R&B singer Lyfe Jennings put a middle finger in the air for anyone who had something to say about sharing his prison encounters with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
His case has been trending for weeks due to the popularity of Netflix’s mini-series, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” It chronicles one of the most notorious murder sprees in America. He was convicted of killing 17 men and boys in addition to other charges in 1992 — the same year Jennings was convicted of arson.
Fans were shocked and surprised after Jennings talked about spending time with Dahmer behind bars on Instagram Sunday, Oct. 2. “Fun Fact: I knew Jeffery Dahmer,” he wrote in his Instagram story. We were in prison together for a couple months.”
As promised, the 44-year-old returned with more details about their encounters in two separate video reels. “I know the little homie, man. I mean I wasn’t his friend or nothing like that,” he explained in the first clip. “You know a lot of people gon’ say it’s cap but its easy to check. I was locked up in ’92. He had to get extradited from Milwaukee for the little body that he had in Ohio.”
Jennings admitted he “didn’t really know who the cat was,” noting his inability to view news about Dahmer’s case on television or from radio stations.
“All I know is one day we were in maximum security and they was like everybody against the wall,” he recalled before guards brought in another inmate. “So they bring the white boy in right, and it just so happened that they put him in the cell next to me.”
“He was only there for a short period of time,” Jennings noted. “I don’t even really remember how long but the first day and a half, you didn’t really hear nothing from the cat. But in a couple days he was banging on the doors because you know we locked down so much down there. You gotta have some fun so a cat just kinda release … by yelling and beating on doors or whatever.
In a second video, the “Must Be Nice” singer explained that he was a “porter” in prison, which is a person who cleans railings, mops, and sweeps around the facility. During that time, Dahmer and other inmates began to notice his vocal skills.
“A lot of times cats used to have request or whatever while I was down there doing my thing. One particular day I walked past, Jeffery was like, ‘That’s you down there singing?’ He was like, ‘I like R&B.’”
After returning to their separate cells, Jennings remembers calling out to Dahmer, who had his own song request. “Y’all will never guess what song he asked me did I know, Mint Condition’s “Breakin My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes). He asked did I know the record and I sang the record, he beated on the door and all this stuff.”
The “Stick Up Kid” artist planned to reveal what happened “the very next day” with Dahmer in a third video. But plans derailed after seeing the backlash and mixed responses he received online.
“My memories to share are my memories to share,” he said on Monday, Oct. 3. He claims that he only shared his memories after his “folks” recently watched the Netflix series.
The vocalist also addressed critics who questioned why he was in a maximum security state prison as an adolescent with a violent offender, adding, “Y’all not from that space, man.”
He continued saying, “This why I don’t tell y’all s–t. I got a whole bunch of stories. I ain’t gone tell the rest of the story about what happened with not the lil homie … the guy, the ‘monster.’ I’mma just go ahead and finish my thing.”
He closed out his response by sending “peace and blessings, love and light and I wish you and ya family happiness, man.” “Peace,” he added before chucking up the deuces followed by the middle finger.
Jennings’s love for singing and the streets developed at a young age in Toledo, Ohio, as discussed during his episode of TV One’s “Unsung.” At 13 years old, he was sentenced to seven months in a juvenile detention center for drug trafficking. The following year, he accompanied a group of friends who tried to firebomb the home of a local drug dealer but struck the wrong target, killing a woman inside.
He was charged with felony arson and sentenced to 11 years. Upon his release in late 2002, he began his music career and released his debut album, “Lyfe 268‒192,” taken after his inmate number.
