Kenneth Richards, the Archbishop of Kingston, has remixed Bounty Killer’s 1995 single Run come up inna me Magnum, urging young men across Jamaica to ‘run come up inna di church’.

Richards, who was speaking during the National Day of Prayer at the Power of Faith Ministries church in Portmore, St Catherine on Wednesday, said the country has been plagued by gang violence and that should gangsters choose to ‘siddung pon the church bench’ instead of turning to crime, their lives will change.

Replacing Bounty Killer’s violent lyrics which warned his enemies of the consequences of disrespecting “Miss Ivy last son”, the clergyman in his remix sang:

Run come up inna di church now, bwoy

Listen to the gospel, bwoy,

Siddung pon di church bench

And yuh life will change

A nuh warn me nuh warn yuh

A nuh tell me nuh tell yuh

Listen to the gospel

And yuh life will change

A clip of the Archbishop’s brief performance has been making the rounds on social media, even gaining the attention of the ‘Warlord’ himself.

In a repost of the footage on his Instagram page, Bounty Killer seemingly endorsed Richards’ performance.

“Run go up inna di church now bwoy. Government badness meets church badness,” Bounty Killer captioned the video.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who was also in attendance at the event, was captured on video giving the Archbishop a round of applause at the end of his message.

Earlier at the event, Holness expressed his distress at the country’s violent crimes, which he said has sidelined peace in communities and posed a challenge for him to sleep peacefully at nights.

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Holness revealed that of the total number of murders committed islandwide, more than 70 per cent of them are gang-related.

Referring to Tuesday’s killing of two brothers in Westmoreland, as well as the murder of 10-year-old Jezariah Tyrell in her home in central Kingston last week, Holness disclosed that he is haunted by the country’s crime problem and that he goes to his bed “with these things on my conscience every night.”

Jamaica recorded a total of 1,463 murders in 2021, a 10 per cent increase when compared to the previous year.