Alkaline

Earlan Bartley was born December 19, 1993, at Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. He attended Ardenne High School and studied Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies. He began writing songs at fourteen and, by sixteen, was already producing his own records.

Bartley adopted the stage name Alkaline as a teenager, breaking internationally around 2015–2016 with singles like "On Fleek." His 2016 debut album New Level Unlocked became the first dancehall album in five years to top the Billboard Reggae Albums chart, where it stayed for 18 weeks.

Alkaline built a distinctive brand around a deliberately stark, minimalist visual identity that helped him cross into fashion, including being named the face of Givenchy's Men's Spring/Summer 2023 runway show. In 2026 he became one of the youngest dancehall artists to headline and sell out Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

Alkaline has generated recurring controversy over visible skin-bleaching that began around 2014, and is one half of dancehall's most anticipated unfulfilled matchup, a long-teased lyrical clash with fellow deejay Masicka. Despite the friction, Alkaline is widely credited with modernizing dancehall's sound and visual language for a streaming-era audience, balancing his controversial image with documented philanthropy.