BUJU, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? I AM NOT FOLLOWING YOU… Mi Love mi cyaar, mi love mi bike, mi love mi money an ting...but most of all, mi love mi browning..." These were the lyrics of a Buju Banton song that often echoed from my Pioneer KP500-driven car stereo system in 1991 as my Toyota Camry ate up miles and miles of Jamaican roads. So often I played these discs that my then three-year-old son Nicholas would sing the lyrics word for word as I drove him to and from school in those early years. Typical of Jamaicans to find fault, some accused Buju of denigrating the beauty of darker-skinned black women, and in response, he released "Love Black Woman", which spoke of his love for dark-skinned beauties: "Mi nuh Stop cry, fi all black women, respect all the girls dem with dark complexion". Nicholas equally caught on and knew this too by heart.
Unstoppable
In 1992, Buju Banton was unstoppable as his voice dominated the Jamaican airwaves. It was not surprising that Buju that year broke Bob Marley's record of having the greatest number of #1 singles in a year. Banton's gruff voice dominated the Jamaican airwaves for the duration of the year. His debut album, Mr. Mention, included many of his greatest hits from that year including "Bonafide Love" featuring Wayne Wonder, the singer who first brought Banton out as a guest star on the annual Jamaican stage show Sting. Without question, Buju Banton with his deep raspy vocals and lyrics captivated dancehall music lovers throughout the world and is one of the greatest dancehall artistes to ever pick up a microphone. In this regard, Buju became a cornerstone of Jamaica's music industry and his appearance on any stage show ensured that the event was a certain "Sell-off" guaranteeing dancehall fans full entertainment value for their money, forward after forward, or the omnipresent gun salutes, as he reeled off hit after hit after hit.
Influence on the genre
Buju's influence on the genre was undeniable and many an artiste of the time spared no effort in trying to imitate the Gargamel (a name he assigned onto himself from his early teenage years). Several of these artistes made a name for themselves by imitating his melodies and deep gravelly vocal sounds, including Mega Banton who hit with "Sound Boy Killing" a tune derived from Buju's "Red Rose" and Bounty Killer's "New Gun" which was a spin-off of Buju's "Big It Up." In time Buju's lyrics began to reflect violent themes, which he explained as reflecting the images that young Jamaicans were presented with by the news media. This though was simply the reality of the omnipresent violence that played out daily in the streets of Jamaica. In 1993 Buju lost three of his friends and fellow recording artistes to the hands of murders These were deejays Pan Head and Dirtsman, and singer Mickey Simpson. Buju responded with the single "Murderer", which condemned gun violence, going against the flow of the prevailing lyrical content in dancehall. The song inspired several clubs to stop playing songs with excessively violent subject matter. Late in 1994, Banton was also affected by the death of his friend Garnett Silk. Banton's transformation continued, as he embraced the Rastafari movement and began growing dreadlocks. His performances and musical releases took on a more spiritual tone. Banton toured Europe and Japan, playing sold-out shows.
Til Shiloh
In 1995 he released the monumental album “Til Shiloh” which incorporated live instrumentation as well as digital rhythms. The album also combined the sounds of roots reggae along with the harder-edged dancehall sounds that first made Banton famous. At the time Buju was just embracing his Rastafari faith and the new album reflected these beliefs. Til Shiloh successfully blended conscious lyrics with a hard-hitting dancehall vibe. The album included earlier singles such as "Murderer" along with "Wanna Be Loved" and "Untold Stories". In 1996, Buju Banton took control of his business by establishing his own Gargamel Music label, releasing the popular single "Love Sponge" on vinyl in Jamaica and overseas. That same year, Buju contributed "Wanna Be Loved" along with Los Pericos to the Red-Hot Organization's album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin for the Red Hot Benefit Series. This series was reportedly raising money to increase AIDS awareness. Over the course of the next decade Buju released several singles and albums which was perceived as more mellow and introspective, as opposed to the dancehall approach of his early career. The albums included the March 2003, Friends for Life, which featured more sharply political songs, including "Mr. Nine", an anti-gun song that was a hit in Jamaica's dancehalls as well as internationally. The album "Too Bad" was released in 2006 and "Rasta Got Soul" released in 2009 which earned Buju his fourth Grammy nomination.
Lost his way
At this point Buju Banton was at the height of his career. He was considered as an Icon in Jamaican Music. It came as a seismic shock to the music community in late 2009 when Buju Banton was nabbed by officers of the US Drug Enforcement Agency. He was charged with conspiracy to reportedly distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. He would be eventually convicted for the offence and sentenced to ten years and one month in a federal prison for the cocaine trafficking conviction. After serving seven years, he was deported to his homeland, Jamaica where upon arrival he was treated like a sovereign returning after being unjustly imprisoned by his enemies, the US Government, et al. A massive concert series to celebrate his return dubbed "The Long Walk to Freedom," rolled out at Kingston, Jamaica's National Stadium pulling in unprecedented numbers of fans from all corners of Jamaica and overseas. For me, I thought the title of the concert to have been almost sacrilegious considering Buju’s circumstances, as it appeared to have been lifted from the autobiography of the great South African leader Nelson Mandela, and I did not believe that Buju’s experience could ever be conflated with that of the great man. Those though were my personal sentiments as looking on, it was evident that to his fans at home and abroad, the act of drug smuggling did not place a single dent in a career that was built to withstand all obstacles. Against this background it appeared that there was no need for the artiste to admit to any wrong-doing or to even offer an apology to the people who looked up to him as a Righteous Rastafarian.
Post-arrest philosopher
Buju in the period of his return has attempted to return to his pre-arrest philosophizing habit which now clearly lacked the conscious credibility of his pre-arrest period, which many individuals have opined that his talking points are nonsensical, while others are of the view that his utterances are disingenuous and lack credibility. Central to this view is the fact of his arrest and conviction for drug trafficking which runs completely contrary to the teachings of Rastafari.
Afro-Beats is a foolish target
In a more recent interview, Buju declared that "AfroBeats is not doing anything to uplift Africans, and that the music is highly sexualized..." What Buju may have forgotten is that his own dancehall hits were not only very sexualized "Haffi get yuh body gal," some songs like “Driva,” promoted the trafficking of drugs, and “Man Fi Dead” promoted violence. In the circumstances, I find it hypocritical for Buju to point the proverbial righteous fingers at African musicians who are now making their mark on the global stage. After all, Afro-Beats is neither new nor appropriating Jamaica’s Dancehall as most people seem to believe. Afro beat grew because of the size of the African music market, especially its Diaspora that is over 200 million people who support the music of their roots. Buju comments showed a deficiency in his music history knowledge and considering the lack of information among most in our population who are equally uninformed, many have gobbled up this misinformation and are regurgitating it as fact. Afro-Beats artistes have been putting deep messages out there with their music. Songs such as “Talk” and “This is Nigeria” by Falz; “Ye” by Burna Boy, “Police Brutality” by Ruggedman, “Freedom” by Mr. Eazi, “Truth” by Sarkodie, and “Times are Hard” by Kwaw Kese serves as examples of Afro- Beat songs that decimates Buju’s claim that these artistes are not producing music with strong messages for the current and future generations of listeners. All in all, I take nothing from Buju. His ability as an artiste is unquestionable and in the field of music, he deserves all the accolades. However, the Buju that is philosophizing and taking pot-shots at other genres of music needs (in my opinion) to wheel and come again.
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