Did Vybz Kartel Just Diss The MVP: Mavado, Alkaline And Jahmiel ?
Seemingly out of the blue, Vybz Kartel in an Instagram post yesterday dissed three dancehall artistes without naming names, but some fans are sure they know who are the intended targets. In congratulating all dancehall performers, djs and fans for their contributions in making the Jamaican genre known and heard worldwide, the current King of the Dancehall excluded three artistes who he singled out as “priests”.
Kartel posted a throwback video as he left a plaza at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in September 2010 in which he threw a shout out to some dancehall legends who came before him like Sizzla, Fantan Mojah, and Barrington Levy. Watch the clip below.
In the caption, he wrote “dancehall has made so many ghetto youths get rich, tour di world & bring di Jamaica 🇯🇲 breeze go hot up planet eart’…a who ‘urt?.” He continued, “BigUp every artiste ( except dem 3 priest deh ) BigUp every selector every radio dj and BigUp di Fans.”
The post which received well over 1,000 comments in a few hours had many fans confused and wondering who the three priests were.
“MVP movement him a talk,” said one of several Kartel’s followers who felt absolutely certain they knew who he was referring to.
MVP is the dancehall collective of Mavado aka the Gully Gad, Alkaline the Vendetta Boss and Jahmiel representing the Patriotz. The “Most Valuable Players” in dancehall concept for the trio first came about in Jahmiel’s 2017 song Bad Dawg which is thought to be a diss track directed at Kartel affiliate Popcaan, and Vershon. Vershon responded the next day with Guard Dog.
In Bad Dawg, Jahmiel sang “and if you never know // don’t f$ck with MVP // In other words, Most Valuable Players // In other words, Mavado, Vendetta, Patriots // You see weh me a say?”
But why are they “priests”? Well priests generally take a vow of celibacy and do not take a wife. “Mvsea is a b@ttywash group them no love woman, never yet see them with a gal #priest them,” explained one Kartel fan.
While tensions between Kartel and Mavado/Alkaline are well known, some fans believe Jahmiel has not directly done anything to earn the Worl Boss’ ire. In fact, he has been known to lend support through music to Kartel who is serving a life sentence for murder. His 2013 track Freedom was one such motivational ballad to both Kartel and his co-convict Shawn Storm.
Maybe it’s his association with the MVP who have performed several international shows together. In June 2019, the loose collective even produced a new collaboration called Jealousy. With the “ghetto youths getting rich” comment, Kartel may have just a hint of jealousy on his mind as Alkaline only just released a song titled Riches a few days ago.
In April 2019, Kartel made a cryptic Facebook post about some Bad Dawgs which some fans believed was also directed at Jahmiel’s association with the MVP. “An artist was doing good until he start flex wid one Pittbul and wah German Shepherd.. Yuh need fi drop dah company deh dawg.. Or else u ago lame out yuh ting. ” Kartel wrote in that post.
Or maybe it was Jahmiel’s feud with another Kartel affiliate Chronic Law from the 6IX crew? Vybz Kartel took a side in that battle after Jahmiel dropped a vicious diss track aimed at Law. In an Instagram post then, Kartel shared a cartoon portrait of Chronic and 6IX boss Squash and asked “6ix out ere a weh dem feel like?.” 6IX crew members were giddy with the very public support given by their “father”.
Whatever the reason, a better use of Kartel’s Instagram privileges in prison might be made by promoting his recently released album, To Tanesha. It might have been the goal of the post to begin with, by stirring up controversy.