EMERGING deejay Coachxlla is throwing his weight behind positive lyrics. He is promoting S team , released September 2020 on the Dansky Records label.

“This is a song about survival and knowing how to stay alive. There is a video out on YouTube,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“I am not about singing gun lyrics; there is too much killings in our small island of Jamaica. I want my lyrics to be positive and uplifting. Just look at how many innocent lives are taken each year. Women are being killed, moreso those whom we expect to be our future leaders. Elderly women and men are being murdered, so too are children — some raped and slaughtered like animals,” he continued.

Since the start of the year (2021) there have been some gruesome murders. Among the fatalities were Andrea Lowe-Garwood shot several times at close range while attending a church service in January.

The body of 20 year-old Khanice Jackson was found in a decomposing state at Portmore Fishing Village in St Catherine on Friday after she went missing on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.

In 2020 some 1,301 persons were murdered in Jamaica. Insight Crime 2020 Homicide Round-up revealed that Jamaica has the highest homicide rate in the Caribbean and Latin America at 46.5 per 100,000 people.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer Coachxlla said, “We as entertainers have to take a stand and put aside lyrics which glorify the guns. We should never teach our young minds there is no other way to end disagreements but by the use of this deadly weapon.”

The 24-year-old Coachxlla, born Javid Johnson in St James, said his music can be described as both sensitive and motivational, such as his first recording Half Way There.

“This [song] was done when I was in my teens in a relationship with this girl I met. The song was released on the Team Upgrade label,” he said.

This effort gave him a promising start, which came as no surprise to many who knew his passion for music.

“At school my friends and I made a makeshift studio for recording. First, we made a headset similar to those used at call centres, and to prevent the humming noise we installed a pop filter at the head of our microphones. Two phones were used after — one for downloading the rhythm and the other for recording,” he said.

Coachxlla’s seven years in music have materialised into five strong songs. The additional three are Wishing (2018), Complex (2020) and No Favours (2020), all under the Cell Block recording label.