The court has sentenced Subhas Nair, a 31-year-old rapper from Singapore, to six weeks of jail time on Tuesday (5 Sep).
Previously, the judge had found him guilty of attempting to promote ill will between racial and religious groups through online posts.
Nair’s representative lawyer said, however, that he maintains his innocence. He intends to appeal both the conviction and sentence.
Apparently, he will also be releasing an album based on his trial, in spite of his sentence.
Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported that 31-year-old Singaporean rapper Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair will face a jail term of six weeks for his attempts to promote ill will between races and religions.
Source: @submas_music on X
The court passed this sentence on Tuesday (5 Sep).
It convicted Nair of four such charges back in July for statements he made between July 2019 and March 2021.
The online posts had compared races and religions, said CNA.
The charges were in relation to a rap video he posted on YouTube alongside his sister, comedian Preetipls.
In the video, the pair were parodying an advertisement that supposedly showed “brownface”.
The problem with the video came when the duo made multiple offensive statements. These included lyrics such as, “Chinese people always out here f–king it up”.
Although they later apologised, many questioned whether it was sincere or if it was yet another parody.
Over this incident, the police issued the rapper a two-year conditional warning. However, Nair posted social media comments that ran afoul of the warning.
Under a video from two Christians who expressed their views against gay pride, Nair had commented, “If two Malay Muslims made a video promoting Islam and saying the kinds of hateful things these Chinese Christians said, ISD (Internal Security Department) would have been at the door before they even hit ‘upload’.”
Another instance saw him comparing his conditional warning and media backlash for “calling out Chinese privilege” with one of the people involved with the murder of a man at Orchard Towers.
Source: YouTube
Nair said that “actually conspiring to murder an Indian man” only got the person involved half the sentence he received, and a question of “you’re having a baby soon right? Boy or girl” from the media.
Nair maintains his innocence to this day and intends to appeal his conviction and sentence, his representative lawyer said.
The lawyer had asked for 20 days’ jail for his client, contrary to the six weeks the prosecution initially sought.
However, District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan noted that deterrence for similar offences is imperative.
This is especially so in today’s context of social media and the Internet, where racist messages can reach a larger audience almost instantaneously.
Such messages harm not only the targeted racial or religious groups, but society in general, added the judge.
Nair’s hearing saw the attendance of a few supporters, among whom was his sister.
Pending his appeal, the rapper will request bail.
In light of the hearing on Tuesday, Nair will seemingly be releasing an album themed around his trial.
The same morning, he deleted all his Instagram posts and uploaded a single photograph promoting a link to “statevsubhas.com”.
Source: @subhasmusic on Instagram
Going to the link leads to a series of caricatures of the various headlines about his case.
Dragging the caricatures to the side reveals what appears to be a cover art for ‘The State Vs. Subhas Nair The Album’.
Source: statevsubhas.com
The field to input one’s email address is also marked with “reserve a seat at the hearing”.
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Featured image adapted from @subhasmusic on Instagram and YouTube.
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