Vybz Kartel is nominated for his first-ever Grammy in the Best Reggae Album category for Party With Me. The Jamaican superstar’s eight-track effort rolled out in May 2024, just a little over two months before his release from prison. The “Fever” hitmaker served 13 years behind bars following a 2011 murder conviction. He regained his freedom after a successful appeal in the spring.

In a recent chat with the Recording Academy, the Caribbean sensation recapped the process of recording his latest album while incarcerated, revealing that he mimicked studio padding by using his mattress to control echo as he rapped his lyrics into an iPhone 15. He never imagined that the lengths he took to remain creative would lead him to join the long list of nominees.

“Receiving a Grammy nod is big, it’s great, but it was never a career goal,” he first admitted. Explaining that, “A career goal for me, actually for the entire reggae/dancehall industry, is to sell music. I believe in the commerce of our music, that what Jamaican artists offer should be represented with a larger scale of numbers.”

Moreover, Kartel noted that, “Jamaican artists perform everywhere. But our record sales/streaming numbers have to increase to make sure dancehall is in the same space where we can say, yes, that’s Drake, or Mavado or Kartel.”

The dancehall legend made mention of the popular success contemporaries Sean Paul and Shaggy achieved but still proclaimed the sub-genre “can be bigger. My career goal is to sell records like Pink Floyd. With proper promotion, marketing, more tolerant lyrics and more commercialized music videos, I think it can work.”

He is already working on the next project, which he foresees coming out sometime around the summer. In the meantime, he is celebrating the 10-year anniversary re-release of Viking, which also features new tracks.

"With the latest songs, I am really just out here having fun, vibing out with my friends again in the studio, so I think many of the new songs reflect that playfulness, like ‘Str8 Vybz’ and ‘#AmOut,’” said Kartel.

The Grammys will air live Sunday (Feb. 2) from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on CBS and Paramount+, partly to celebrate music but also to raise funds for the city following weeks of devastating wildfires. Kartel is going up against Collie Buddz’s Take It Easy, the Bob Marley: One Love soundtrack and The Wailers’ Evolution.