Vybz Kartel, Tommy Lee Sparta Vent About Low Streams On YouTube
Dancehall artist Vybz Kartel has, once again, voiced his dissatisfaction with the lower than usual streams that his new music has been receiving on YouTube. Tommy Lee Sparta, a former affiliate of Kartel’s now-defunct Portmore empire, was quick to add his two cents about what they believe is a conspiracy to suppress their music by persons unknown.
In an Instagram post today, the Dancehall artists—who are both currently incarcerated—made their suspicions known when the Worl’ Boss shared a screenshot of his last five releases with their respective streams: Temptation (779k views), 3 Little Birds (1 M views) Daddy Was A Pilot (394k views), Like Semper Fi – Official Audio (182k views) and Like Semper Fi – Official Video (49k views).
In the caption, he claimed that some form of tampering may have been involved to cause such disappointing and unsteady numbers. “GAZA unuh notice Anytime a bagga song start drop, someone or a group a person start do somn to VYBZKARTELVEVO?” Kartel said.
Putting the focus on his latest release, the music video for Like Semper Fi that dropped on October 25 and which featured an enticing display from a sexy video vixen, Kartel further expressed his confusion with the low streams that the visuals received: “2.2 MIL Loyal Subscribers but 40k inna 2 day pon a bad song wid a sexy video?”
Dancehall deejay Tommy Lee Sparta responded to not only agree with the Teacha’s suspicions but also revealed he had experienced the same thing.
“Happen to me all the time me g till me a wanda if corona a dead off e people dem are some artist a buy out the views dem,” Sparta wrote in the comments.
Others like Dancehall deejay Cham, whose recently released Condensed Milk with Spice stands at 500k views, also chimed in on the discussion to say, “Dem a try hurt di music!!!”
However, music consultant and producer of the World Music Views chart show on TVJ Donovan Watkis, insists that YouTube is ahead of other streaming platforms, and is a huge vehicle for Dancehall music.
“YouTube is very important to Jamaican artists, especially because that’s where artists from the region register the most streams. I don’t think there is any conspiracy to suppress Dancehall music by YouTube,” Watkis told DancehallMag.
“If anything YouTube has helped the genre and the country more than any other streaming platform. The algorithms are constantly changing and prioritizing what gets seen based on popularity. In the last year more artist from Jamaica stream more than one million times than any previous time in history,” he continued.
Watkis even directed Jamaican musicians, who were in doubt to check his platform to get accurate streaming data or if they felt obliged, to contact YouTube directly.
“Also if artists want to see their real numbers then tune in to World Music Views where we have a chart that reflects only the organic streams as per YouTube’s policy for chart data. If an artist notices a drop in their views they can reach out to YouTube directly and they are usually helpful.”
“They also changed the trending tab recently to the ‘explore’ tab to include gamers and other content makers in the top trending conversation,” Watkis added.
While, according to YouTube’s Music Charts & Insights, Vybz Kartel was the most streamed Dancehall artist on YouTube in Jamaica for 2020 and appears set to repeat that title in 2021, this is not the first time that he has raised concerns about the streaming platform.
In fact, last year April he blatantly accused other Dancehall acts of buying YouTube views when his big release that month did not perform as expected.