Skin bleaching is the personal freakshow that threatens to totally overshadow the main event of...

Skin bleaching is the personal freakshow that threatens to totally overshadow the main event of Kartel’s artistic genius—even as it drives the cult of fascination. He has, at times, boasted about bleaching and then just as glibly denied it—attributing his steadily lighter complexion to liberal application of cake soap (an over-the-counter medicated soap patently incapable of altering skin color) and air-conditioning. In reality he displays all the traits—darkening of the skin at the joints and around the eyes, increasing the vampire effect—of abusing hydroquinone, the same medication Michael Jackson used to treat Vitiligo, which is banned in some countries as a carcinogen. The steroid component of most bootleg skin creams is actually meant to offset the corrosive effect of hydroquinone, which physically thins the skin, potentially stretching it to the breaking point. Worse, in the eyes of Jamaicans, bleaching is read as a rebuke to the whole Afro-centric project of reggae music. The topic has prompted any number of "Nah Bleach" anthems and in March, a back and forth with professor and Jamaica Gleaner columnist Carolyn Cooper over the evils of bleaching lead Kartel to deliver a surprisingly erudite (and unsurprisingly jam-packed) guest lecture at the University of the West Indies, his basic argument being, "A lot of things that were considered taboo back then are not so now." "I gave her a lot of examples," he says reasonably. "I even brought up ear piercing for males. You <b>...</b>