Dancehall’s Original Lyrical Assassin
Desmond Balentine, better known as the improvisational dancehall artist Ninjaman, almost signed with Columbia Records in the 1990s, according to former label executive Maxine Isis Stowe. Despite winning almost every Sting clash between 1989 and 1995, he never signed with an international label, unlike some of his rivals who went on to achieve international careers and lucrative record deals.
“Shabba is who broke first in 1990 and signed first to Epic. Specialist was part of that signing,” Stowe said. “I wanted to sign Ninjaman. I was courting him, but there was something about how he was situated in Jamaica. I don’t know if it was court cases, but he was being offered a lot,” she added.
Originally from Annotto Bay, St. Mary, Ninjaman’s name would have been on the roll call on Honey Boy Martin’s 1968 song Dreader Than Dread when he declared himself “the rudest of all rude boys.”
The Anything Test deejay entered the music business in 1980 as Double Ugly and had Michael Jackson style presence on stage- he was able to get a response from a crowd without saying a word. His first single, “Uglyman,” was recorded under the guidance of Super Cat and Early B. Between 1989 and 1992, he released notable songs like “Border Clash,” “Permit to Bury,” “Murder Dem,” and “Above the Law.” Businessman Wayne Chen, who once booked Ninjaman, noted his reputation for being difficult and unreliable saying, “he already had a reputation for being difficult – cantankerous, unreliable, unpredictable,” which maybe on reason he was never signed to a record label.
Among the anti-social behaviors Ninja Man is on record for include a July 1996, arrest and charged with possession of a firearm. He was scheduled to perform at Reggae Sunsplash and was initially granted bail, but it was revoked when it was discovered he had absconded bail in 1993 for a shooting incident. As a result, he missed performing at Sunsplash that year.
In January 1997, Ballentine was charged with breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act after being found with crack cocaine during a spot check. He received a suspended sentence on the condition that he sought help for his drug addiction.
In April 1999, Ballentine was arrested and charged with the murder of taxi driver Anthony White. Though he was freed of the murder charge in July 2002, he was arrested four days later for using expletives during a performance at Carifest 2002 in Manchester.
Chen, an attorney and owner of Superplus Supermarket added that Ninja’s erratic behavior often caused chaos and recalled one event which Ninja did not show. “I got Cutty Ranks to headline at the last minute. Gregory Isaacs and others were brilliant but at the end an angry crowd still wanted Ninja and when they realised he really wasn’t coming, they trashed the venue. Bullets, mostly from police, were flying everywhere.” It was to be Chen’s last sojourn into the music business as a concert promoter. “Stage promotion was too stressful. Recording was easier but still unpredictable because artists were notoriously mercurial,” he said.
Still, Ninjaman had some of the more memorable clashes at Sting, one with his mentor Super Cat in 1991, which involved bottles being thrown at the crowd. That year, Cat signed with Columbia Records and released the Don Dada album with executive producer Robert Livingston. The following year Ninjaman’s performance at Sting ’92 was recorded for Sony Records but was never released, though Laing, the founder of Sting, confirmed that Sony still has the tapes.
In 1992, the release of Spike Lee’s film “Malcolm X” inspired the dancehall culture. Buju Banton made his Sting debut in an oversized yellow linen outfit, performing hits like “Stamina Daddy” and “Gold Spoon,” paving the way for the main event Ninjaman, who appeared in a red, gold, and green suit with a headband in true showman style asking, “Weh di wicked man dem deh?”
Poised with presence like no other for International fame as the top deejay in the island, Ninja’s career never took off internationally.
In 1993, he became the face of violence in Jamaica and was heavily criticized for his pro-gun lyrics. After converting to Christianity in 1997, he changed his name to “Brother Desmond” and began performing gospel reggae songs.
As his peers went around the world their careers, Ninjaman went back to his loose behavior which included rushing fellow entertainer Squiddley Ranking in early 2000 with a knife on stage just after his return from prison for accusations of killing a taxi man. Ranking recalled Ninjaman intent to kill him, even though it was Ninja who booked him to attend the event. “Ninjaman came to the show with gunman who wanted to kill me” he said. “Police had to escort me out of the lawn.” The rivalry allegedly went into the next week when the two men had a cowboy style face-off at a Kingston recording studio according to Ranks.
Ninjaman appeared in several films, including “Third World Cop” (1999), “Rude Boy: The Jamaican Don” (2003), and “Gangsta’s Paradise” (2004). In March 2009, Ninjaman and his son Janiel were arrested and charged with the murder of Ricardo Johnson. Although granted bail in 2012, his trial faced multiple delays and finally started in January 2016. In 2015, he left Downsound Records and opened Picture Frame Studio in Kingston.
On November 20, 2017, Ninjaman was found guilty of the 2009 murder and was sentenced to life in prison on December 18, 2017, with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
