Vybz Kartel and Alkaline are among a handful of artists who came under scrutiny from law enforcement last week for violent music videos.
Both dancehall artists who are at the top of their game in the Jamaican music space right now are arch enemies but feels the exact same about this topic, that artists creative freedom are under attack. Vybz Kartel and Masicka music video “Infrared” and Alkaline music video “After All” both depict fictional crime sprees and involves police officers, guns and in one case an armored truck.
“You never hear authorities speaking out against violent movies shown in theaters and on TV but as soon as a ghetto youth put something out they attack it,” a rep for Vybz Kartel told Urban Islandz. “This is not just an attack on the creative freedom of our entertainment industry, but a clear bias towards the elites. Instead of support our own industry we are fighting against it.”
Alkaline issued a statement apologizing for the video in which a female police officer performed a sexual act on the deejay, but he also feels that artists should be allowed to express their creative freedom. “With respect to the situation surrounding the video, Afterall, which was released on May 18, 2017, and directed by Jay Will, the artiste reserves the right to creative licence in expressing the contents of the song artistically with the relevant props,” Alkaline, real name Earlan Bartley, said.
