Vybz Kartel

Well supported

Adidja Azim Palmer, born 7 January 1976 and raised in the Waterford district of Portmore, is the most influential and prolific dancehall artist of his generation and, by most accounts, the one who set the genre's late-2000s direction. He began in 1996 in a trio called Vibes Cartel with Mr Lee and a singer billed Escobar — the name taken from a film about the Colombian cartel, and later shortened to his own — and in 2006 founded the Portmore Empire collective, the crew that carried the "Gaza" identity through the rivalry with Mavado's Gully side. His singles reached a level of Caribbean ubiquity few artists manage: "Ramping Shop" in 2009, which the Broadcasting Commission's directive of that year was written in direct response to, then "Clarks", "Summertime" and "Dancehall Hero". He is variously billed Worl' Boss, Teacha and King of Dancehall. He was convicted of murder in 2014; the Privy Council quashed the conviction in 2024 and the Court of Appeal ordered no retrial, and in July 2026 he shared a stage with Mavado for the first time since 2008.