Vybz Kartel might still be behind bars, but that apparently hasn’t stopped him from getting some time on the phone with hip hop and fashion mogul Kanye West.

In a post on social media tonight (August 11), Busta Rhymes uploaded a video of what he suggested was West talking to Kartel on the phone.

While Kartel could not be heard on the video, Rhymes, an American rapper of Jamaican parentage who attended the Jamaican dancehall artiste’s murder trial in Kingston back in 2014, told West: “…Kanye, mi waan here yuh Jamaican accent, yuh know.”

To the laughter of Rhymes and others around him, West seemed to say he had no intention of using a disrespectful Jamaican accent while talking to Vybz Kartel.

“I just want to send you some love, bro,” West said to the unheard voice on the other end of the call.

But while the video has left many excited for the prospect of a collaboration between the two icons of their respective music genres, others have raised questions, pointing out that it is at least a year old and possibly from as far back as 2017.

A quick online search confirms that view, as posts can be found from 2021 showing the same video. In fact, anyone following Busta Rhymes on social media would also recognise that, currently, he is not quite as heavy as he appears in the video because he’s been spending much more time in the gym. At the same time, West appears to be much slimmer in the video than he has been since being confirmed a multi-billionaire in 2020.

Whatever the timeline of the video, and for whatever reason Busta Rhymes decided to post it now, if that was Vybz Kartel on the other end of the call, let’s wait and see if he’ll pop up as a feature on any upcoming Kanye project.