Who is russian vybz kartel

I decided I didn't really love it that much because I wanted to create the music, not play other people's music. When did you decide that you wanted to make your own music? How did you go about doing that?

I always used to mess around with music on my own as a kid — [I was] self-taught in piano and making beats — so after high school, I had a year off and I got admission to NYU in New York. I didn't really want to go into IT or computers, though I was good at it at.

I said to my parents, "I'm gonna do this music and give it my full try, and within this year if I don't make it, then I go to college. I started to network, try and meet the artists.

My first riddim had Konshens on there, Vybz Kartel, Shyno, a few other people, and it did good. Then I had my second song that I ever released, called "Life Sweet" with Vybz Kartel that I have that tattooed on my arm, to remember my first breakthrough sound. While I was doing that I was literally, every night, in the streets promoting it. Every song I had I used to do that. I used to actually go and promote it myself, walk in the streets with CDs in hand.

I bought CD duplicators. If I'm promoting a song, I do CDs for it across Jamaica, [getting them to] the DJs, or anywhere that was playing music where people could hear it. It could be a guy with a loud car system, the taxis, the bus, bus stations, all of that. I was on my own, but I had one or two friends who helped out. At the time they weren't even involved in music, they were just hanging out and they saw the vision.

I didn't have no team, no signing, no label, or nothing. I had my own little label which I still have now which is Head Concussion Records. But then, it was just really just me and two of my high school friends. I know there's people who do some things similar to that, but I didn't see an actual producer at the time doing it. Especially when I came into Jamaican music at first — that's why I emphasize I'm from uptown. There was a big stigma between uptown and downtown, which is like the ghetto.

When I was in high school, it was like, "Oh you're from that area? We don't really mess with you. From Tivoli Gardens to Maxfield, to you name it, they all knew me. That's what I did and I got a name for myself after. What came after that? I sang on that one with him. Our goal in making that big song was what we did with it: we bridged uptown and downtown culture.

It never happened before. Before that it was like a segregation, like a division between the two. There even became parties where the uptown people were going to the downtown parties now, because it was a whole unification of the two areas. So, other than being a huge success, as music it helped the culture.

At the time that was the biggest dancehall video because of the quality, how it was shot. It had the most views at the time.

In dancehall, everybody has a producer so everybody knew how I looked. I had a unique image to the culture. They were like, "Who is this dude, the light skin guy in dancehall music? I remember it was Trinidad and Panama that were the first countries in , where I would go there and I would have a fanbase and if I go to the mall I'd have to leave. Where I could say "I'm at this venue" and I'd get people or more. I have like four with Vybz, every song I sang with him was big.

Then I did a song with Machel Montano, which was big in the soca market. It was more of a groovy soca. I wasn't really trying to be an artist, I was just doing it for fun, and because the first one worked, the fans were like "Yo, where's the next one?

It was just "Yo, it can't hurt. I think I'll do it again because people still ask for it. I met him in late , while I was doing that year of let me try and make it.

He was like, "Yo, there's this kid. He's dope. Hear his beats. Next day, I remember at like six in the morning I was in my studio, and it wasn't a real studio, it was my setup. I got a text, and everyone who knows Kartel knows he types words in numbers and symbols.

I got a text like, "Send some more riddims," so I'm like "Who this? I still have recordings [of his], so I just release them whenever I feel the time is right, and promote them via the internet and the street. It's pretty much the same process, I just don't have that much [music from him] anymore because he's been in there a few years. I still have quite a few [songs] but I have to time them. It definitely hurts because he was the biggest. I think in dancehall at the moment, him missing is just one less gladiator on the battlefield to help the culture.

The culture is still growing and doing good, but the main problem I think with the dancehall culture is that most of the artists can't travel to the U. There's a lot of fight in the culture itself, you know? And I feel like the Jamaican government doesn't support dancehall as much as they should, because there's people who fly from Japan and come to the worst slums and ghettos just to learn to dance or learn the culture.

That should tell you a lot. According to the Jamaica Star newspaper, both Kartel and Russian said there is no rift between them. Last weekend Urban Islandz broke news that there is a rumored beef between Vybz and Russian.

The source said because of some allegations that Vybz Kartel is beating members of Gaza, the new and upcoming artists opt to sign with Russian who is a producer with his own label. For a while there has been rumors that Jah Vinci is no longer a part of Kartel led Portmore Empire, after earlier this year rumors broke that Vinci was beaten by Vybz Kartel. One rival deejay song that Kartel had Jah Vinci in his basement cleaning his Clarks.

One fan told us that Jah Vinci is a talented deejay and we would like to hear more music from him. Do you think there is a rift or no rift between Kartel and Russian and what about Jah Vinci?

I think Kartel will be shown to be a batty man people got info on him and make is sign the sissy agreement or they would tell.