If you’ve searched for the meaning of “Murderer,” the short answer is that Barrington Levy’s 1984 dancehall song warns listeners about violent people who pass themselves off as respectable.
Throughout the song, Levy calls these figures murderers and vampires.
He describes men in jackets and ties who come into his community intending to kill its youth, who tell lies in court, and who want to take away his rights. Some lines are hard to make out, and lyric sites transcribe several of them differently.
For that reason, this explainer describes what the song says in plain terms and does not reproduce the lyrics.
The Story Behind the Song
Online record databases do not agree on exactly when “Murderer” came out. Discogs lists a UK 12-inch on Jah Life (catalogue JL008) released in 1984. It also lists a 1984 Jamaican 7-inch titled “Murder” on the Jah All Mighty label.
ReggaeCollector.com, a vinyl dealer, dates its copies of the Murderer / Tell Them A Ready 12-inch to approx. year: 1983. The safest statement is that the original came out around 1983 to 1984, and most listings point to 1984.
Many people link Levy’s mid-1980s work with Jah Screw, but “Murderer” was a Jah Life production. The Discogs credits list the producers as H. Wright\, P. Chin\ and the writers as B. Levy and H. Wright.
That matches Wikipedia’s entry on Hyman “Jah Life” Wright, which says that after Wright and Barrington Levy met in 1979, he produced a number of Levy’s early releases.
Among these are “Black Roses” (1983) and “Murderer” (1984); the latter Wright co-produced with long-time collaborator Patrick Chin.
The First Avenue venue biography also places the song in this period. It says the song came out after “Under Mi Sensi” and was closely followed by “Murderer” for Jah Life, and then Barrington and Jah Screw’s “Here I Come” in 1985.
ReggaeCollector.com names the riddim on the release as Hot Milk/Murderer.
The song got airplay in the UK from the BBC’s John Peel. A fan-run archive of his shows records him playing Murderer (12″) Jah Life JL008 on 17 March 1985 (BFBS) and again on 1 April 1985.
Lyrics Explained
The song does not tell a story. It is built around a repeated warning, and a few images carry most of the meaning:
- Killers in suits. Levy keeps coming back to men in jackets and ties. The point is that the danger comes from people who look official or respectable, not only from the street.
- The courthouse. In widely circulated transcriptions, these men come to court to lie and want to deny the narrator his rights. This suggests injustice coming through the legal system itself.
- Physical threat. Other lines describe these men pulling up in vehicles and threatening the narrator with violence in his own neighbourhood.
- Vampires. Levy calls them vampires who drain people’s blood, which turns the theme into a picture of exploitation.
- Protection and caution. Near the end, the narrator thanks Jah that he has not ended up in a hearse. He also says he keeps away from people he doesn’t trust.
We found no interview in which Levy explains what inspired the song. Readings that tie it to specific events or institutions are interpretations, not confirmed facts.
Later Versions and Influence
Levy re-recorded “Murderer” for Barrington, his album for MCA. Wikipedia dates the album to 1993, and a Discogs listing for the US promo single gives MCA Records, MCA8P 2728: 1993.
Two biographies on Reggaeville and Last.fm describe it as 1983’s Barrington. That date clashes with the 1993 label listing and is probably an error.
According to Wikipedia, Rakim rapped on “Murderer”, and the MCA single includes “Jeep” and album mixes with Rakim’s verse. Wikipedia also says the album’s lead single was titled “Murder.”
The Reggaeville biography says that in 1994, Levy was joined by Beenie man on the singles Two Sounds and Murderer, and that both were later released as jungle remixes. ReggaeCollector.com lists a Jah Life release titled Barrington Levy, Beenie Man – Murderation.
The same biography says a 1998’s re-make of Murderer featured such diverse artists as rap master Snoop Doggy Dogg and Southern California punk-reggae heroes Long Beach Dub All-Stars. We could not confirm that 1998 claim with a second source, so treat it with caution.
The sampling database WhoSampled lists Boogie Down Productions’ “The Bridge Is Over” as using vocals or lyrics from Barrington Levy’s Murderer · Murderer · Barrington Levy · 1984.
Through that track, the song also sits in the sample chain of Black Star’s “Definition,” Rawkus 1998, which replays part of “The Bridge Is Over.
Levy has kept the song in his live show. The Montreux Jazz Festival database lists “Murderer” early in his set from 1 July 2005.
