– Kartel’s crew touch down
More than half of the members of the Portmore Empire, more popularly known as the ‘Gaza Empire,’ arrived yesterday for the ‘Keep the Peace Concert’ scheduled for the National Park tonight.
However, they were without head of the Gaza Empire and feature attraction of the show, Addijah ‘Vybz Kartel’ Palmer, who was expected to land here last night with the remainder of the group.
The affiliates of the Gaza camp that have landed are Shawn Storm, Popcaan, Dosa Medicine and Jah Vinci.
They told a press conference at the Hits & jams studio that they will be keeping the peace when they hit the stage. They promised a more lively show than that of last year, hinting that fans can expect more vibes, more lyrics and more entertainment. The artistes emphasised that since it is a peace concert, they will be focusing their lyrics on positives, dealing with more important aspects of life while entertaining with livelier dancehall tunes.
Shawn Storm, Jah Vinci and Dosa Medicine, who were here the last time, said it was a great experience and they are looking forward to performing, again, while Popcaan, who is on his maiden trip to the land of many waters. He is quite pumped and ready to entertain.
On the issue of the Gaza/Gully feud between Vybz Kartel and Mavado-the latter the head of the Gully Squad-it has been pointed out that both came to an agreement earlier this week in Jamaica, pledging to end their lyrical row.
A topic which arose since the settlement is whether there will be collaborations between the two groups as a further indication that they have buried the hatchet in the lyrical warfare.
Giving his thoughts on the ending of the feud, Jah Vinci, said “we thought it was a good thing to ease that and try bringing fans together instead ah destroying dancehall, ’cause music is love and it ah tek care ah we.” He added that there will be a collaborative effort to show that indeed it was only a lyrical competition, since they don’t have a problem with most of the other artistes that they battle against.
