Deejay convicted for ‘gun song’

A recording artiste who was brought to court for performing a 'gun' song, was sentenced to community service after pleading guilty in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Thursday.

Damone Clarke, who goes by the stage name 9Lyph, was brought before the court to answer the charge of using audiovisual communication to promote criminal activity. In the video for his single 3 More Duppy, Clarke can be seen passing around handguns to other men present at the video shoot.

Prosecutors outline that the lyrics state, " When mumma start bawl, an nuh feel fi eeh chicken. When di B trick him, the bees rip him, jump out wid di rifle a never bees sting him. More dan tutty shot and yuh nuh see di limit. Fi me G nah bawl if me pree killings." The video has amassed nearly 10,000 views on YouTube since its release in February,

It was not shared in court how lawmen apprehended Clarke, but Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque lauded them for doing so, and called on investigators across the Corporate Area to amp up arrests for entertainers who promote violence in their music.

"More of these matters need to come court because words matter. Every day I have a heavy list of cases, but bring dem come! That's how we start to clean up the Corporate Area; bring dem come. All of the people who drove past the court and disturb me when I'm supposed to be writing judgements, bring dem come. Let us change the conversation, this is how we clean up the mouths," the judge ordered.

The judge also noted that the lyrics being portrayed by Clarke, mimic what happens in society.

"We know what people mean when they say them ago make duppy. Lyrics matter, there are some people who would like to think that we are not affected by what we hear; that's foolishness. This country is very violent and I commend the Denham Town police, dem need to scrape up more of them," Judge Cole-Montaque noted.

She indicated further that the sentence she would impose would be a public one, similar to the way his music is in the public's ear.

"We normalise these things too much. I would like you to do some work in the community," the senior jurist said. Clarke, 20, was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and is expected to undertake a project in Denham Town.