Gaza Sheba Says ‘Like Christmas’ Was Based On Vybz Kartel Affair
Dancehall artists Gaza Sheba and Vybz Kartel had winning chemistry on collabs like Gaza Mi Name and You and Him Deh. But there was also personal chemistry, as she recently revealed their Like Christmas hit was based on their brief affair.
“Like Christmas definitely a fi me and him…” Sheba revealed on the latest episode of Teatime with Shelly-Ann Curran. “When me and him a touch, it did coming like Christmas… A waan tell unno bout world war III, but I cya tell unno.”
Produced by Kartel’s Adidjahiem label, Notnice and Don Corleon, Like Christmas debuted in November 2010 detailing a sexual relationship reflecting the whimsical feels, luminous lights and goosebump chills of the Yuletide season.
Sheba said they were never in a relationship but got busy around four times – first under the influence of Kartel’s Street Vybz rum. At the time, Kartel would have been in a long-term relationship with Tanesha ‘Shorty’ Johnson, who was also at the center of his songs like Love Dem. The Teacha’s Pet star had other affairs with women like Curran, whose name was mentioned on tracks like Sweet to the Belly, and Vanessa Bling (then Gaza Slim) whom Sheba referred to as one of his primary side chicks.
Though she said her tryst with Kartel led to a fallout with Bling, Sheba said she never had issues with Johnson.
“A mussi two time mi ever see that lady and the two time me see her, I can tell you, she keep herself to herself,” Sheba said. “Mi woulda keep myself to myself too cause mi nah go nowhere weh mi ah hail nuh gal and mi nah hail nobody weh mi nuh know if dem a sleep wid my man… But the two time dem when me see her, one out of the two time me never start sleep wid him yet.”
Kartel has since moved on with Turkish fiancée Sidem Ozturk, but Sheba still regards Johnson as his first lady.
“Right now, a she a di boss,” the Pree Mi artist said. “Mi nuh waan see him with nobody else neither. Anybody else waan highlight, mi nuh care. Me inna my feelings fi she. I think everybody want him with she but dem muss know dem personal thing… True mi see she as a ride or die, me think seh she woulda be the one right through. But as I say, I don’t know cause a years mi and him nuh talk.”
Kartel chronicled the ebbs and flows of his on-and-off union with Johnson on the 2020 EP To Tanesha.
Despite not communicating in years, Sheba says she will always be on good terms with her former principal.
“A still mi boss, mi dupes and mi general, no matter what… Me and him is like a Tom and Jerry thing. All if we war tomorrow, we good tomorrow same way… That’s the dynamic between me and him.”
Kartel was convicted of murder in 2014, which has since been overturned by the UK’S Privy Council. Sheba believes he will walk free following a retrial hearing in June.
“Mi nuh think nobody want him come like me,” she said. “Right now, if him come, my pocket fat, fat, fat.”
Sheba shared she fell into depression following his incarceration, and faced a hard time navigating the music business. She’s in a better place thanks to therapy, but blamed freshly-removed Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn for her mental decline.
“By she fighting ‘gainst this man fi stay inna prison fi a crime weh he may or may not do – because all now we still cya see no evidence fi seh yes, it go – she nuh know a whole heap a people she left fi hungry,” she said. “Mi a go blame she fi my depression cause she tek weh my boss who was my bread winner, so you put me inna depression.”
Kartel, who has been in lock-up since 2011, received the conviction for the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams, whose body is yet to be found.