Vybz Kartel never said Shaggy’s name. He didn’t have to, because the caption on his latest Instagram Reel did plenty of talking: “When you’re not a manufactured pop star with little talent and no influence on the culture.”
The post landed on Sept. 26, just days after Shaggy’s Sept. 23 sit-down with Roadblock Radio started circulating online. In it, the Grammy winner made his case in the endless “King of Dancehall” debate, and he came armed with numbers.
“My records are calculated. I’m very strategic, which is why to this day, I’m 58 years old and still the second-largest streaming person in dancehall and reggae,” Shaggy said.
He then took a swipe at artists who celebrate filling Barclays Center in Brooklyn while only working three markets, adding, “I’m packing a coliseum in Lithuania on a Wednesday.”
By his count, only Sean Paul and “the great Bob Marley” sit above him. He also insisted the crown is shared, naming Beenie Man, Shabba Ranks, Sean Paul, himself and Kartel as kings of their own eras. “There’s no one king for a genre,” he said.
His track record holds up. Across four decades, the Kingston-born star has landed three Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits, including the No. 1 singles “Angel” with Rayvon and “It Wasn’t Me” with RikRok.
His 2000 album Hot Shot, home to both, topped the Billboard 200 and finished No. 2 on the 2001 year-end chart.
He’s also sent 17 titles into the top 10 of Reggae Albums and won two Grammys from eight nominations. Boombastic took best reggae album in 1996, and 44/876, his collaboration with Sting, won the same prize in 2019.
Kartel’s side of the ledger looks very different, and that’s the point his fans keep making. His path ran through street anthems like “Straight Jeans & Fitted,” “Clarks” and “Cake Soap,” songs that shaped how a generation dressed and talked rather than how pop radio sounded.
He also did it with a 13-year incarceration cutting through the middle of his career, and as an independent artist.
Since walking free in August 2024, he’s been fiercely protective of the title, headlining his Freedom Street comeback show, reportedly the biggest concert Jamaica has seen in 50 years.
The Barclays jab probably didn’t go unnoticed either. Kartel is one of only a few dancehall acts to headline the Brooklyn arena recently, alongside Masicka and Alkaline. He has 10 top 10 entries on Reggae Albums, though none reached No. 1.
There’s room to read the moment more generously, though. Shaggy did list Kartel among the kings, and the caption was attached to a lip-sync preview of an unreleased track, which could simply be Kartel hyping new music with his usual bravado.
Billboard has reached out to Kartel’s team for clarification. Neither artist has said anything new, but their fan bases are already fighting it out in the comments, and that unreleased song suddenly has a lot more people waiting on it.
