Alkaline (musician)

Alkaline
Alkaline in 2021
Background information
Birth name	Earlan Bartley
Born	(1993-12-19) December 19, 1993 (age 27) Kingston, Jamaica[1]
Genres	Dancehall, Reggae
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Independent
Website	alkalinemusic.com

Earlan Bartley (born December 19, 1993), better known as Alkaline, is a Jamaican Dancehall and Reggae musician from Kingston, Jamaica.^[2] Alkaline is an artist with high influence among the youth in the Dancehall realm. He is known for his elusive character and aggressive hip-hop influenced style in his music which artistically captures the core of the genres past whilst embodying the diversity of modern dancehall.

Early life[]

Bartley was born in Kingston's Victoria Jubilee Hospital.^[1] He attended Ardenne High School and studied Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies.^[3] During his time in high school is when he started to have the determination for music.^[2] With the support of his close friends he visited local recording studios after school whenever he had the chance.

Career[]

Bartley began recording at the age of 16, and using the stage name Alkaline. He became popular in Jamaica in 2013 with a series of singles like "123", "High Suh", "Bruk Out", "Things Mi Love" and "Live Life". His live shows have sometimes been controversial, in February 2016 an object was thrown at him with a bottle while on stage in St. Lucia, responding by throwing the bottle back at the offender.^[4]

On March 25, 2016, Alkaline's debut album, "New Level Unlocked", was released by DJ Frass Records, going on to top the Billboard Reggae Charts in April which stood for 18 weeks, making him the first dancehall deejay to have a number one album on the charts in five years.^[5][6][7] "New Level Unlocked" was selected at number 3 in Billboard's "10 Best Reggae Albums of 2016".^[8] He had hit singles in Jamaica that year with "Champion Boy", "Block and Delete", "After All", "12 PM (Living Good)", "Formula", and "City".^[6] In November 2016 he was featured on a remix of Shaggy's "That Love".^[9]

In September 2016 he was nominated for a MOBO Award for the second time in the Best Reggae Act category.^[10] His "Champion Boy" single was remixed in October 2016 and used in an advertising campaign for the Red Stripe Premier League.^[11] With the crew name Vendetta which he uses to categorize his fans, announced the launch of a clothing line with clothing to be considered as Detta Gear.^[12]

Back in 2014 Alkaline was considered one of the young hot acts in the Dancehall space, not only because of his extreme talent but his huge controversial relevancy. From that time to 2016 Alkaline was very distant from Jamaica focusing on his craft and staying away from the negativity. Over time there were critics claiming that he switched up on Jamaica given the fact that he didn't perform for a long time in his home country.^[13]

After his album tour, March 2017 arrived and Alkaline decided to prove the critics wrong by creating his own show called "New Rules Festival" which he brought to his home country and quickly began to be one of the most anticipated show of the year with Artist like Mavado, Shaggy, I-Octane, Tarrus Riley, Jahmiel and many more at Jamaica's national stadium car park.^[14] With one of the biggest turnouts on a Jamaican stage show,^[15] Many attendees of the show would come out to say "New Rules" is one of Dancehalls greatest shows ever and will definitely go down in history.

In the following months of that year in July Alkaline attended Jamaica's Biggest annual stage show, Reggae Sumfest in which he hadn't performed at since 2014 making a huge come back as one of the main performers as he featured the legendary Dean Fraser.^[16]

In early December Alkaline's 2019 single "With the Thing" was featured on the Video game Grand Theft Auto V with the "iFruit Radio" soundtrack.^[17]

On February 12, 2021, Alkaline announced his second studio album called "Top Prize".^[18] The album was published on May 14, 2021.^[19] After the first week "Top Prize" launched at No. 2 on the Billboard’s Reggae Albums Chart^[20] and also No. 19 on the Billboard’s Heat Seekers Albums Chart for sale ranks.^[21][22]

Controversies[]

Corneal Tattoo[]

Alkaline in a 2014 portrait

When Alkaline first appeared on the Jamaican Dancehall scene in 2013, he became known for his distinctive look, with the bleached skin and blond dreadlocks but the most controversial was his alleged tattooed eyes, which prompted others to follow suit.^[23] He caused quite the stir as he claimed to have Corneal tattooing in his eyeballs.^[24] Lauded as a publicity stunt by the Jamaican public, Alkaline received much backlash for the controversial move but also gained a heavy music following. An ongoing theme in much of his breakout music was the year "2016", which generated much intrigue as he never explicitly stated the year's meaning or significance.^[25] He would keep up this charade for about 3 years, until he finally revealed the "tattoos" to be nothing more than a stunt.^[26] As the Jamaican public ushered in the year of 2016. He soon revealed that the significance of 2016 lay in the fact that he was giving himself until that year to have his music speak for himself, and no longer require publicity stunts for any form of media coverage. This prompted the release of his debut album, New Level Unlocked.^[6] He has since halted wearing the black contact lenses that would cover his cornea, and has solidified his place in the Jamaican dancehall scene.

Discography[]

Albums[]

• "New Level Unlocked" (2016)
• "Top Prize" (2021)

Singles[]

• "It This" (2011)
• "Reflections" (2011)
• "Proof" (2011)
• "Walk With You" (2011)
• "Fake Friend" (2012)
• "Nuttin But Badmind" (2012)
• "Not A Slack Song" (2012)
• "Nuh Like People" (2012)
• "Church Folks" (2013)
• "More Than A Friend" (2013)
• "Ready" (2013)
• "Obeah" (2013)
• "High Suh" (2013)
• "123" (2013)
• "Make It Clap" (2013)
• "Mouth Talk" (2013)
• "Gone Away" (2013)
• "High Suh" (2013)
• "Circle Badness" (2013)
• "Baby" (2013)
• "Hold Me Baby" (2013)
• "Things Mi Love" (2014)
• "Lonely" (2014)
• "Live Life" (2014)
• "Sheg Up" (2014)
• "How It Feel" (2014)
• "Weh Wi Ah Go Do" (2014)
• "Things Take Time" (2014)
• "Raw As Eva" EP (2014)
• "Move Mountains" (2014)
• "Too Real" (2014)
• "Holiday Again" (2014)
• "Bruk Out" (2014)
• "Eva Clean" (2014)
• "Grow Ruff" (2014)
• "Gone Away" (2014)
• "Ride Or Die" EP (2015)
• "More Than Happy" (2015)
• "Nice Suh" (2015)
• "Object Bingo" (2015)
• "Weh Yuh Have" (2015)
• "Dead Dem Ago Dead" (2015)
• "Fleek" (2015)
• "Bedroom Fantasy" (2015)
• "ATM" (2015)
• "Champion Boy" (2015)
• "Living It Up" (2015)
• "Side Chick" (2015)
• "Try Again" (2016)
• "Formula" (2016)
• "Block & Delete" (2016)
• "City" (2016)
• "One Life" (2016)
• "Direction" (2016)
• "Conquer The World" (2016)
• "Somebody Great" (2016)
• "After All" (2016)
• "Farewell Ft. Mavado" (2016)
• "My Side of The Story" (2016)
• "Company" (2016)
• "12PM (Living Good)" (2016)
• "Spoil You" (2016)
• "Extra Lesson" (2016)
• "Ricochet" (2016)
• "Badness It Name" (2016)
• "Buss Head" (2017)
• "Microwave" (2017)
• "Death To Microwave" (2017)
• "Extra Lesson" (2017)
• "Son of a Queen" (2017)
• "Fast" (2017)
• "Pretty Girl Team" (2017)
• "Nice and Easy" (2017)
• "Impact" (2017)
• "Red Eyes" (2017)
• "Money Man" (2017)
• "Golden Hold" (2017)
• "My Love" (2017)
• "Suave" (2017)
• "Helter Skelter" (2017)
• "Mirage" (2018)
• "Load Up" (2018)
• "Perfect" (2018)
• "Pick Unuh Side" (2018)
• "Juggernaut" (2018)
• "Fine Whine" (2018)
• "Yardie Fiesta" (2018)
• "Nah Tell Yuh" (2018)
• "Dutty Badmind" (2018)
• "Deep Sleep" (2018)
• "Heartless Killaz" (2018)
• "Richer & Richer" (2018)
• "Black Heart" (2018)
• "Never Lose Hope" (2019)
• "With The Thing" (2019)
• "Jealousy" (2019)
• "Mama Pray" (2019)
• "Flashback" (2019)
• "Nothing Nuh Change" (2019)
• "Elite Only" (2019)
• "Depend Pan Nobody" (2019)
• "State Ah Emergency" (2019)
• "Death Announcements" (2019)
• "Most Wanted" (2019)
• "Nuh Mercy" (2019)
• "Thug Lovin" (2019)
• "Nuh Average" (2019)
• "Big Tyma" (2019)
• "Riches" (2020)
• "Gladdest Night" (2020)
• "Ocean Wave" (2020)
• "Monopoly" (2020)
• "Nah Fi Like" (2020)
• "High Props" (2020)
• "Cree" (2020)
• "We Up" (2020)
• "Bury Berry" (2020)
• "Total Murda" (2020)
• "Nuh Wife" (2020)
• "Deh Suh" (2021)
• "Top Prize" (Single) (2021)
• "Maniac" (2021)
• Magic (2021)
• Hostage (2021)
• Twerc (2021)
• More Life (2021)
• Nuh Trust Mankind (2021)
• Ah (2021)
• Heat a Di Moment (2021)
• Medicine (2021)
• Payroll (2021)

References[]