Vybz Kartel

Jamaican dancehall artist and entrepreneur, born January 7, 1976 in Kingston.

Growing up in Portmore, he would practice with neighborhood sound systems Soul Signal and Electric Force, and in 1993, Adijah, in his late teens, recorded his first single "Love Fat Woman" for Alvin Reid's One Heart label under the name Adi Banton, a name he chose in tribute to Buju Banton who was one of his role models.

He recorded several more tracks for local producers until 1996 when he and two friends, Mr. Lee and a singer called Escobar, decided to form a group. After watching a movie about Pablo Escobar and his infamous cartel, Adijah came up with a name for his trio: Vibes Cartel. The group soon broke up due to internal frictions leaving Adijah to continue alone. He chose to keep the name of the group changing the C to K in Kartel and adopting the moniker Vybz Kartel.

In 1998, after performing at the Champions In Action stage show in his hometown of Portmore, Vybz linked up with Bounty Killer. His new role as Killer’s protégé attracted attention from the public, and he progressed to collaborations with Bounty Killer. He then released on his own hits and collaborated with other artists. This led to a deal with UK/US based label One Heart.

On April 3, 2014, Kartel was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams in August 2011. He continued to release music while in prison by recording vocals in his cell, into an iPhone, with a beat playing on an iPad. These vocals were then sent to engineer [a=Mario Antonia Dunwell] aka [a=Dunw3ll] and producer [a=Linton "TJ" White]. On July 31, 2024, after 12 years 10 months in prison, Kartel and his three co-defendants were freed.

Father of PG13 (Little Vybz & Little Addi).
Common-law husband of Tanesha Johnson.