The Gaza spin factory, as usual, was hard at work last week and they kept themselves on the covers of papers, on radio and on television. First there was the release of the Lisa Hype ‘sex picture’ and on the weekend, Kartel dispatched his very rude statement in response to an attention-grabbing invitation for him and his crew to perform at the birthday party for arch-rival, Mavado. (Of course, this too was played big in the media).

First of all, the very unprofessional way in which the statement was written and sent to the media was totally disrespectful – very little punctuation, no space between words, no use of upper case. It could easily have been an instant messenger conversation. We had to call Kartel’s publicist to find out if it was authentic, or if it was some kind of rogue release. “He did it himself,” was the publicist’s reply.

The other level of disrespect had to do with the content. It was only Saturday night that Bounty Killer reminded patrons at Hennesey Artistry that “the first time me put Kartel on stage people never like him and we had to teach him how to work the stage”. There has never been any denial that Bounty Killer played a vital role in Kartel’s career.

Like it or not, Kartel stood on the shoulders of Bounty Killer, and other deejays before him, to reach where he is today. And instead of thanking him, or, just shutting up, he had this to say in his ‘rogue’ release.

(The unedited version.) why would i as arguably the most influential artiste of people between 10-25 clash a dinosaur?im not into the business of raing mummies,also where his career is concerned,i dont believe in re-incarnation so i cannot be apart of this “raising of the dead” if mavado is not endowed enough to carry on dancehall musical rivalry descending from morgan/buster to more recently ninja/shabba. san/stichie. bounty/beenie..etc i will carry the torch alone till a suitable contender is found.

It’s interesting that he mentions the great Shabba Ranks, because it was Shabba, who in a July interview stated that his success was made possible through the hard work of deejays like Yellow Man, Josey Wales, Brigadier Jerry, General Echo and Major Worries.

Addi, the so-called teacher, needs to get his book and pencil and go back to school. He has many important lessons to learn.