Born and raised in Montego Bay, singer Iyah Syte is familiar with some of the tourist city’s toughest areas. He has read about, and seen, lawlessness in communities like Flankers, Glendevon and Mount Salem.

Though crime has been rampant in these communities for over 30 years, Iyah Syte stressed that they have produced many hardworking citizens who have suffered because of hometown affiliation.

This is a widespread practice in Jamaica, which inspired Pray For The Youths, his latest song.

“In Jamaica, we still have one justice for the rich and another for the poor. There is still a stigma attached to ghetto youth; you are stigmatised once yuh come from a certain area,” he said.

Pray For The Youths is produced by Cushet Records, a company in Montego Bay. It is one of several new songs Iyah Syte has recorded recently for different producers.

Runaway crime in St James forced the Government to make sections of that parish one of its Zone, Of Special Operations last September. Mount Salem was one of the places that had sustained police presence.

Stray Bullet and Free Up The Herbs are two of Iyah Syte’s new releases. The former was done with Unity, a band from Somerset, St James, he has worked with for the past two years.

He joined them after True Survivors, another band for which he was lead singer, folded. Being in a band, he told the Jamaica Observer, has made a rounded artiste.

“When yuh in a band, yuh get to appreciate chords an’ changes. It don’t strain yuh vocals because the band working with you, so yuh have a better delivery,” Iyah Syte explained.

Born Dillon Hines, Iyah Syte got into music seriously in 1996, but took an extended break when he became a parent. His son is Jamario Hines, the goalkeeper who led Cornwall College to the daCosta Cup schoolboy title in 2016.

Iyah Syte returned to music in 2007, with Blood In The Streets being his first released song.