Vybz Kartel: ‘Born Fi Dis’ Album Review

Vybz Kartel’s latest album Born Fi Dis is as much a grand affirmation after two prolific decades as it is a GAZA family affair. The 12-track suite shows Kartel’s undeniable prowess as well as that of his protégés – sons Likkle Vybz and Likkle Addi (known together as UTG), and cousin Sikka Rymes who all make guest appearances. Released on his son’s Aiko Pon Di Beat label, the record features beats made exclusively by Vybz Kartel Muzik as well as Short Boss Muzik.

Despite incarceration, the veteran is defiant and multifaceted as ever, doling out vivid imagery with his distinct delivery on themes of sex, love, and his unquestionable staying power, among other topics.

Arriving on the tail-end of summer, Vyzb Kartel’s second release of 2021 is just in time for Grammy nomination season – the award is top of mind for Di Teacha with each successive release, the elusive icing on the cake for his 20-year tenure. Born Fi Dis is also based on what’s in Di Teacha’s heart, like his ‘trophy wife’ Tanesha, who he pays tribute to with a track titled Love Ya Babymom. “Look how far me and Shorty ah come from” he proudly sings of their storied 20-year union.

Their relationship has survived side chicks, rumors, and even that famous incident when “Shorty fling afta [him] wid a knife” for his womanizing ways.  Now over a decade later, he’s still penning some of his most heartfelt lyrics ‘To Tanesha’ — “Addi run di Worl’ but ah you ah Addi boss”, he sings on the track.

But it seems a true ‘gyallis’ never gives up the game, and Born Fi Dis is laced with ladies’ anthems, one after the other. The lyrical deejay drops sultry instructions on the previously released No Cap feat U.T.G (You wanna play? Bubble up your waist..”) as well as The Law (Wine up nuh/ Bubble up nuh/ Pon yuh toe now, Tic toc, tic toc/ Mi waan set yuh right dere, right desso/ Put you pon yuh head, two hand, don’t leggo), cheering on his female fans with more flattering bars. In Public and Guilty Pleasure Jury are “intimate and groovy” as he puts it, like Ever Blessed meets Enchanting, starring Kartel as the bawdy bedroom bully.

Borrowing on bouncy 90’s dancehall, Kartel invites his female fans to fearlessly rebuff their haters on Biggest Fan. Meanwhile, Likkle Addi nearly outshines his dad on the mocking cut More Than A Friday, laying down a slick second verse on the standout riddim.

On the songs Paparazzi and the already popular Airforce 1, Kartel reprises his fashion-forward formula, flipping rhymes about his swag that once sent Clarks sales soaring in Jamaica and helped popularize “jersey, straight jeans and rosary chain”. “Look out here they come/ So clean, so handsome,” a female sings on Airforce 1’s chorus, while “fashion over style” is the move on Paparazzi. “Mi nuh camera shy, mi know fi dress, mi know fashion/ Set mi own pattern/ We nuh use Louis Vuitton fi tek yuh gyal/ Wah we have on nuh cost more than a couple grand,” Kartel rhymes on the track.

And a Kartel album wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t touch on his global influence hindered only by his absence from society, this time with a little help from his mother. “Well my talk is that my son need to be free, cause ah whole heap ah dem him help, buss whole heap ah dem, feed whole heap ah dem,” she says of his prolonged legal woes in The Menace’s voicenote intro.

Kartel’s aid and clout extended well beyond his Gaza Empire, which now includes his cousin and frequent collaborator Sikka Rymes, who spits the echoey chorus on Money Over Love. Say what you will about Kartel, his verve and vision have made him an icon. “Addi ah go lock dis fi couple decades,” is among the list of manifestations on opener 1.7.76, named for the artist’s birth date.

It’s no question then whether the little boy who grew up in poverty in Portmore knew the Porsche on the album cover and “big house all bout” (The Menace) would someday be his. The lucid image imposes his boyish profile with his future gains – the assets and even the face tattoos waiting in his colorful destiny. As Kartel declares on the album, “yuh can’t stop a titan”, especially one with unmatched consistency, whose twenty-year reign only feels like the first leg of the race.