A teenage murderer has filmed a violent rap song about a gangland hitman in a Lanarkshire prison, sparking outrage.
Byron Cooper is one of the five inmates at HMP Shotts who took part in the the two-minute video, which appears on TikTok with the title ‘Free Jambo Mac’, about violence, drugs and misogyny.
Cooper was jailed for life in 2010 for murdering a retired Merchant Navy officer when he was 16 years old.
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Sources say it refers to James McDonald, who is serving a 30-year sentence for the underworld murder of Michael Lyons in 2006, the Daily Record reports.
Russell Findlay, Scottish Conservative shadow community safety minister, condemned the video, saying: “Victims of these criminals, and the law-abiding majority of Scots, will be rightly concerned about this recording, which appears to champion the cause of a highly dangerous gangland hitman.”
Cooper, who calls himself MC Joe, and another inmate take turns singing verses, with the apparently self-penned lyrics sharing similarities to a rap by New Monkey MC.
Two other prisoners sit on a bed while a fifth operates a phone smuggled into the prison to film it.
Cooper, now 30, sings about having the “f***ing coke” and “f***ing watch”, adding: “I’ve got them f***ing gunning”.
He also raps: “I smoke too much dope. And them I’m in the jail. I never hang the rope.”
The song, which refers to women as “h**s”, shows the second singer pretending to wield a gun while saying “bang bang”.
The video was posted on TikTok over the weekend. It’s unclear when the video was filmed but inmates are seen wearing masks, suggesting it was during a covid lockdown.
It had been liked more than 500 times and been shared more than 100 times.
Cooper was still a teenager when he repeatedly stabbed widower George Stewart in February 2009.
George, 62, had been walking his dog near his home in Darvel, Ayrshire, when he saw Cooper breaking into a car and challenged him.
The drunken thug, also from Darvel, stabbed George several times on the head and body before running away.
Cooper showed no emotion at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2010 when a judge ordered him to serve at least 16 years.
Sources say the ‘Jambo Mac’ referred to in the video is McDonald, who was found guilty of the murder of Lyons and the shooting of two other men at Applerow Motors in Glasgow’s Possil.
McDonald and accomplice Raymond Anderson later had their 35 year jail-terms reduced to 30 years.
The carnage was sparked by the drive-by shooting three weeks earlier of Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll in Bishopbriggs.
Carroll survived that hit but in 2010, he was shot dead in an Asda carpark in Robroyston.
McDonald has been convicted of attempted murder, assault and heroin supply while in jail.
He was left with a “gaping hole” in his neck after being stabbed in HMP Glenochil, Clackmannanshire, in June 2018.
Findlay added: “It’s bad enough that the mobile phones issued to every prisoner by the SNP government at a cost of millions of pounds have been used to commit a range of serious crimes including the fire-bombing of family homes.
“But there remains a thriving black market for high-end smartphones with organised crime gangs using money and menace to smuggle them into prisons, even high security facilities like HMP Shotts.”
Scottish Labour Justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill MSP said: “These videos make a mockery of our justice system.
“Authorities must urgently explain how these inmates were able to make and post them online right under the nose of prison guards.
“Victims deserve better than a justice system that allows criminals to taunt them from jail.
“Ultimately, the SNP minister responsible must urgently come forward with a plan to stop the flow of smart phones into Scotland’s prison.”
The lags’ music is based on the fast rap songs made famous by the New Monkey nightclub in Sunderland. It received notoriety in the early 2000s and was seen as the home of Makina – a fast-paced hard style of techno with live vocals.
Despite being closed for years, the nightclub still enjoys a long-standing legacy on the all-night rave scene.
The nightspot became the subject of documentary The Two Monkeys that contains archive footage of the club, interviews with attendees, promoters and police, and focuses on the controversy and cultural legacy of the venue.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “We do not comment on individuals.
“The Scottish Prison Service deploys a variety of strategic, tactical and technological responses to mitigate against illicit articles such as mobile phones being introduced in the prison estate.
“We continue to invest in the development of new technology to detect, deter and reduce their availability and supply in what is a continuously evolving and dynamic area.
“All instances where illicit articles are recovered are reported to Police Scotland.”
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