Vybz Kartel is adding his voice to the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar debate — and he’s firmly on Team Drizzy.
While speaking to Billboard‘s Kyle Denis for a cover story published Monday (Jan. 6), the dancehall artist didn’t hold back when prompted to share his thoughts on rap’s biggest feud in recent memory. “I’m not a fan of Kendrick,” Kartel began frankly. “I don’t even listen to Kendrick, so I wouldn’t know.”
“What does he rap?” the “Ramping Shop” musician continued. “I saw it on the internet, but no disrespect to the dude, I hear him, but I don’t listen to him. Drake is more in tune with Jamaica and the culture.”
Kartel added, “Drake is a better and bigger artist.”
The reggae star’s cover story comes less than a week after he made his grand return with a massive Freedom Street concert in front of more than 35,000 people at Kingston’s National Stadium in Jamaica on New Year’s Eve, performing for the first time since his July prison release. Kartel had served a 13-year sentence for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams, for which he and his co-accused — Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St. John — have always maintained their innocence.
During the tail end of Kartel’s sentence, Drake and Lamar’s beef simmered over into an explosive rap back-and-forth that fans are still talking about months later. The beef started with the Toronto artist dissing Dot on “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle” in April. Lamar clapped back with a slew of searing response tracks including “Euphoria,” the Billboard Hot 100-topping “Not Like Us” and more, while Drake added fuel to the fire with songs such as “Family Matters” and “The Heart Pt. 6” in May.
Lamar is now set to headline the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show, while Drake is in the midst of taking legal action against Universal Music Group for allegedly conspiring to “artificially inflate” the Compton musician’s streams on “Not Like Us” and for allegedly allowing Lamar to defame Drake on the track. In November, UMG denied the accusation — which the company called “offensive and untrue” — and added in a statement to Billboard, “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.”
As for Vybz? He’s in the running for the best reggae album Grammy for Party With Me, which was “done in prison,” the artist tells Billboard. “I was writing to keep my mind occupied, ended up with these songs and said, ‘Let me just put them on a little EP.’ Bam, Grammy.”
The ceremony airs Feb. 2 on CBS.
