More Progress Against "Kill Gays" Performer Buju Banton

[ccharles000]

Viciously anti-gay performer Buju Banton has had his concerts in Columbus, OH, Cincinnati, OH and Minneapolis, MN canceled over the past few days, according to CancelBujuBanton.com, a website started by Gay Liberation Network webmaster Syd Stevens.

The cancellations come on the heels of shows nixed by AEG Live and Live Nation in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco and Philadelphia (the Philadelphia concert went ahead under different auspices).

Buju Banton grusomely calls for the killing of gay people in the lyrics of his most well-known song, "Boom Bye Bye." When Jamaica's leading gay rights activist, Brian Williamson, was murdered in an apparent hate crime murdered in 2004, a Human Rights Watch researcher who went to the murder scene reported that a mob had gathered and was celebrating the murder by chanting the chorus to "Boom Bye Bye."

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12965/more-progress-against-kill-gays-performer-buju-banton

[ccharles000]

1. kick

[donco6]

2. This is good news.

Although, I remember we used to have a few members who defended Buju Banton at one time.

[Divine Discontent]

3. wow, lemme guess, freedom of speech, of course, saying to murder Gays, meh, no prob for them???

sad.

anyhow, good to hear he keeps getting canceled!

[donco6]

4. That and "artistic license."

They didn't think he was actually encouraging people to kill gays. Nothing could dissuade them.

[mamaleah]

5. Sorry to be "out of it", but who is Buju Banton?!?

And who the heck would want to listen to crap like that anyway?

[ccharles000]

6. ...

a Jamaican dancehall, ragga, and reggae musician.

Banton has attracted criticism over his homophobic lyrics. For example, his 1988 song (re-recorded in 1992), Boom Bye Bye, contains lyrics inciting the torture and murder of gay men.

Banton was charged in connection with a 2004 incident in which he, as part of a group of about a dozen people, allegedly beat six men believed to be homosexuals, after forcing entry into a house in Kingston, near Banton's recording studio. One of the victims lost use of an eye in the attack. Charges against Banton were dismissed by the judge in the case in January, 2006, for lack of evidence.<6><7>

In 2007 Banton was allegedly among a number of reggae artists who signed a pledge, the Reggae Compassionate Act, to refrain from performing homophobic songs or making homophobic statements,<8> but later denied that he had made any such commitment.<9>

In 2009, due to an outcry around Banton's lyrics promoting attacks on LGBT people, promoters AEG Live and Live Nation, Inc. cancelled Buju Banton's US tour.<10>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buju_Banton#Homophobia

[mamaleah]

7. Yeah...well, who would listen to crap that called for the torture of anyone gay?

I mean really?

Someone can defend this?

I am sure someone will call it "art". But a lot of alleged art is just....well...shit.

[dem mba]

8. I just googled the song to check out the lyrics

and I have no damn idea what he's talking about. looks like Jamaican jibberish to me.

[Gwendolyn]

10. It's not jibberish just because you can't understand it!

Batty bwoy = butt boy (homosexual)

Rude bwoy = cool boy

Dem haffi dead = they have to die

Knowing those three terms it's pretty easy to decipher the song. It disparages gay people, and encourages their murder. Buju was once arrested in connection with a severe gay bashing, but was released for lack of evidence.

The more people that know what this man is about, the better.

[imdjh]

9. Why would anyone book him in the first place?

[ccharles000]

11. one more kick