Vybz Kartel mines gold with PARTYNEXTDOOR single “Not Nice” which has been certified gold.
The OVO singer released the single last summer and it became an instant hit. The track features PARTYNEXTDOOR singing over a dancehall Afrobeat which samples Vybz Kartel’s 2011 singles “Girl You Too Bad.” The song was also produced by Mixpak’s Dre Skull, who produced a number of songs for Vybz Kartel and Popcaan. PARTY is also a big fan of dancehall music and the writer behind Rihanna and Drake’s smash 2016 dancehall hit “Work.”
Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) confirmed that the single “Not Nice” sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States. The video for the single also received 20 million views on YouTube. Vybz Kartel tastes success recently with his mega-hit “Fever” climbing to number 37 on the Billboard R&B chart and could climb even further as it grows in popularity.
Despite his incarceration since 2011, Vybz Kartel manages to stay relevant among dancehall fans even much more so than a lot of his peers in the Jamaican music space. A lot of his new music since his incarceration are from previously recorded unreleased material, but he came under scrutiny last year for allegedly recording music behind bars, a claim that he has since refuted. Even though he has denied the allegation, some industry stakeholders are not convinced. Perhaps that can also explain the slowdown of music coming out from his camp over the last couple of months.
PARTYNEXTDOOR is currently working on his next album and has been previewing some new music on social media from the upcoming project. He also writes a lot of music for other artists like his OVO boss Drake and pop artists like Rihanna. His next project will arrive by the end of the year or early next year.
