Vybz Kartel Blasts Jamaica Gleaner For Letter Condemning Celebration Of Likkle Addi’s Baby

In responding to congratulatory notes for Vybz Kartel’s son Likkle Addi, who is by law a minor and expecting his first child at age 15, an advocate in a letter to the editor in the Jamaica Gleaner yesterday (May 20), said society should not be glorifying rape.   After the publication of the letter, Kartel yesterday blasted the Gleaner as a source of “propaganda” with “an agenda”.

The GAZA nation, on social media, overwhelmingly supported the news on Sunday that Likkle Addi was expecting a baby boy with an 18-year-old young lady. Spice, Lisa Hyper, and Foota Hype were also among the entertainers excited about the news of the baby that would be Kartel’s first grandchild.

So when the Gleaner posted the Letter of the Day titled “Are We Now Celebrating Statutory Rape?” to its Instagram account, there was no surprise that infuriated GAZA fans hurled insults, spewed vitriol and expletives.  The intense backlash soon caused the comments feature to be temporarily disabled on the post, and eventually, the paper removed the entire post.

“It is rather unfortunate that at a time like this, when our children’s advocates should be vocal, they are so silent. What am I speaking of, you may ask? It is the case of a young lady, at 18 years old, becoming pregnant by Adidja’ Vybz Kartel’ Palmer’s 15-year-old son. This, according to our rule of law, constitutes statutory rape”, the letter read.

The letter continued. “It is rather disheartening to witness the hypocrisy in discussion on the issue across various platforms, with many seeing it as something to be lauded. Had it been a 15-year-old girl and an 18-year-old male, we would have been singing a different Sankey”.

“What is even more frightening is that the grandparents-to-be are so caught up in the celebration that they have hosted a baby shower for the pair. What has our society come to? Let us not be fooled, if this were to happen in other countries, that young lady would be facing criminal charges – and she should be”, the letter writer asserted.

The writer, Asheki Spooner, Executive Director of Advocate for CHANGE Jamaica, said society ought not “turn a blind eye to a situation that begs for a child to raise a child”.

Several GAZA fans and Kartel himself, found no issue with the situation, saying that the young couple were “millionaires” and would have enough money to care for the child.  But the Advocate says, “money is not what raises a child. A child needs to be supported emotionally, educationally, psychologically, and physically as well.”

In her letter, she also said society ought not to praise the foolish decisions of our youth but to teach them to make better choices.

In his Instagram post that congratulated Likkle Addi and the 18-year-old, Kartel hailed the situation as a move to help him build his legacy and a knuckle in his belt of success as the consummate grandfather.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAUT_ZVlUxc/

Kartel has not responded to the contents of the letter, but he did attack its writer and the Gleaner for publishing it.  In Instagram postings made from the artiste’s verified account yesterday, Kartel asserted that the newspaper was aligned with sensationalism, propaganda, and “mixup”. 

“We all know they work closely with the government/police as the avenue in which they use to brainwash impressionable minds and serve their totalitarian agenda, though sometimes acting as a sort of ‘controlled resistance’ to appease John brown”, the deejay said.

He added, “I’ve studied closely the history of all media in Jamaica and trust me when i say The Gleaner is by far the worst of the worst. To put it simply, if you are the descendant of Africans in this country, you should never buy even a page from these activists of conservatism. If the Gleaner had its way, slavery would surely return!”.

In another posting, he said that Spooner should pay attention to affluent communities, where he claims child abuse is rampant before she tries to fix issues in “GAZA”. “Child advocate haffi go inna Andrew Holness [the Jamaican PM] community go lock up di bagga man dem weh breed off di likkle gyal dem. Clean deso den u come a GAZA”, Kartel said.