Jennings was in prison alongside the serial killer, who was serving 15 life sentences for the murders of 17 men and teen boys.
R&B singer, Lyfe Jennings, is speaking out about his time in prison -- particularly the time he spent serving alongside convicted serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. With the Netflix series, Dahmer -- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, drawing attention once more to Dahmer's grizzly killings, many are commenting both on the show, and Dahmer's sinister story.
In a video shared to Twitter, Jennings revealed that Dahmer asked him to sing "Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)" by Mint Condition while they were in prison together.
"One day, we're in maximum security, and they're like, 'Everyone against the wall,' because I was a porter in the little thing, the little bridge where they put inmates and stuff like that," Jennings, who was served 10 years for a 1992 conviction, began. "So, they're like, 'Everyone against the wall, everybody against the wall,' so they bring the white boy in, so he comes, and it just so happens that they put him in a cell right next to me."
He continued, "I'm out there sweeping and mopping or whatever. So, anyway, he was only there, just for a short period of time. I don't even really remember how long, but the first day and half two days, we ain't really here nothin' from the cat, but in a couple days, he was banging on the doors, 'cause you know, we're locked down so much down there, you had to have some fun. So, the cat just kinda released his little -- he just get his little sh*t off by yelling, beating on doors or whatever, and that was back in the penitentiary days where you could smoke in the penitentiary, right? So, I used to run across dude all the time because of the cigarettes, he used to trade stuff, a little cigarettes while he was down there."
As a porter in the prison, Jennings said he did a lot of the cleaning around the prison and was allowed out of his cell to do his job. While cleaning, he said he'd sing, often taking song requests from fellow inmates, and one day, from Dahmer.
"One particular day, I walked past the thing -- you know, Jeffrey, he was like, 'Aye, hey, hey, hey,' he was like, 'Yo, that's you down there singing?' I'm like, 'Yo, it was me down there signing, you see me down there, man.' So, he was like, 'I like R&B.' I'm like, 'You like R&B? He's like, Yeah, yeah,'" Jennings shared.
After returning to his cell, the "Must Be Nice" singer said he started yelling through the door, asking Dahmer what he wanted to hear.
"Ya'll will never guess what song he asked me did I know," he said with a chuckle. "Mint Condition's 'Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes) man. He asked did I know that record, and I sang the record, he beatin' on the door and all this stuff. I mean, I ain't saying the homie is a celebrity or nothin,' I'm just telling you my experience, man."
Jennings isn't the only one speaking out about his experience with Dahmer. Since the Netflix series' release, those who lived through the real-life murders of their friends and family are sharing their peace.
In addition to a lawyer of a Dahmer survivor, relatives of 19-year-old victim Errol Lindsey, including his sister Rita Isbell, and a cousin named Eric, who was later identified as Eric Perry by The Wrap, have responded negatively to the true-crime scripted drama and the ways it has forced them to relive and be re-traumatized by such a tragic experience.
In an essay for Insider, Isbell, whose emotional victim impact statement was recreated word-for-word onscreen by DaShawn Barnes, wrote that what she saw of the series "bothered me, especially when I saw myself – when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said."
Suddenly, "it felt like reliving it all over again," she explained. "It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then."
"The episode with me was the only part I saw. I didn't watch the whole show. I don't need to watch it. I lived it. I know exactly what happened," she continued.
"Like recreating my cousin having an emotional breakdown in court in the face of the man who tortured and murdered her brother is WILD," Perry wrote on Twitter while re-sharing a side-by-side video of Isbell’s testimony.
He also explained why the show was triggering for her and the rest of their family. "It’s re-traumatizing over and over again, and for what?"
Not only that, but both Lindsey’s cousin and Isbell claimed that they were not notified about the series, nor were they paid for their story.
"No, they don’t notify families when they do this," Perry wrote on Twitter." "It’s all public record, so they don’t have to notify (or pay!) anyone. My family found out when everyone else did."
Reconfirming that statement, Isbell revealed that she "was never contacted about the show."
For more on the controversial series, check out the video below.
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