Watch Vybz Kartel’s Touching Video For ‘Then You & Me’

Legendary dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel is giving fans a heartbreaking look at relationships with the release of an emotional short film for ‘Then You & Me‘. Watch it below.

The song is the first single on the singer’s upcoming album To Tanesha which will be released on January 10, 2020. That album is dedicated to his decade-long common law wife Tanesha Jackson, better known as Shorty.

While Then You & Me stands strong on its own, the short film released today on Christmas morning tells the story of an older couple in the throes of a perpetually hurtful cycle in their marriage.

The film opens with a 911 emergency call before a flashback to one month prior that eases us into the life of the couple as they start their day at breakfast. They seemingly argue playfully over the lack of sugar in the husband’s tea. The wife withholds the sugar as she is concerned about her husband’s health but he responds harshly, “Yuh ah tek care ah mi, straight to de grave”.

The song’s lyrics take on an even more emotional meaning as the focus of the video quickly shifts to reveal that small arguments hide deeper, more serious issues in relationships. “We keep going round inna circle / No, this a cya love, this a surgery / You too lie, mi too jealous / Mi so cross, you so fed up,” the husband sings in a cut scene as he stands in for Vybz Kartel. As the video progresses, it is shown that the husband struggles to trust his wife with a ‘friend’ from Church. It turns out that the husband’s suspicions about the church friend’s intentions were correct, but the wife maintains her friendship with the ‘brother’.

On the night of their anniversary, another fights ensues over the husbands preoccupation with the TV and his inability to rise to the romantic occasion and this prompts the wife to declare that she’s going out with her friends. The church ‘friend’ arrives to pick her up and she returns several hours later. The couple has their biggest argument ever and things escalate as the husband grabs a knife from the kitchen drawer. She barricades herself in a room upstairs and the husband stabs himself in the chest. He removes his heart which he hands to his crying wife, saying “See it yah.”

The short film ends where we started as emergency personnel arrive.

The video, directed by Jay Will of GAMEOVER, perfectly captures the essence and desperation of Then You & Me and the almost 9 minute long short-film already has over 90,000 views in the few hours since its release.

Though Vybz Kartel gave dancehall fans a brief preview two weeks ago on his Instagram account, they were not ready for the emotional masterpiece that is the complete video.  Read through some of their positive reactions on social media.

“The only artist weh nuh fraid fi express him deep feelings while every other artist a try hard fi mentain a gangster image…..yow kartel a King Of dancehall mi done chat. All who nuh see dat must stop listen music.” said one fan on YouTube.

“The acting in this video is world class. They really captured everything this song was saying. Great video.”, another shared.

“This is good…the vid interpret the song very well…and the mature couple sell it off…well put together video…touching…exactly wat is taken place in a lot of relationships..well done”, one user insisted.

“Very profound short flim…. it depicts how life is when it’s comes on to relationships. The miscommunications, trust issues etc and unfortunately that’s 90% of why good relationships fail. We act without thinking and most of the times what we are thinking is not necessarily what’s happening… Can’t wait for the full album… ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️”, a forth fan declared on Instagram.

Watch the short film for Vybz Kartel’s Then You & Me below. To Tanesha is available for pre-order on iTunes.