Rapper Hypo was stabbed to death by a security guard at a £50-a-head birthday party on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, the Old Bailey has heard.
The victim – real name Lamar Jackson – had arrived in Bentley to a 45th birthday party being held at the home ground of Woodford Town FC on June 2 last year.
Just as the event was ending, Jackson, 39, was stabbed in the chest and collapsed, dying at the scene less than an hour later, the Old Bailey heard.
Laurie John-Phillip, 33, whose nickname is “Bigga”, is now on trial accused of the rapper’s murder.
Prosecutor Brian O’Neill KC said Jackson, from Hackney, was a “well-known figure in the area from his involvement in the music industry and his general reputation including as a gang member or gang leader in that area.”
He had a series of grime hits using the stage name “Hypo”, and briefly dated singer Emeli Sande in 2017.
Mr O’Neill told jurors they will have to decide if Jackson’s fatal stabbing was murder or if John-Phillip acted lawfully in self-defence.
“Just after midnight a man named Lamar Jackson was stabbed to death at a party held at Woodford Town Football Club in east London”, said the prosecutor, opening the case.
“The man who killed him was this defendant, Laurie John-Phillip. That’s not in dispute: Mr John-Phillip accepts that he was the person who killed Lamar Jackson. The issue which you will have to determine is whether he did so unlawfully or whether he may have been acting in self-defence.”
The court heard John-Phillip was working as a security guard at the party, with up to 500 guests inside a marquee with a bar and musical acts on the same weekend as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee festivities.
Mr O’Neill said there was an “incident” between John-Phillip and Jackson at around 10.30pm at the party, while John-Phillip’s cousin was “not on good terms” with Mr Jackson.
At around midnight, the lights came on and a woman shouted out that someone had been stabbed, the court heard.
Mr Jackson was seen “collapsing slowly onto his back on the ground”, and one eyewitness reportedly “saw someone jump forward and strike the deceased on the chest”.
In police interview, John-Phillip stayed largely silent but also commented: “I did not murder Lamar Jackson”, the court was told.
The court heard he is set to argue he acted in self-defence or in lawful defence of his cousin.
John-Phillip, from Enfield, denies murder. The trial continues.
