Paul Kent: Why Jarome Luai should be wary of any bad rap
The emergence of a TikTok video of Penrith star Jarome Luai singing a song referencing Sydney’s postcode gangs has the NRL on alert, writes PAUL KENT.
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The common thought in this particular piece of real estate, at least in recent months, is that only two things, Covid or scandal, could stop the Penrith Panthers winning this year’s NRL premiership.
It is kind of dog bites man news in this business. No one’s earth is shaken, but the confidence comes from the Panthers playing a form of the game that seems to be above anything anyone else in the competition is doing and it is hard to see how anything, other than outside forces, stops that.
Already the Panthers are a game away from the decider and paying less than even money to defend their premiership, which is as brave as the bookies ever get.
But the first small sliver of concern crept across the NRL Integrity Unit’s desk this week when a video, circulated via TikTok, emerged of Penrith five-eighth Jarome Luai singing a song referencing Sydney’s postcode gangs that sent an icicle through the heart.
It had nothing to do with the pitch of his voice, which struggled to hit the high C, but more to do with the lyrics of the song set against the backdrop of what is happening around Sydney.
Earlier this week Four Corners ran a story on Sydney’s postcode wars, which is about the most mindless violence anybody could associate themselves with.
Clearly the days of misspent youth have taken a sinister turn. Once upon a time it was Saturday afternoons and pinball machines.
Nowadays, gangs across Sydney are so proud and protective of their turf it seems they are willing to even murder for it. Knives and hammers appear the weapons of choice.
NSW Police has set up a strike force to combat this small war, which grows more violent with each month, and are naturally aware of the influence the likes of Luai can have on his community.
He has often talked proudly of growing up in Mt Druitt — everyone should be proud of their roots — and if that’s not enough he lives the hip-hop lifestyle to the very end.
Luai failed to feature in the Four Corners episode, thankfully.
Nor is it suggested that Luai is a member of a postcode gang, or responsible for actually inciting gang violence.
The heaviest weapon he carries is that boom-box he lugs into dressing rooms but, in the TikTok video that hit the integrity unit’s desk midweek, he was singing the lyrics of western Sydney rap group Onefour, which did feature on TV.
The lyrics are a darker form of rap music, called drill. Basically, drill is a form of music which dictates you have to have acted on what you sing about. You can’t rap about kissing girls, by way of minor example, if you have never kissed a girl.
There is a deeper darkness to these lyrics, though, that police are concerned may be fuel for the gang wars.
The Onefour song, “The Message”, was written after a postcode war brawl that ended in the stabbing death of Tino Henry in 2018. Onefour represents Mt Druitt but nowadays it is distancing itself from gang wars.
“I got friends looking at 10,
“You watched yours get put in a box (put in a box)”
Then, a few lines later:
“21 what? But one got knocked.
“Ha! I guess that makes them 20.”
In the Four Corners story Strike Force Raptor Commander, Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein, said the lyrics were effectively bait for rival postcode gang 21 District, telling Four Corners: “The music that was written about that incident obviously just fuelled the fire that was already there.”
And now here is Luai, a game away from a grand final, emerging on social media singing Onefour’s provocative drill lyrics.
The NRL has a similar headache to the one police are dealing with.
Det Weinstein told Four Corners there is a fine line between freedom of speech and inciting violence. A man singing about domestic violence, for instance, and what his plans are, would not be tolerated but the line between artistic expression and intent is becoming harder to separate.
The NRL is struggling with a similar concern, wondering where to go.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has been briefed and is waiting for more information from integrity unit boss Jason King. Abdo is concerned but is wondering, from an NRL viewpoint, whether an offence has occurred.
Little of it is simple.
The integrity unit is liaising with Strike Force Raptor to see how it is, or could be, linked to NRL players.
Certainly there has been growing concern of possible gang connections around the NRL.
Several years back the NRL stepped in when Manly players were giving gang signals in try celebrations in reference to an escalating postcode war between Sydney’s inner west and greater western Sydney.
Specifically now, the integrity unit is looking at the relevance of “drill rap music” and the “promotion of gang activities through hand signals”.
The integrity unit obviously has concerns about Luai’s TikTok video, it just does not know what to do yet.
How much does Luai know of its true meaning? When was the video recorded?
The video is spliced together, the sound is not always in sync, and there is a reference to Souths which suggests it was filmed around or after last year’s grand final.
Further complicating it, just a few months ago NSW Police further took up the fight of the postcode wars by attacking the grassroots with a Youth Anti-Violence Program run through the PCYC clubs.
Nathan and Ivan Cleary, Junior Paulo, Brian To’o and Sonny Bill Williams have all actively volunteered along with, of all people, Jarome Luai.
A 12-minute video introduces the kids to the dangers.
“It’s pretty scary, you know, just being around it,” Luai says on it.
“It’s pretty vulnerable for people, even just to go out.
“They get pretty scared as well, so it impacts people.”
When Luai was out recently with injury he was a regular at sessions with the kids, playing alongside them with his knee in a brace.
The program’s pilot, Assistant Commissioner Gavin Wood, said the impact of the players on young minds is already being seen.
“Jarome and all the Penrith boys have been nothing short of outstanding,” he said.
“I’m extremely appreciative of what they’ve done.”
The program is being pushed across Sydney.
Its finest moment came not so long ago, after students watched the 12-minute video of the likes of Luai and To’o and Nathan and Ivan Cleary talking about second chances and it never being too late to start a good life, the kind the Penrith players have found.
When it was over a student found the policeman at the front of the room and made his way towards him.
He held out his hand, a peace offering to the cop.
“There’s my knife,” he said.
“I’m done.”
SHORT SHOT
The Senior Boxing Circuit reached its inevitable end Thursday night when Paul Gallen and Justin Hodges jabbed and parried, to be kind, and proved what we all knew — that with age, comes age.
Hopefully it is enough for us all.
We should have been smart enough to call it last time when Gallen stood centre ring after his previous fight saying you don’t get old between fights, you get old between rounds, to explain his loss.
Unfortunately the other was proved true Thursday.
Gallen has been a warrior, in both his first instalment as an NRL player and in his second career as a boxer, and deserves all the accolades he gets for each.
He made the difficult transition from a footballer who was boxing to a full-fledged boxer and capped it with some of the most magnificent moments in the sport in recent years. Is there anything more satisfying than winning a fight you are not expected to win?
But it isn’t there anymore.
Hodges was lightly regarded within the Gallen camp yet he put him down. Before Gallen, all Hodges’ opponents in his 6-1 record were on debut.
In his other fight Ben Hannant, in just his second time in the ring, took Gallen all four rounds.
The one thing every fighter needs is somebody, usually someone without a financial interest in the future, to tell them when it is done.
And, at 41, it is done.
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