Spragga Benz Sets The Record Straight On His Near Feud With Vybz Kartel

Veteran dancehall artiste Spragga Benz wants to set the record straight, Vybz Kartel was almost burnt by him and not the other way around. In an interview on YouTube channel TVJ Entertainment Report, he said: “He’s a deejay weh me respect but not a deejay who me fear.”

Spragga, whose real name is Cartlon Grant, revealed that he wrote with and for Kartel at a point in Kartel’s early career.

“I have been here before him; naw take nothing from him, but I was here before he came. I was one a them people who used to write with him to, or write fi him to. Because we write songs where me and him perform where a me write. Naw take nothing from him, he is a very talented artiste but mi no consider it that way like we fi burn cause anybody could a get burn.”

He added that he believed Kartel’s success over the years comes from his low morality stand point. He believed the things Kartel says in his songs would never have been considered during his time the helm of Dancehall.

Even though Kartel thrives of shock value, Spragga Benz said he was still surprised that the Worl’ Boss was incarcerated without sufficient evidence to convict him.

When asked whether he felt the state had handled the case fairly he said: “Dem don’t come with a body and dem don’t come with a weapon, so me leave at that.”

The 50-year-old Danchall icon has been working on revamping his career and is also sharing his wisdom about how the genre can grow. For one he’s advising new Dancehall artistes that the constant need for shock value in their music and lifestyle simply won’t last for very long.

He said artistes like Alkaline may benefit from such antics but he believed that the fame that comes with it would always be short lived.

He also noted the contribution of 90s Dancheall to the current form of the music and said fans wanted more of that.  Spragga criticised the overuse of auto tune in modern Dancehall and added that he believes people no longer feel the music in their soul. He said that in the 90s the artiste’s voice and the rhythm had separate identities and that is no longer the case.

Another reason he believed that Dancehall grew so much in the 90s is because there was a lot less competition between artistes. There was no real desire to own the genre, he said. “We use to help each other to pen songs.”

Spragga praised Koffee for flying the Jamaican flag high and taking a fresh spin on Dancehall to the world. He said she was the most innovative artiste at this time and compared the beats of some of her songs to more popular hits of the 90s. He said he believed she had taken the bounce of the rhythms of 90s Dancehall and is giving people the Dancehall that they love.