Maybe I am naive but am i really seeing the full blem ? Let me explain. Long talking :
Back to the old argument “love and money”. There are three types of people who push reggae music. Those who fight it entirely, push against it. Those who love it and push it because they do which in the most part is for the reasons they love it……….. and those who push it for the money.
Since the bigman touch back on the street again after an evil amount of years in jail (13), assisted to freedom even by our own king here in the UK, jailed with way less than evidence than is required to take away a mans freedom, we are seeing a plethora of things about the man.
Off the top of my head, there are three people I know personally, called Mr Palmer. One was my old Math teacher who was a bit of a dick at one point, but was a good teacher most the time. Then my long long time friend from my home town whom I used to ride sound system with back in the day (big up Anju, my bredda, one love) and then from the same era, the honorable Mr Palmer, boss of Jetstar records, whom I often tackled hard dough bread with on a sunday morning while his customers fought over the brand new 7″ stock pile which I remember joking about should have been served and protected by armed guard, the way you have to avoid climbing under man to reach a certain pile, trapped by a next man legs and all dem madness. (No funny man ting, but funny yuh fck)… and then one day we all get exposed to…..
One of the most talented Jamaicans to say anything on a microphone. Mr Adidja Azim Palmer.
I mean. WTF ? This yout (I am 2.5 years older so low me haha) yah no normal. I can run into this about why and how I feel so but the reality is the man was on some next level doing his thing, mashing up the place. Song after song, lyric after lyric, style after style. Patterns so tied up, you could lose your tongue in your own mouth trying to keep up. And not only was he on the gyal them thing, he was on the entertainment thing and MORE then ultimately, he was on the conscious thing. Like every successful artist, Kartel ticked the three mainstay very broad subjects of reggae music, do not get this wrong.
Things like summertime and clarks tunes were massive, but tunes created earlier than even these were giant too. Heck, there were songs (and this is where this all starts to make sense now) that were absolutely huge that certain selectors wouldn’t even play. At first. It took other big selectors and sound systems to show them to the world, the world then reacted and those same selectors would take a chance and play them.
This is the thing. Kartel lit a lot of fires. He didn’t give a fck. He knew what he was talking about and fired those shots all day. And some of us could see what he meant and why he was doing it…. and we supported it. Rightly so ! Mr Babylon.
Kartel ferociously attacked the energy company who he accused of scamming him. So he should have.
He made no bones about wanting to make Jamaica a better place. My heart goes with him there !
He even made songs telling you about badman life and garrison style living.
He named certain people in his songs that left me wondering if he was truly setup and arrested charged and convicted for what would equate to be a case that would be an insult to wasting police and court time in most countries. A voice message. Life in Jail.
But what’s gonna happen now ? Kartel is much older now and we are seeing some beautiful moments on social media, which his family and wife. Talk about his grandkids and sons chilling, his daughter making fun of him and making him take her shopping. All wonderfully wholesome. A joy to see.
I think it feels like while all of this has happened and of course now, life goes on, we should remember or better yet, never let anyone allow us to forget, the legacy that exists. Why ?
Because the greatest reggae music artists know what the core of reggae music is and reggae music will ever try to empower and better the lives of silenced, the less fortunate, the victims, the economic failures and so on and so on.
Even if you hate Kartel, good people don’t hate anyone who defends the poor.
