Have you heard that Live Nation will be promoting a tour for reggae/dancehall artist jerk Buju Banton? If you’re not outraged right now, let me tell you why you should be. Banton is notorious for his anti-gay songs, in which he advocates the murder of “batty bwoys” (slang for butt boy, faggot or anyone presumably gay or bisexual).
Essentially, his message is that anyone who sleeps with another man should be shot in the head, have acid poured on them or burn in a fiery death. Take a listen to his song “Boom Bye Bye” above for a glimpse of this artistry crap.
Protests against Banton have been going on for some time, and it was previously reported that he’d be signing an act intended to eliminate homophobia from reggae music. Whether or not he signed this “Reggae Compassion Act”, Banton has continued to spew hate within his music and on stage. He’s reportedly said “fuck them” to LGBT protesters, calling them “ignorant” and “stupid”.
And check out this gem of a quote: “I have never bashed any gays before, and if I bashed gays, I bashed them 16 years ago. There’s no tolerance from [the gay community]. I’m not a gay-basher. I’m not a homophobe.”
While we may not be able to stop Banton from making homophobic music, we can do our best to stop Live Nation from supporting this message. Head over here to sign a petition against the company’s support for Buju Banton. It takes less than a minute to fill out your general information, so there’s no excuse to not take action!
– Dewitt
Don’t you think you are promoting him just by having him on this blog? “Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.”…. yada, yada, yada…. The best way to deal with these “Artists”… (using that term veeeeery loosely.) is to keep them out of print, so therefore their negativity has no outlet. Then they will just fade away into obscurity.
Joey that’s not necessarily true. I’d never heard of Buju Banton before, and now that I know who he is, I won’t chance listening to or supporting him. You can’t deal with a problem like this by just ignoring it. Sometimes you have to shine a spotlight on ignorance and let the world know…
Ralfie, Buju has been spouting his crap for years. has been in the gay media for years as a homophobe. Seems the media likes to drag him out like an out dated suit and parade him around as some sort of poster boy for homophobia. Personally, I have never bought nor heard any of his songs. I just think we should stop giving him face time and picking at him like some scab…. Because it’ll just give him more hype than he deserves. And if you do have to misfortune of accidentally buy his crap, the lyrics will give him away and you’ll feel like a fool for financing him both with your money and emotional energy.
uggghh when will people get over this song, it was made in the early ’90s and the beat is really hott. let the man make a living…
Well,Im not taking his side, but protesting against a music “artist” IS stupid. The only way to fight to it is either not going to his presentation, or fighting the same way, by music, by art, with a bigger manifestation than his. But protesting and try to boicot a free speech is useless, stupid and wrong. In that case, why should be botter when conservatives do the same in our events?? just my two cents. – PS: here on MXland, many reggae groups have gay integrants, so even the event is kind of dumb for me.