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. By 2013 he started to release a plethora of songs under the Cahban Rekords production. He made his first appearance on the
Reggae Sumfest stage as an opener on 25 July 2013. 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. Alkaline began the year of 2014 with his "Live Mi Life" concert on 31 January at
Constant Spring, Jamaica. 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.
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 Albums 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.
New Level Unlocked was selected at number 3 in
Billboard's "10 Best Reggae Albums of 2016". 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". In September 2016 he was nominated for a
MOBO Award for the second time in the Best Reggae Act category. His "Champion Boy" single was used in an advertising campaign for the
Red Stripe Premier League. With the crew's name Vendetta which he uses to categorize his
fans, made the launch of a clothing line considered as Detta Gear. He was also featured on a remix of
Shaggy's "That Love" on 11 November 2016
. 2017–2018: New Rules in 2017. 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. 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. 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. 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. On 10 August 2018 Alkaline made an appearance on
FOX 5 News New York promoting the 13th annual Caribbean concert as the headline act interviewed by morning host
Rosanna Scotto. The performance was held in
Jackson, New Jersey at
Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park 12 August 2018. On 8 September 2018, Alkaline brought his second
New Rules show to
Queens, New York, in Amazura.
2019–2022: Top Prize, Givenchy Feature, New Rules Festival's and The Ripple EFFX In early December Alkaline's 2019 single "With the Thing" was featured on the
Video game Grand Theft Auto V with the
"iFruit Radio" soundtrack. He made his first appearance on the
Afro Nation festival in
Accra, Ghana 30 December 2019. On 12 February 2021, Alkaline announced his second studio album
Top Prize. 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. The album was published on 14 May 2021, with the lead single "Ocean Wave" which was publish on 6 March 2020. After the first week the album peaked at No. 2 on the
Billboard’s Reggae Albums Charts, No. 19 on the
Heatseekers Charts for sale ranks and No. 56 on Top Current Album Sales which gained him a spot at No. 37 on ''
Billboard's''
Emerging Artists that seeks to highlight the top performing and rising acts. 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. On 22 June 2022, Alkaline had his music featured on
Givenchy's Men's Spring Summer 2023 RTW Show in
Paris, France, which was directed by fashion designer
Matthew M. Williams. In the same year on 2 July 2022, Alkaline returned his
New Rules Festival to
Kingston, Jamaica at the national stadium car park featuring performances from
Macka Diamond,
Aidonia,
Skeng and many more. 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.
2023–2025: 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. It was announced that Alkaline will serve as the face of the SS23 campaign. The fifth staging of the New Rules Festival returned to
New York in the city of
Mount Vernon on 3 September 2023, with featured performing acts like
Mavado,
Charly Black,
Skinny Fabulous and
Libianca. Alkaline attended his first show in the year of 2025 in
Boston, Massachusetts on 30 March where he was awarded by
Liz Miranda, a representative of the
State Senate honoring him with a
citation in contributions to
Jamaican music and culture while recognizing his global influence within the
Dancehall genre. 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. The seventh staging of his New Rules Festival made its debut in
Toronto, Canada on 21 June 2025 at the
Rebel Entertainment complex. The eighth staging of New Rules Festival made its way back to
Jamaica for the third time in the
Trelawny Parish at the
Trelawny Multi-purpose stadium on July 5, 2025.
2026–present: New Rules Festival's, NPT Alkaline brought the ninth staging of New Rules Festival in collaboration with Reggae Fest to the
Barclays Center in
Brooklyn on March 21, 2026, headlining his first-ever U.S. solo arena show and making history as the youngest Dancehall artist to sell out an arena at age 32. The night was further marked by a special honor, as
Brian Cunningham of the
43rd Assembly District presented him with the key to
Flatbush. On March 23, 2026, Alkaline released his third studio album,
NPT, which peaked at No. 10 on the
Billboard Reggae Albums Charts. == Philanthropy ==