Earlan Bartley (born 19 December 1993), better known as Alkaline, is a Jamaicandancehall and reggae musician from Kingston, Jamaica.[2] Known for entering the scene with an alluring perception heavily projected to his Jamaican audience and utilizing his stage name to represent the opposite principles of his personality correlating the dichotomy of positive and negative.[3] His music style captures the core of the dancehalls sound whilst incorporating his unique artistry.
Earlan 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.[4] 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.[3]
Career
2011–2014: Early career
Bartley began recording at the age of 16 and using the stage name Alkaline. When he was still in school, he made songs like "Proof", "Mi Love Woman", "Reflections" and "Missing You" creating long-term predictions and expressing his teenage experiences while making music videos on school grounds and in the streets of Jamaica with his close friends.[2][5]
By 2013 he started to release a plethora of songs under the Cahban Rekords production.[6] He made his first appearance on the Reggae Sumfest stage as an opener on 25 July 2013.[7] In September of that year, he made a collaboration with dancehall artist Spice on the single "Only Ting Mi Want". Alkaline ended that year with a performance and first visit to Limón, Costa Rica on 15 December 2013.[8]
Alkaline began the year of 2014 with his "Live Mi Life" concert on 31 January at Constant Spring, Jamaica.[9] He eventually began working with Notnice Records, UIM Records and Zj Chrome becoming popular in Jamaica with a series of singles like "123", "High Suh", "Bruk Out", "Things Mi Love" and "Live Life" but the single he was very well known for was "Move Mountains", He went on to feature those singles on multiple EPs and Mixtapes. His early catalog propelled him to do consecutive shows around the Caribbean, North America, and Europe[10][11]
2015–2016: Breakthrough with New Level Unlocked
In mid 2015 Alkaline pushed himself to the international market with his hit singles "On Fleek (Love Yuh Everything)" and "Ride on Me (Remix)" featuring Sean Kingston while consistently working on his debut album New Level Unlocked.
He released two other hit singles that year which was "ATM" on 30 September 2015, and "Champion Boy" on 30 October 2015, which were both featured on the New Level Unlocked Album. The album was released on 25 March 2016, under 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.[12][13][14]New Level Unlocked was selected at number 3 in Billboard's "10 Best Reggae Albums of 2016".[15] He also had multiple hit singles that year with "Formula", "My Side of The Story", "Block and Delete", "After All", "12 PM (Living Good), "Spoil You", "Extra Lesson" and "Badness It Name".[16][17] In September 2016 he was nominated for a MOBO Award for the second time in the Best Reggae Act category.[18] His "Champion Boy" single was used in an advertising campaign for the Red Stripe Premier League.[19] With the crew name Vendetta which he uses to categorize his fans, made the launch of a clothing line considered as Detta Gear.[20] He was also featured on a remix of Shaggy's "That Love" on 11 November 2016.[21]
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. For a certain period of time, he was very distant from Jamaica focusing more on the international scene. 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.[22][23]
After his album tour, on 25 March 2017, Alkaline decided to prove the critics wrong by creating his own show called New Rules Festival which he brought to his home country.[24] It quickly became one of the most anticipated shows of the year with artists like Mavado, Shaggy, I-Octane, Tarrus Riley, Jahmiel and many more at Jamaica's national stadium car park. It boasted one of the biggest turnouts on a Jamaican stage show and many attendees would go on to say "New Rules" was one of dancehall's greatest shows ever and would definitely go down in history.[25][26][27][28]
In July of that year, Alkaline attended Jamaica's Biggest annual stage show, Reggae Sumfest at which he hadn't performed since 2014; making a huge come back as one of the main performers as he featured the legendary Dean Fraser.[29]
On 12 February 2021, Alkaline announced his second studio album Top Prize.[37] With the announcement of his sophomore album, he made an appearance on Audiomack making him the first Jamaican dancehall artist to be featured on the Fine Tuned series.[38][39] The album was published on 14 May 2021, with the lead single "Ocean Wave" which was publish on 6 March 2020.[40] After the first week the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard’s Reggae Albums Charts,[41] No. 19 on the Heat Seekers Albums Charts for sale ranks[42] and No. 56 on Top Current Album Sales[43] which gained him a spot at No. 37 on Billboard'sEmerging Artists that seeks to highlight the top performing and rising acts.[44][45]
On 27 March 2022, Alkaline headlined his third New Rules Festival at the Miramar Regional Amphitheater in Miami, Florida, with featuring acts like Mavado, Kranium and Wayne Wonder.[46]
His fifth EP The Ripple EFFX was released on 9 December 2022 and went on to win EP of the Year at the very first annual Caribbean Music Awards on 31 August 2023.[51][52]
2023–present: Givenchy Campaign, New Rules Festival's
On 9 January 2023, Alkaline was partnered on Givenchy's spring-summer 2023 men's global advertising campaign wearing the latest collection with photography from Matthew M. Williams.[53][54] It was announced that Alkaline will serve as the face of the SS23 campaign.[55]
While concluding an eight-year hiatus, Alkaline held the sixth staging of his New Rules Festival in the United Kingdom, London making its debut in the country at Wembley Arena on April 17, 2025. The show featured young dancehall acts such as Rajahwild and Armanii with a surprise performance by the West London collective group WSTRN.[59][60][61]
In May 2014, Alkaline donated $200,000 JMD each to two financially impoverished female cancer patients in Jamaica to further progress their treatments from the tumorous disease.[68][69]
On 23 June 2022 Alkaline and New Era Productions donated $1 million JMD to the Jamaica Society for the blind at the media launch for the second staging of the New Rules Festival in Kingston, Jamaica.[72]
When Alkaline first appeared on the Jamaican dancehall scene in 2013 he became known for his distinctive look and style, with the bleached skin and blond dreadlocks but the most controversial was his alleged tattooed eyes, which prompted others to follow suit.[74] He caused quite the stir as he claimed to have Corneal tattooing in his eyeballs.[75] 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.[76] He would keep up the charade for about 3 years, until he finally revealed the "tattoos" to be nothing more than a stunt.[77] 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 itself and no longer require publicity stunts for any form of media coverage. This prompted the release of his debut album, New Level Unlocked.[13] He has since halted wearing the black scleral lens that would cover his cornea.
On May 14, 2025, Alkaline made an appearance on BET UK for an interview, appearing back on scene with his infamous scleral lenses which he hasn't worn for a decade, once again creating a controversial buzz in the media.[78] In a sit-down interview with Nationwide 90FM on July 2, 2025, He explained that the image was made for public relations and an expression of himself as an entertainer.[79]
Discography
Albums
List of studio albums, with selected details and chart positions
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