Jamaican dancehall icon Vybz Kartel says he’s done with skin bleaching for good.
In a candid conversation with American radio host Ebro Darden on Hot 97, the controversial star revisited some of the most personal decisions he made in his career, including his past experience with bleaching.
According to Kartel, the decision wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed at the time.
“I mean, in hindsight it definitely had to do with self-love,” he admitted. “But on the other hand, while I was doing it, my mind wasn’t telling me that. My mind was telling me, ‘I am doing this to show my tattoos’… I got a lot of tattoos. But looking back, it was just as a Black man, sometimes we have those issues. But I would never bleach again though,” he stated.
Now, he says he’s embracing his full identity and proudly described himself as “fully melanated.”
Kartel, who is preparing to headline a show in the U.S. for the first time in more than two decades at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, also reflected on his personal growth since serving time. Having spent 13 years behind bars, the entertainer shared that readjusting to the outside world has been intense, but he’s focused on moving forward.
“I analyse myself a lot of times, and I think the heavy drinking and smoking when I came out was just my crutch. You got to try to cope. I’ve been in prison for 13 years; I’m out now. The world is bigger — it’s a lot,” he said.
With a softer tone, he opened up about his relationship with his fiancée, Sidem Öztürk, expressing his hopes for a family with her. “I want some Turkish children,” he said.
Health-wise, Kartel revealed he’s still dealing with Graves’ Disease, a condition that causes the immune system to attack the thyroid. “Sometimes it makes my eyes puffy and initially I use to lose a lot of weight too because it makes you sweat,” he said.
