Kartel’s First Manager “Rohan Butler” Talks on Being Unable to Control The Gaza Deejay

On the last episode of Onstage, we were reminded of the very interesting journey of incarcerated Dancehall King Vybz Kartel and how he started his career with his first-ever manager, Rohan Butler. According to Butler, who is also a man from Portmore, just like the deejay, the two originally did not know each other and met after he started to keep parties.

The previous manager of the entertainer said that, how he even became a manager, was because he had always loved music and had some managerial credentials under his belt since he had gone to a college where he did Business.

Just starting Butler said that his first artiste to work with was lecturer, and he used to go to events and speak to promoters, to get his artiste on events. According to him, it was around this time that he began to start facilitating the videoing of events which became a big thing for him and Dancehall, which allowed him the opportunity to meet and network with new people on the music scene.

After some time working with his first artiste, Rohan Butler said he saw Kartel on a channel 33 station on the tv, performing at an event in Gregory Park, Portmore, right about when cable had just landed in the area. At that time the former manager of the “Worl Boss” says he was not knowledgeable of Vybz, however, upon hearing him he heard the difference in his talent and knew he was not a normal artiste.

Butler says, what he did since he did not know him for himself, was to ask someone to introduce Kartel to him which ended up happening with “Di Teacha” and the two other members of his then group “Vibes Cartel” later on being placed under his management. This happened at a party that was being kept by Butler, Jah Cure was a headliner of the event and “Addi Banton” also performed.

According to Rohan, the next show he got the group on was Champions In action, which they did before the death of Louise Bennett who was the MC, they got a performance time of 5 pm.

Before the show Butler had told the entertainers to link up at his house at 3 pm, however, it turned out that only Kartel was early and the other two artistes late which showed the former music manager that “Addi” was the most serious out of all the deejays.

That led him to organize the Champions in action performances in a way that saw Vybz Kartel performing two solo songs first, later being joined by the other two members of his group to do their known songs.

After that performance, Butler said “Di Teacha” was commended by Jack Scorpio and King Jammy’s, two. Monumental figures in the sound system culture and only took things up from there, by also becoming the only one from the ” Vibes Cartel” group under his management.

From there Butler said he went on to get the deejay, onto “Saddle to the East” where he asked Bounty, to let Kartel perform with him however, at that time since the “Killa” did not know the young entertainer it did not happen.

What happened, however, was that the “Grung Gad” himself reached out to the former music manager after seeing a tape with Vybe’s performance at the show. This catalysed Rohan, getting “Addi Banton” to write songs for the veteran deejay, eventually becoming a part of the Alliance.

Even though, the partnership between the “Teacha” and Butler went sour after a monetary disagreement, the former manager of the Dancehall King, was very much appreciative of his time spent with Vybz Katrtel, also while also crediting the “Cash Money” sound system for helping to push the entertainer when he was not well known.

Watch the viral interview below.