Moses 'Beenie Man' Davis said the St. Andrew Parish Church is giving him a fight, as a court injunction has been taken out against him, barring him from airing his recently shot music video,These Streets.

Beenie Man, who shot a section of the video in the church cemetery in Half-Way Tree, has been ordered by the church not to air the part of the video showing the church's cemetery.

Director for the video, Ras Tingle, said that the church had contacted the producers and asked that the cemetery not be shown on television prior to it (the video) being premiered last Friday night.

But according to Ras Tingle, "there was a miscommunication because the media was not suppose to air the first part of the video (with the cemetery scene) and the production team and artiste are very sorry for any inconvenience caused."

Adding, "we have since pulled the video and it is going to be re-edited."

Bewildered

However, Beenie Man said he cannot understand why the church would want to fight against his video, especially since his song preaches against violence.

"Di message weh mi a try get out there is that di yout dem weh a deal wid di violence, if dem nuh change dem ways, a di cemetery an graveyard dem a guh end up.

Every time a man a try talk bout badness, dem inna di streets an man a fight man an dem ting deh, but mi waan guh inna di graveyard an mek dem really get di point an si sey 'these streets is not loyal to no man'. A di coffin mi waan show di youts dem, mek dem know sey a de suh dem a guh end up, a nuff brethren mi lose suh," Beenie said.

Beenie Man added, "is not really the church wi shoot, wi shoot out a front inna di cemetery, but a di church a fight 'gainst wi. But we nah fight 'gainst di church, if dem sey wi fi pull di part weh have di church cemetery inna it, den wi wouldn't have a problem, wi would a jus mek back a video fi di song, These Streets."

He claimed, however, that on the day of the shoot there were persons from the church there. "Dem sey wi neva get permission from dem, but if wi never get nuh authorization den dem could a stop it."

Blurred graves

The deejay said that he did not see why the church was making such a big fuss over the matter because, "all the graves were blurred an it hard fi anybody si sey a da church deh inna di video, suh mi nuh understand. But a their church, fi dem rules an mi jus a guh respect di order."

He continued, "Mi a try fi do sum'n fi lessen di crime inna di country an dem a fight 'gainst it an a sey dem nuh want dem cemetery show pon TV? Mi haffi guh jus tek out di fron part a di video, wi a guh re-edit di video, but mi a guh shoot back a full video fi it."

The video for These Streets, was shot two weeks ago and premiered last Friday on Entertainment Report.

Efforts to reach Rev. Major Kitson from the church for a comment on the matter was unsuccessful.

Mr. Justice Bryan Sykes granted an injunction last week when attorneys representing the church went to court, barring Beenie and the video's production team from airing the video showing sections of the church and cemetery.

Beenie Man and members of the video's production team are scheduled to appear in the Supreme Court on October 11, when the matter will be heard.