STAR of the Month : Tommy Lee Sparta begs for peace in MoBay

STAR of the Month Tommy Lee Sparta closed Reggae Sumfest for the first time over the weekend.

However, despite the fact that his set was forcefully cut on that occasion, the deejay used some of his under-ten-minutes display to call for peace in Montego Bay.

"Big up everybody. One love. Big up every youth inna MoBay. Wi seh one MoBay. Have respect for each other. Ease off a di heap of killing and the bag of violence, yuh zimi, big woman thing. One MoBay, one Jamaica, one world, peace out," he belted before singing Holding Out The Pressure.

Montego Bay was labelled a 'breeding ground for crime' in 2010 with the murder toll rising annually since the parish broke the 100-murder mark for the first time in 2003 with 106 murders. Then in 2004. It went to 129. By 2009, the figures rose to 240 murders for the year. And it seems like things are getting even worse, with more than 130 persons being killed since the start of 2017.

Tommy Lee Sparta's manager, Tanya Thelwell, told THE STAR yesterday that the deejay was genuinely bothered by Montego Bay's crime rate.

"Tommy always tries to give good advice when he is performing. The crime rate in Montego Bay is very high, so he is always advocating for peace and reaching out to the youth for them to do better. He is from Montego Bay, and he doesn't like the fact that the image of Montego Bay people has been affected by crime," she said.

Although his set was significantly shorter than planned, persons left Reggae Sumfest claiming that Tommy Lee Sparta was one of the best performers of the festival.