BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A popular New York radio station, Irie Jam Radio, has placed a temporary ban on music from Jamaican dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel for Black History Month because of his newly-found bleaching habit.
Traditionally, Black History Month is celebrated in February in many parts of the world and the banning of Kartel’s music was initiated by Dub Master Chris, one of the radio stations’ disc jockeys.
According to Chris, in a recent interview with Jamaica-Star, “Black History Month is a big deal and we as a people should take every opportunity to celebrate our heritage. I feel if I continue to play Vybz Kartel, an artiste who is now very much known for bleaching his skin, it simply sends the wrong message to my young impressionable listeners.”
He went on to say, “I strongly believe bleaching is wrong, wrong, wrong! It is a disgrace. It’s a slap in the face of our heritage, our ancestors and our God. This definitely sends the wrong message to children. I think it leads them to believe that somehow, if they are dark complexion something is wrong with that. It erodes the concept that black is beautiful.”
Chris, who has 16 years of experience as a radio personality, said he has the full support of the Irie Jam Radio Station’s management and team. He said although he has been playing Vybz Kartel’s music since the artiste’s debut in the 90s, he has made the decision to ban his songs because of the power and influence the singer wheels.
Vybz Kartel started receiving added attention and lots of scrutiny late last year, not for his music but for the visible lightening of his skin complexion by using cake soap.
The artiste even went as far as to release his own bleaching cake soap was heard in several interviews saying he loves being controversial and has only bleached his skin for the fun of it as well as to enhance his tattoos.
He has been receiving quite a lot of criticism from many of his dancehall peers, especially Bounty Killer, as they are known to be rivals for several years. Bounty Killer said in a recent interview that the results of Vybz Kartel’s bleaching were caused from using more than just cake soap, because his mother (Bounty Killer’s) has been washing with cake soap for many years and it has never done anything to her hands.
Kartel, who refers to himself as the Dancehall Hero, is known for a bundle of hits that include ‘Proper English’, ‘Romping Shop’, ‘Picture Me and You’, ‘Real Bad Man’, ‘Send Fi Mi Army’ and ‘Clarks’.
