Sheba Says Vybz Kartel Signed Her To Portmore Empire After Notnice Rejected Her

Notnice may have been Vybz Kartel’s production right-hand, but that doesn’t mean they shared the same taste. Reflecting on her 2009 entry into Addi’s now-defunct Portmore Empire, Sheba says she did an impromptu audition for Notnice, but was dismissed.

“When time mi used to sell cash for gold, I find Notnice and mi seh to Notnice, ‘You know mi can deejay and something?’, and Notnice seh, ‘Eehh, you can deejay? Alright, deejay something,’” Sheba shared during an Instagram live interview this week. “When mi deejay the song fi Notnice, Notnice seh, ‘No man, you nuh ready man. Gwaan continue sell your little cash for gold. Music a nuh fi you. Just continue and see if you can get likkle training and likkle practice cause dis a nuh fi you.’”

Feeling defeated, Sheba, whose given name is Tasheba Campbell, continued performing in small competitions. She admitted to not seriously wanting a music career but using her talent to feed her two children. It is through these contests that she met DJ Master Rogj from Tiffany Disco, who encouraged her to audition for ‘The Teacha’ himself. 

“Dem time deh, you know dem man yah a mega star so yuh know yuh haffi careful how ya come round him,” Sheba said. “And him paranoid too, so for you to approach him is not even a question.”

But Rogj told her where to find him, gave her taxi fare and wished her luck.

“When mi a go fi meet Addi, mi still sceptic because memba a Notnice produce Addi, and if Notnice can tell me seh mi nuh have the sound, mi have it inna my head seh then this a waste a time.”

She continued, “Anyway, mi still find him. Find me way up a Big Yard (studio) couple taxis well. Couple lost. Couple asking of directions…walk down the place, end up find him.”

She was told by someone at the gate that Kartel’s studio visits were deliberately unpredictable. Sheba said she waited for almost four hours, hungry with only fare to go home when she decided to call it a day. 

“As mi a walk fi go bout mi business now, a him mi see a drive in.”

The man told Kartel that she was there to deejay for him, and the Love Dem artist signaled his approval.

“The same song weh mi deejay fi Notnice, a the one song mi did have at the time. Mi deejay it fi him and him seh, ‘You know mi like you and mi like it’. Him seh, ‘You write?’. Mi seh, ‘Yeah, mi can write’. Him seh, ‘Hear weh a go gwaan. Mi a go give you a rhythm, you go home and you write something fi it, you record it, carry it come back and mek mi hear weh yuh gwaan wid.’”

It was the Best Baby Daddy rhythm produced by Kartel’s Adidjahiem Records and Notnice. Sheba went to Rogj who hooked her up with a studio, and as fate would have it, Notnice was the studio engineer.

“When Notnice come in and see mi in the studio, him surprised… Him a seh, ‘No dah likkle girl yah, no she mi just tell the other day seh she nuh ready fi artist ting yet? So how the boss a send mi fi record her?’… Him record the song and him gi Addi, but I think weh Addi did a look fah…him nuh really waan the song, him just waan hear how well mi siddung pon the rhythm, how mi maneuver it… When him hear it now him seh, ‘You know seh mi a go sign you?’”

And the rest, as they say, is history. The two had winning chemistry on collabs like Gaza Mi Name, You and Him Deh and Like Christmas, the latter Sheba previously revealed was based on their brief affair.

The camp would ultimately crumble following claims of an abusive work environment, reaching its crescendo with Kartel’s 2011 lock-up, and later incarceration in 2014.

The deejay was freed this month after his murder conviction was overturned by the UK’s Privy Council.