Tommy Lee Sparta Back With Powerful New Track ‘Ghetto Cry’: Listen
Embattled emcee Tommy Lee Sparta is officially back on Dancehall airwaves with his second post-lockup release, Ghetto Cry. Sparta was freed on August 17 after nearly seven weeks of being detained under the state of public emergency (SOE) in St James.
Hot Topic, released on August 21, did not address his recent troubles with the Jamaica Constabulary Force but Ghetto Cry certainly does.
Rehashing the hitmaking formula from 2019’s Blessings, Sparta returns to singjay mode, giving us his gritty truth through an emotional piano ballad with moving background vocals. Spelling out his reality, experiences, and legal woes, Sparta delivers a stinging critique of “the system” from the pen of a ghetto prodigy.
In the last four years, the versatile deejay has been detained by police three times but subsequently questioned and freed each time. These episodes, however, have taken a toll on the artist, his family, and his livelihood, with his attorney, Ernest Smith, already planning to sue the state for “unlawful restraint of trade.” Sparta addresses all this and more on the new track, spilling his pain on paper and turning it into a relatable formula.
“Yuh tek ghetto yute life fi ah joke ting, one day uu ah go tell God someting/ Cause mi do good fi mi community, send nuff yute go ah school still/ Tru me jus a show likkle love still/ But di system have we as a don still/ Sometimes I can’t help it but cry, tears to my eyes and my mind running wild/ I don’t wanna tune in to my ego, but sometime mi nuh like people/ Stay to miself an a hide from trouble, trouble find me/ Me and police inna meeting” Sparta sings on the track.
Released just hours ago, the song has racked up an impressive 50K views overnight and currently sits at #24 on trending. Among the favourable fan reactions are “Feel e pain mi gad… dem cya top Sparta” as well as, “Talk facts Tommy, sue the system yes.”
Sparta’s fans and celebrity friends alike, including Popcaan, had called for his release while incarcerated.
Aside from his attorney’s assertion that “Lee’s original detention was not only ill-conceived, but it was also maliciously orchestrated,” the case got a boost yesterday on September 18. A landmark Supreme Court decision ruled as unconstitutional the months-long detention of five men without charge under the SOE’s. In a 64 page judgment, Justice Bertram Morrison outlined that the detention order issued by the National Security Minister in the case was unlawful, according to the Jamaica Gleaner.
He reasoned that the vague, laxly worded regulation provides too general a power to the Minister, violates the Jamaican constitution, and has granted orders for the detainees to seek compensation. “It cannot be that in a free and democratic society persons are held in custody for an inordinately long time, then released then go away with no compensation,” Justice Morrison said.
Listen to Tommy Lee Sparta’s Ghetto Cry below.