"I TRULY BELIEVE where I'm heading is stardom."

That was how the DAILY NATION interview ended in August with the then unknown graffiti artist behind the Off-Da-Brink scribblings.

Yesterday, his "stardom" was put on hold, as the only place the graffiti artist was headed was back to prison.

Azariah Nathaniel Phipps, 53, yesterday officially confessed to being the one behind the mysterious markings that started to appear in July. Off-Da-Brink had been painted on walls, buildings, garbage cans, even on the sidewalk in front of Cave Shepherd.

The deportee, who has no fixed place of abode, opted to change his plea and admitted "to the perpetuation of the crime" that between July 10 and 31, he defaced the St Augustine Building by placing the markings Off-Da-Brink on it without the consent of the occupier.

"It was an innocent literary attempt to kinda emphasise the fact that I want to 'big-up' my Barbados hub," Phipps told Acting Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell.

"I wanted to 'big-up' myself and my mother," he added.

"But if you wanted to do that, just take out an ad in the newspaper," Acting Magistrate Smith-Bovell told him.

"But THE NATION newspapers, they actually propaganderise my position and they turned the public against me," Phipps claimed.

"They said I was better than Michael Jackson."

Reiterating that Off-Da-Brink was about lifting himself and his mother, Phipps continued: "It's not that I hurt anybody. I could have cleaned it up myself.

"And what happened is I was pushed, so when I came out of prison I pushed a rap band. That's what I wanted to do," he said.

Phipps further explained he had decided to plead guilty so he would not have the offence hanging over his head.

In addition, he admitted he had an outstanding $1 200 fine, only part of which he had paid.

"I need some time to think about this," said Acting Magistrate Smith-Bovell.

In the end, she remanded Phipps to HMP Dodds until December 3 pending sentencing.

Prosecutor Station Sergeant Irvin Kellman, who outlined the facts, said the St Augustine Building was on Lower Bay Street.

Phipps went with a can of spray paint and painted the markings on the wall of the building without the permission of the owner. The owner was not pleased.

Police investigated and eventually interviewed Phipps.

He admitted painting the graffiti, saying it represented "the name of the man and the purpose".

The prosecutor further told the court Phipps admitted to police he was the man.