Ninjaman says that he battled cocaine addiction for over a decade but now he is clean.
Veteran singer George Nooks was arrested in Kingston last week for cocaine possession and that sparked a renewed debate about artists being hooked on the dangerous drug. Ninjaman has admitted that he was once hooked on the drug but has since kicked the habit. He noted that there were a lot of other artists hooked on the drug in the 1980s.
“It was a serious problem in our days, and it eat out people brain,” Ninjaman said. “I spent 10 years smoking cocaine, and I saw what it was doing to people so I stopped. It wasn’t because of no stress in the music business. It was just the thing to do at the time, and I am a mad man so mi just do it. It was holding back my career and some artiste used to lead me. From mi stop smoke cocaine, I was able to take my rightful place in the music industry.”
Ninjaman, whose real name is Desmond Ballentine, was very frank about his addiction and even named other artists like Banana Man, Baby Wayne, and the legendary Gregory Isaacs among some of the artists who were hooked on the drug in the 80s and 90s. “Nuff artiste weh yuh hear seh dead from pneumonia, a cocaine kill dem,” he said. “It is something that is addictive, and it was made to destroy the black man.”
Ninja also threw his support behind George Nooks while expressing his disappointment. “I am disappointed and mi vex, but mi nah go kill him because him a flesh and bones,” the deejay said. Nooks is currently out on a $80,000 bond while he awaits his first court hearing on charges of cocaine possession.
