The Voice Of The Jamaican Ghetto, a book authored by controversial dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel and his business associate Michael Dawson, is still going places despite receiving some amount of resistance locally.
The book was released in July 2012, with the tag line ‘Babylon can incarcerate the messenger but not the message’, and it appears the words have been spoken into being, with the prestigious Princeton University recently adopting the book into its libraries.
Princeton University is regarded by many as one of the most prestigious tertiary institutions in the world, and is often compared with Harvard in debates about the best universities in the United States of America.
The university has one of the most robust matriculation criteria globally, and currently serves as the alma mater of former US presidents, John F. Kennedy, who later transferred to Harvard, James Madison and Woodrow Wilson.
America’s first African-American First Lady, Michelle Obama, also studied at Princeton University before pursuing law at Harvard Law School.
Princeton’s endorsement now means that The Voice Of The Jamaican Ghetto has received its highest honour yet, and international media outlets like Hot 97 FM have already done features on Michael Dawson and Vybz Kartel as a result.
Ironically, in September of last year, merchandising manager at Whirlwind Entertainment Group Limited, Aisha Stewart, told The Sunday Gleaner that some local stores were rejecting the book. She also disclosed that of all the places globally where she distributed the books, the Jamaican merchants were the hardest to market the book to.
Stewart also pointed out, however, that places like Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Bulgaria, Chile and Amsterdam were showing an interest in The Voice Of The Jamaican Ghetto.
Professor Carolyn Cooper was perhaps one of the few local believers in the book, begging for the book to be added to Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) readings.
Kartel has been in police custody since September 2011.