Ninjaman may have changed his “gun pon teeth Don Gorgon” ways, but yesterday Desmond Ballentine was charged with murder + conspiracy in Kingston for a gun slaying that took place on Marl Road on Monday (March 16th). Assistant Police Commissioner and Head of the Major Investigations Task force, Les Green, thinks the police have a “good” case against Ballentine, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Police (CCN) interrogated Ballentine, then charged him with the murder of Ricardo Johnson aka “Ricky Trouper” (not Trooper the soundclash deejay), plus conspiracy to murder and illegal possession of a firearm. Members of the MITask Force are still looking for the 2 other men Ballentine allegedly conspired with.

In 1999, Ballentine was charged with unlawful firearm possession and spent a year in jail.

Ninjaman is notorious for gun-related dancehall and soundclash tunes like “Murda Dem” and “My Weapon” but in the last few years he’s presented himself as The Preacher. According to his my$pace bio:

In 1997, Ninjaman re-invented himself as a born-again Christian under the name Brother Desmond, and enjoyed a brief stint as a Gospel Dancehall performer, before returning to his ragga Dancehall roots.

Dressed in white from head to toe, he told fans that he had put down the guns in order to promote peace under the One Umbrella Movement. BIG words coming from one of the most lethal sound killers Jamaica has ever produced! Ninjaman’s words once had the power to shut down competing soundsystems with tunes like:

“Permit to bury and a license to kill” (Permit To Bury)
“Nobody Buss Gun Like Me”

And lines like these from “Bad Man”:

What ya think all my guns are for?
.45 in control just to explode on a bwoy soul
Times changing, things rearranging, more guns bussing
More man dying from back in the days of pure mass murdering….

Of course, being the baddest of the bad man inna dance doesn’t mean a deejay carries the violence out into the streets. Ninjaman can kill a sound with ease (and mad mad mad mad style), but only as long as Desmond Ballentine stays outta trouble!

As a MAJOR fan of Ninjaman, I’m hoping he’s innocent. But, if he winds up in The Tower, I’ll probably ask the lovely and talented DJ Ripley if she can hook us up with an interview or visiting pass. She’s inna di area now, “conducting dissertation research into Jamaican creative musical practice as it applies (or doesn’t apply) to copyright law” as 1 friend succinctly described it… This gal rules on so many levels, yuh dun know! I think she worked with the prison directly last year, or hopes to this year. I’ll ask her for more info, but in the meantime, read more here:

DJ Ripley blogs about sampling, copyright, intellectual rights, reggae, jungle, breakcore and more

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