Alkaline

Alkaline

Artist

Earlan Bartley (born December 19, 1993), popularly known as Alkaline, is an independent dance-hall and reggae artist out of Kingston, Jamaica. Strategic in his mysterious persona and a prominent figure within the reggae-dancehall genre, Alkaline is best known for his aggressive, hip-hop influenced style and artistically fuses the sounds of the past with today’s musical diversity.

The artist first took music seriously in his teenage years, when he was attending Ardenne High School. With the support of his close friends, he went on by visiting local recording studios after school whenever he had the chance, so that he could work on his skills and his musical creativity.

Having made his debut in 2011, Alkaline began to become a well known artist in the streets of Jamaica two years later, with the singles “Thinks Mi Love” and “123”. Then, in 2014, his career gain huge traction with the very popular and controversial single “Move Mountains,” mostly because of its highly explicit intro. All of these singles were eventually added to his 2014 mixtape Alkaline Mixtape.

The artist’s first studio album, New Level Unlocked, was released on March 25, 2016, being anticipated by the leading single “Champion Boy”. The album went on to peak at No. 1 on Billboard’s Reggae Albums Chart, where it lasted for 18 weeks. In the process, Alkaline became the first Dancehall artist in five years to have landed a chart-topping album since 2011.

In the following years, he went on to collaborate with several high-profile artists, including the UK group WSTRN, French Montana – who remixed his 2016 single “Formula” – , A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Keith Sweat, Akon and RayFade.

Alkaline’s second studio album – Top Prize – was released on May 14, 2021. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard’s Reggae Albums Chart and also No. 19 on the Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums Chart for sale ranks.