Meaning
A killer, or a gun — literally a 'maker of ghosts'. Since a 'duppy' is a ghost or spirit of the dead, the 'duppy-maker' is what creates them: a deadly weapon, or the person who kills. It is dancehall gun-talk, one of the many grimly inventive coded names for a firearm and a shooter, and the dark image of a machine or a man whose trade is turning the living into duppies gives the word its chilling force in the music's violent register.
Examples
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Di lyrics a chat bout duppy-maker.
The lyrics are talking about a deadly weapon.
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Dat kind a violence a pure duppy-maker business.
That kind of violence is pure killing business.
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Nuh glorify no duppy-maker.
Don't glorify weapons and killing.
Origin
A compound of 'duppy' (ghost) and 'maker' — the maker of ghosts, i.e. a killer or the weapon that kills; a vivid piece of dancehall gun vocabulary.
How it’s used
Belongs to dancehall's 'gun tune' talk. Understood as slang for a weapon or killer; the violence it names is widely criticised.