Jah Vinci is still emotionally scarred and grappling with his brother’s death which took place on his birthday over a decade ago. Since the tragedy, the artiste found it difficult to celebrate his big day and instead always viewed the day as one geared towards grief and reflection.
This year, the “Watch Yuh Friends” singer pushed through the emotional barriers and hosted a Dancehall star-studded birthday celebration, admitting that it’s what his brother, Mark Anthony White, would have wanted.
The artiste started the day (February 9) with a post paying tribute to White. He captioned a photo of him smiling, “RIP MI BREDA YU MEMORIES LIVE WITH US FOREVA!!!! How can I forget dawg this mek mi cry every birthday breda swear real real youth everybody know that. LOVE YU DAWG.”
Jah Vinci went on to share a video of him performing his single “Birthday,” which was released in 2009 to commemorate and recall the unfortunate tragedy. White was gunned down by unknown assailants in Cassava Piece, in what police say is a case of mistaken identity.
With each performance of “Birthday” and “Nobody Knows (Where Do Angels Go” released in 2015, the singer has recalled to his audience the tragedy he carries around.
In a change of regular programming for this year, the artiste soon after shared a poster promoting his “Birthday Par” and captioned, “Let’s do this!!! The dawg would want me to fi sure.”
Many fans took to the comment section of the post to urge the singer to go ahead and enjoy his day, despite the grief that is affiliated with it.
Jah Vinci later shared videos and photos from the party, showing Bounty Killer, NotNice, and Renee630 among the dancehall stars in attendance.
“Birthday par for the first time in years!! I just wanna say big big thank you to every one that came out and showed love, even tho it was a bittersweet day I can’t lie it was worth it and I appreciate you all for coming and to every one that just show up and showed out on the gram blessing me up and telling me happy birthday and condolences to my big brother trust me he wouldn’t have wanted it no other way, Bless up the most high mi team and mi family tr8888!!!”
Despite not being able to celebrate his birthday without reliving the trauma, the artiste has displayed strength and courage in his pursuit of success in the music industry.
Just last week, the August Town native shared a photo of his latest rewards, a Billboard plaque for his Reggae album “Kyng Midas,” and a YouTube plaque for his #1 streamed single “Virgin.”
Jah Vinci, born Andre Rhoden, evolved on the music scene under the guidance of Vybz Kartel’s ‘Gaza Empire.’
He is known for hits such as “In My Life,” “Mama Love,” “Rocka My Baby,” and more recently, “Virgin” and “Pretty Like a Rose.”
