Bull Bay deejay Kaepable has opened up about his departure from Squash’s 6ixx camp. He pointed to internal rifts, a struggle over control and what he described as blackballing within the industry as the forces that pushed him out on his own.
The artist, who was officially welcomed into the camp after Squash heard his early recordings, said his time in the group was cut short before he could fully establish himself.
“There was some internal rift between members of the group,” he said, adding that “everybody went their separate ways.”
Kaepable came up in Bull Bay, a community he described as short on opportunity. Young people there had to look outside the area to hustle. “We grow up rough so we we find ways of to make it happen,” he said.
His name came from a friend who heard him spit lyrics at a house party and told him simply that he was capable. Before that, he had considered other names, including Alkaline, which friends talked him out of.
He started out alone before working with a circle of producers. Those recordings eventually reached Squash, who reached out by phone, at first using a disguised voice.
The two then spoke regularly by video call before Squash announced him as an official member of the camp. Kaepable said he only met Chronic Law twice during that period.
According to Kaepable, the trouble began after Squash went abroad. Some senior members, he said, were uncomfortable that he kept his own counsel and could not be told whom to associate with.
That tension spilled into the studio. He said artists began telling producers that if he was voicing, “they’re not going to record because they don’t have” control over him. He described “so much corruption in the business,” pointing to blackballing by artists with bigger platforms.
He credited his upbringing for his independence. “That’s how my mother grew me,” he said, explaining that he was raised to think critically and not to cut off people who had never wronged him.
As the group fell into disarray, he chose to step back rather than be drawn into conflicts outside of music. He noted that most of the members were from St. James and that he knew them only through music. Some things that were said, he added, “can’t be retracted.”
Leaving meant rebuilding from scratch. “I had to start everything all over,” he said, describing the search for new studios and new video crews. He was not shaken by it, though. “At the end of the day I am a very talented artist,” he said. He remains on good terms with some former camp mates, including Daddy1.
Kaepable’s link with Bounty Killer came through a school friend, Indian Zilla. She emailed the dancehall veteran repeatedly until he listened. Killer responded with praise. “Who is this artist? Him voice is soulful,” Kaepable recalled him writing.
The pair later met in person during the COVID period, and Killer has since given him public support. “Rodney Price never know me officially,” Kaepable said, crediting the Warlord for backing the talent anyway.
His connection to Mr. G came through a cousin who runs Relative Music and introduced them on a three-way call. Kaepable said a collaboration with Mr. G is due soon, calling it a “powerful song.” He praised the veteran as a “good writer, good engineer, good producer.”
His track Clean to the Bone, recorded on a DJ Mac rhythm, gave his career another lift. Kaepable said he and his team promoted it hard without any prior contact with the producer.
DJ Baba then noticed the song and brought it to Mac’s attention. Mac later messaged him directly. “Yo, youth, your song bad. Drop it,” Kaepable recalled.
He also features alongside True Ace, Private Name, Private Number and Vybz Kartel on the Big Plane remix.
Now on his first trip to Canada, Kaepable said fans can expect mixtapes, EPs and more videos. “We only just scratch the surface,” he said.
