Vybz Kartel Teases Upcoming Collab With Skillibeng, Tommy Lee Sparta & Jucee Froot
Dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel has appeared to tease an upcoming collaboration with rising dancehall star Skillibeng, former protoje Tommy Lee Sparta and American rapper Jucee Froot.
An Instagram post by GAZA stan Shemar Mckennon a few days ago, supposedly revealed more details about Kartel’s upcoming album titled Of Dons and Divas. “Look out for a Brand New Collaboration Song between Vybz Kartel, Jucee Froot and Tommy Lee Sparta that is going to be on Vybz Kartel New Album”, Mckennon said. Kartel replied, approving the post by simply adding, “And @skillibeng” in the comments.
Of Don & Divas will be Kartel’s 15th album and is expected to drop in June 2020. The Any Weather deejay previously revealed that the album would feature 15 tracks. Tommy Lee Sparta, Jucee Froot and Skillibeng may be new additions as they were not included in Kartel’s April 8th announcement of the album.
Tommy Lee Sparta
Tommy Lee Sparta and Vybz Kartel have a long history, which dates back to a few years before the Worl’ Boss was arrested. Although Tommy Lee has always publicly shown his respect for Kartel, many reports led fans to believe that the pair were at odds. In 2013, Kartel lashed out at his former Portmore Empire mentees saying he felt “betrayed by Popcaan and Tommy Lee whilst going through the darkest hour” of his existence”.
Tommy Lee eventually visited Kartel in prison in 2018 for the first time since the 2011 arrest and the artistes seem to have since made amends to their relationship.
In January 2020, both Tommy Lee and Kartel announced that they were working on a new collab, produced by Naviigator Entertainment. That track hasn’t been released.
Skillibeng
Skillibeng, whose real name is Emwah Warmington, is a young artiste who hails from St. Thomas, Jamaica and records with East Syde Records.
His hit song Brik Pan Brik made a splash late last year, gaining him more popularity. Before the hit, he was making a splash on the Eastside of the island and was receiving support from fans who took to his gritty street lyrics and unique vocal tone. The song gathered enough attention that he eventually had to defend himself saying that he was not promoting scammers in the pursuit of getting rich.
That song was his breakout hit and crossed a million views within the first month of its release. Two weeks ago he released War Addict , which has also been gathering views steadily on YouTube.
Jucee Froot
Juccee Foot, a rising American rapper out of Memphis, is signed to Atlantic Records and dropped her mixtape, Black Sheep , in March. The 25-year-old told Billboard earlier this year, “I’m really excited about being signed after being independent and slept on for so long”.
Kartel has continued to build anticipation surrounding the upcoming album and this inclusion of new uprising talent once again shows his music business acumen. Besides basically confirming the collabs will happen there are no other details about what the track(s) will focus on or even sound like.
Just that hint though was enough for fans to express their excitement in the comments, however. It’s being viewed by fans as a major Eastside Jamaica collab. One fan pondered how long they would have to wait for the album: “@vybzkartel look how long me ah wait me boss”.
Fans, from as far as Africa, chimed in to let the artiste know that they are eagerly awaiting the album. This Gahanian fan said: “Beautiful Collaboration. Keep it up ma people, Jamaica/Ghana forever.”
This fan said they’re looking forward to the collaboration between Kartel and Tommy Lee Sparta: “I’ve been waiting for another collab from mi idol @tommyleesparta an the alien brain @vybzkartel.”
Kartel’s feature-packed Of Dons & Divas album will include some of the biggest names in Dancehall including fellow monarch Spice, 6ix boss Squash, and TeeJay.
Also appearing are his sons Likkle Addi and Likkle Vybz, 6ix deejay Daddy1, GAZA ‘VP’ Sikka Rymes, GAZA ‘First Lady’ Lisa Hyper, GAZA Slimatic, Lisa Mercedez and Daniiboo.
Of Dons & Divas will follow To Tanesha which was released in January 2020 and made it onto the top iTunes charts for current albums in the Hip-Hop category, as well as Billboard’s Top 100 album charts at #87.