Over the last decade, Buju Banton has reemerged as one of the most blatantly homophobic celebrities in the world--especially after 2006 when a judge dropped all charges against him for storming the residence of six suspected gay men and severely beating them to the point of permanent injury. He has repeatedly been caught singing his 1992 pro-murder hit "Boom, Bye Bye" after pledging not to sing it anymore. In 2007 he was the last signer of the "Reggae Compassion Act" pledging to refuse to sing homophobic lyrics anymore, only to immediately after deny ever signing it.
In October 2009, after agreeing to meet with members of the San Francisco gay and lesbian center about the homophobic content in his music, Buju Banton refused their requests to stop promoting the murder of gays and lesbians, and to make an anti-violence statement. days later he proceeded to pronounce, "This is a fight, and as I said in one of my songs 'there is no end to the war between me and faggot' and it's clear."
His song "Boom Bye Bye," doesn't just make homophobic statements. The entire song is an anthem about viciously, aggressively and violently murdering gays. One of the first lyrics in the song describes shooting a gay man in the back of the head as he runs away. Later in the same verse, Banton describes charging into the private home of a gay couple with an uzi. Later, he describes murdering, skinning and burning gays and lesbians. Then there is his song "Batty Rider" which spends describes chasing and gunning down gay men for the fun of it, during the course of which he repeats the word "murder" over a dozen times.
So the Recording Academy nominated him for a GRAMMY.
Read the rest of my post "Recording Academy blows GLAAD off, calls Buju Banton's gay-murder lyrics his 'cultural perspective.'" On the world famous Bilerico Project! Its a REAL doozy. Wait until you read what the Recording Academy just sent back to GLAAD!!!
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To learn more about the "kill lesbians and gays" dancehall music see the "Dancehall Dossier" http://tinyurl.com/2xax3b
For more information see http://cancelbujubanton.wetpaint.com/
and http://tinyurl.com/ye8paw2
This article is about Jamaica: http://tinyurl.com/qd7h3 Time Magazine "The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?" 04/12/06
Buju Banton is alleged to have taken part on an armed assault on some gay men in Kingston, Jamaica in 2004. He was eventually arrested, but the case never came to trial, probably because victims were afraid to testify (and for good reason). Info about the assault is in the Time Magazine article.