By: Staff Writer
June 3, 2025
Jamaican dancehall artist Vybzkartel was a no show at the One Caribbean Music Festival (OCMG) in Trinidad due to the non-fulfillment of conrtactual obligations by promoter, but promoter claims kartel was paid $950,000 USD of a $1.35 million agreed sum to perform.
Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Azim Palmer, was scheduled to perform at the OCMF this past Saturday, May 31, said that the concert promoter kept on missing deadlines.
According to the organisers, Palmer was formally contracted to perform at OCMF 2025 for a total sum of USD$1.35 million. To date, USD$950,000 has been paid directly to the artiste, while an additional USD$150,000 was disbursed to his legal representative.
“Earlier this week, OCMF organisers were asked by Kartel’s management team to adjust his travel itinerary by rescheduling his flight to Friday, which was accommodated in good faith. The remaining balance due was made available in full, however, due to legal and financial regulations in Trinidad and Tobago, the organisers were unable to disburse the final amount in cash,” their statement said.
Palmer said on his social media account that the promoter didn’t get a permit and that there will be no show.
Palmer was already restrained by Trinidadian authorities from performing songs that glorified gangs and vulgarity.
Palmer has been on a regional tour after being freed from prison for a murder conviction in 2014 which was quashed by the Privy Council
He had been accused of killing of Clive “Lizard” Williams in Jamaica but has always maintained his innocence.
His trial in 2014 heard that victim Clive Williams and another man, Lamar Chow, were given two unlicensed firearms belonging to Kartel for safekeeping.
When they failed to return them at an agreed time, prosecutors said they were summoned to Palmer’s house in August 2011.
Chow told the trial they were attacked and the last thing he saw was Clive Williams – who was never seen alive again – lying motionless on the ground.
The house burned down days later and his body has never been found.
Palmer and his co-accused Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John, have always maintained their innocence but were convicted and jailed for life, with Palmer was originally told he would spend a minimum of 35 years in prison.