Vybz Kartel at UWI: Lecture or Press Conference?

Vybz Kartel, the skin-lightened Jamaican deejay who refers to his tatted image as dancehall's "Coloring Book" (video) was recently invited by University of West Indies, Mona Campus professor and author Carolyn Cooper to be a guest lecturer to her class on Reggae Poetry.

(Read Cooper's dialog with the deejay here.)

Vybz accepted and the even took place on March 10 in Kingston.

Some critics have charged that the event was less a lecture than a press conference and therefore lacked academic rigor.

However, Vybz took several questions from audience members and generally addressed or defended issues related to his skin-lightening (known in Jamaica as "bleaching"), his impact on youth culture and of course his controversial music.

See a video below and more should be released in the next few days. Visit Dancehall Mobi for more coverage. Watch three segments from the lecture here.