Merital Family Leaves The Gaza

Montego Bay-based dancehall group Merital Family has finally broken their silence with the official announcement of their exit from the Portmore Empire.

The four-member group in a release said they have severed all ties with the company and will be handling their own professional affairs from here onwards.

The group rose to stardom in 2010 with the single ‘My Money Ha Ha‘ on the Head Concussion/ Adidjaheim/NotNice produced ‘Strip Club Riddim‘ featuring a cameo by Vybz Kartel. The song became a bonafide hit and went on to clinch the apex on several major charts throughout the Caribbean diaspora.

According to one member,

“For the last year and a half, we ah get stifle, we ah get overpriced, dem a tell people say we de pon tour and we de ya nah go nowhere. We ah suffer, we nah get no promotion, we have kids to feed and me have my mother to take care of.”

“From wah day ya, mi see riddim a mek and no Merital, no Jahvinci not on it and when we call Notnice, him say ‘ah the Teacha set it’. So wah kinda suffocation this? We have been loyal to the organisation, and it is not being loyal to us…no video, no promotion, no recording. Mi fed up and tired. We caan reason or have a number for the man who run the organisation that we are supposed to be signed to,” another member injected.

The group also complained that the degree of alienation and separation imposed by Vybz Kartel on them stifled their opportunities to liaise with other artiste and industry players.

“Mi come to do music and sake ah the Empire, we never get to contact certain producers and artistes, or meet with icons in the business like Bounty Killer, just because of the Empire,” – a member of the group said.

Adding further fuel to the fire was allegations by the group that Vybz Kartel had neglected to mention them in the writers credit for “My Money Ha Ha.”

“VP Records called us about doing some promotion for the song, and that’s how we found out it had been sold to a record label.

So we called Tarik ‘Russian’ Johnston and asked why him never tell we about the money and he said ‘Kartel ah yu leader, mi think he would let you know‘, and then we checked with our publishers and they told us that the credits for the writer of the song

was Adidja Palmer and it was produced by Russian, that’s all, no recognition, nothing, what about our publishing and our rights? We have our song before we met Kartel and the song became a hit and we no achieve anything from it,”

– Mertial said.

Despite everything the group continues to record with their latest track ‘Dancing‘ on the Type R Riddim. For all queries the group can be contacted at: 1.876.858-8600

spotted | 876radio