s discography is dense and iterative, but some releases altered the room. Up 2 Di Time (2003) put him squarely in the Greensleeves era of modern dancehall albums. In early 2009, Romping Shop with Spice crossed into the US charts, spending weeks on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip‑Hop Songs and peaking in the 70s; later that year and into 2010 he unleashed a run of pop‑savvy street anthems. Clarks (2010), featuring Popcaan and Gaza Slim, didn’t just move units — it emptied shop shelves in Jamaica and kicked off think‑pieces about brand and dancehall, with DJs on BBC 1Xtra crediting the record for a sales spike reported by retailers on the island.

King of the Dancehall (2016) — released while he was incarcerated — became his highest‑charting US set to that point, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard’s Reggae Albums chart. In 2020 he switched registers with To Tanesha (January) and then the more combative Of Dons & Divas (June), the latter debuting on the Billboard Reggae tally. Fever, a 2016 single, was certified gold by the RIAA in February 2020 and subsequently went gold in the UK in July 2026 — a delayed formal recognition of how deeply the tune had already embedded itself in dancehall sets and diaspora parties alike.

The case, quashed — and release

On 14 March 2024, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London quashed the 2014 convictions of Kartel (Adidja Palmer) and three co‑defendants over juror misconduct, sending the matter back to Jamaica for a decision on whether there should be a retrial. After hearings in June, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision on 31 July 2024: a new trial was not required. That same day Palmer walked out of Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre to a crush of cameras and supporters; he posted celebratory clips to social media and, within 24 hours, announced a 12‑track project titled First Week Out that would debut in the Billboard Reggae Albums top ten.

Back on stage: Kingston, Brooklyn, Toronto

Kartel’s first full show since release came at the National Stadium in Kingston on New Year’s Eve 2024, billed as Freedom Street. He missed the advertised 10:00 pm start and entered minutes after 11:00 pm to Hustle The Money, seguing into his remix of Locked Up. The night stretched to roughly four hours overall, with Kartel himself sustaining around ninety minutes without a break. Spice joined him to ring in midnight with Jamaica’s National Anthem and fireworks; he also brought out members of the old Gaza circle, and the setlist folded in Deh Yuh Bad From, Nah Shot A Soul, Throw Word, Licence to Kill and Thank Yuh Jah among others. Fans and local reviewers noted the symbolism, the length and the weight — and also that his energy ebbed at times, understandable given a documented battle with Graves’ disease.

In April 2025 he made his US arena debut with back‑to‑back sold‑out nights at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The shows were positioned as a claim‑staking return; media and VIPs filled the concourses, and cameos (Busta Rhymes, Spice, Shenseea, Jah Vinci, Rvssian, among others) kept the pace while Kartel recovered between salvos. One of the emotional peaks came during God Is The Greatest, which drew a visible response from the deejay as the 18,000‑plus in the room roared it back.

By October 2025 he was in Toronto for his first concerts in Canada — three nights at Scotiabank Arena, with Drake making an unannounced appearance on night one. Production there had theatre: Kartel emerged from a mock prison cell in Blue Jays colours, wielding a baseball bat, and worked through Romping Shop, Dollar Sign, Clarks and more. Reviews and fan vox pops praised the event atmosphere and the surprise cameo; some wanted a longer set after a later‑than‑expected start.

Where he stands in September 2026

Kartel’s first studio album since release, God and Time, arrived in June 2026 via TJ Records. Pitchfork’s review read the set as an explicit re‑introduction: a reflective title track, a heavily collaborative spine (Spice, Shenseea, Skillibeng, Mavado among the dancehall names, and guests from Afrobeats and urbano), moments of old‑school mischief and passages where the writing leant earnest. Commercially it returned him to the US chart: God & Time debuted at No. 6 on Billboard’s Reggae Albums, his 12th entry there and his tenth top‑ten, a stat that places him third for most entries on that chart behind Bob Marley and Shaggy according to Jamaican trade reporting.

The awards column has also caught up with his output. Party With Me secured a Best Reggae Album nomination at the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards (2025), and Heart & Soul repeated the nomination the following year. Health remains part of the story: post‑release interviews in late 2024 had him speaking plainly about living with Graves’ disease and prioritising fitness alongside a heavy recording schedule; onstage in 2025 he at times managed stamina by flipping between solo segments and guest sequences. But across 2024–26 the through‑line has been momentum.

Dates on sale now — London and Malta

As of 6 September 2026 there are three live listings on sale tied to a single mid‑September push. On Wednesday 9 September 2026, The O2 in London hosts Gaza vs Gully: Vybz Kartel & Mavado (doors 18:30, curfew 23:00), billed by the venue as a UK exclusive. The following weekend (10–13 September) Freedom Street Europe sets up in Attard, Malta, across multiple venues led by Ta’ Qali National Park and UNO Malta. Ticketing pages list three purchasable options — a four‑day pass (10–13 September) and a three‑day pass (11–13 September) for Malta, plus the London O2 date — and flag two Gaza vs Gully headline nights within the festival programme. The framing is explicit: not a revival of 2000s hostilities but a shared‑stage celebration, eighteen years after the feud’s peak and seventeen after the government‑brokered truce.