Queen Ifrica Says Vybz Kartel Should Mentor Youth If He’s Released From Prison

Reggae singer Queen Ifrica wants Dancehall star Vybz Kartel to be a mentor to youth if he’s released from prison. 

Attorneys for the Worl’ Boss are eyeing bail following his overturned murder conviction by the Judicial Committee of the UK Privy Council on Thursday. For all intents and purposes, Kartel is no longer a convict but is on remand until the local Court of Appeal decides whether he will be retried. 

While concert enthusiasts are preoccupied with Kartel having his ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ moment, Ifrica has other ambitions for the Life We Living artist. 

“I am telling you Vybz Kartel, if dem let you out babes, if yuh nuh come join wid Nyan-ko-pong Jamaican people fi defend di yutes dem inna the inner city weh a dead out, because dem waan dem fi dead out because a dem a the true inheritance of this land here, and the new Jamaica cannot mek if dem deh here a gwaan like dem free and wild,” she expressed.

“Vybz Kartel, if yuh come a road Friday morning, Saturday morning, two weeks after dem seh, ‘Yes, you must go’, and nuh come join wid Nyan-ko-pong Jamaican Maroon – cause remember babes, yuh seh yaa Maroon. Come show we what kind of Maroon yuh be, once and for all, because Nyan-ko-pong Jamaican people need defence.”

In 2021, Kartel claimed blood ties to a late Maroon chief colonel in an Instagram post. 

“Former Maroon Chief Colonel Sydney Peddie is my great grandfather (my Granny’s Dad) and so doh feel me a look a hype,” the photo post read. “Big up the new chief Richard Currie and the entire Accompong Town.”

The Jamaican Maroons are often described as enslaved Africans who evaded their British masters to attain and preserve freedom. Following a guerilla war that lasted several years, the British acquiesced and signed peace treaties with the Maroons and granted them freedom and self-governance until slavery was abolished in 1834. 

A longtime Maroon advocate, Ifrica charged Kartel to be a leader of morality matters.  

“We bredda dem need some big brothers now fi tell dem nuh man nuh fi all up and down inna dem anus against dem will… Our youths need a big brother. I am begging you, when you drop a road, tek on the music, tek on the struggle…

“The people love you before yuh go in babes, so mi a beg you, when yuh come out, yuh see weh yuh influence do pon the first half? Pon the second half, mi a beg you, mek we tek out some of the likkle girls dem outta Taboo and some of the likkle youths dem outta the grave dem and outta the cell block dem. Mek dem come out of the cell wid you, wid dem mindset, wid dem actions. Mek dem put down the guns dem… A we haffi do it.”

Kartel has repeatedly voiced his opposition to being deemed a role model to youth.

During his 2011 presentation at the University of the West Indies, he dismissed the label after arguing his reasons for altering his canvas. 

“Vybz Kartel doesn’t embrace that title because society, on a whole, wants Vybz Kartel and a lot of these dancehall artists to carry the weight of our country’s problems on our shoulders, and mortaring us as role models – I’m not up for that,” he said.

“I’m an entertainer; I’m not a social leader, a political leader nor a religious leader. I get paid to entertain and if you, as a parent, want Vybz Kartel to be a role model for your child, you have already lost as a parent.”

He later added, “I’m not here to preach my morality or lack thereof, I’m just here to do music to the best of my ability… If you need morals, I suggest you go to the nearest church.”

He doubled down on this stance during his last sit-down with OnStage that year.

“Vybz Kartel cannot take the weight of the world on his shoulders and I refuse to do that… This is entertainment. At the end of the day, when Vybz Kartel goes home, Vybz Kartel is Adidja Palmer, the father, the babyfather, the citizen.”

The Gaza Empire principal has spent 12 years in prison serving a life sentence for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams. Deejay Shawn Storm, one of the co-accused, was also convicted. He, too, has won his appeal and awaits bail application pending the Court of Appeal’s decision for a new trial.