Vybz Kartel was once the poster child for skin bleaching in Jamaican culture, but those days are long behind him.
Prior to his incarceration, Vybz Kartel famously bleached his skin and even released a song, “Cake Soap,” about it in 2010. Back then, the dancehall legend sported his lighter skin tone and numerous tattoos proudly. However, he received mixed reactions from fans, with some folks blaming him for influencing the youths to bleach their skins.
Vybz Kartel sat down for a new interview with Hot97’s Ebro and Rosenberg, where he opened up about that part of his career and how he feels about it now. Kartel admitted that his decision to bleach had something to do with self-love, although he was doing it to make his tattoos more visible.
“In hindsight, I think it definitely had to do with self-love,” Kartel said. “But on the other hand, while I was doing it, my mind wasn’t telling me that. My mind was telling me I’m doing this to show my tattoos because I got a lot of tattoos. But looking back, I think it was just, as a black man sometimes we have those issues.”
Kartel added, “I’ll never bleach again though.”
Vybz Kartel also shared the shock value benefits, which might’ve also influenced his decision to bleach his skin, but he says he backed it up with his music. “Shock value is good too, but once you said ‘ok this is shock value’ now people are looking, now you need content, you need to deliver,” he continues.
During his stint in prison, Vybz Kartel got sick with Graves’ Disease, an illness that affected his thyroid gland. At the time, some fans blamed his use of chemicals to lighten his skin for health issues behind binds. Following his release from prison last summer, Kartel was again criticized for his heavy partying, alcohol consumption, and smoking habits. He shared that drinking and smoking was his way of coping with the stress of reintegrating with the world after over a decade of incarceration.
Speaking on his health, Kartel shared that he has since done a lot of self-evaluation and made adjustments to his lifestyle. “The heavy drinking when I came out and smoking, I think that’s just my crutch,” he shared. “You got to try to cope with I’m in prison 13 years; I’m out now. The world is bigger; it’s a lot.”
Vybz Kartel will be performing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn this weekend for back-to-back shows. This will mark his first performance in the United States in over twenty years.
