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Tuesday 22 February 2011

Breaking Update* Confirmed: "Buju Banton" has been found guilty on three counts. Published by DjLanre

FLORIDA, USA – Reggae star Buju Banton was found guilty on three charges by a 12-member panel of jurors a short while ago at the United States Sam M Gibbons Federal Court here in Tampa. The artiste was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilogrammes of cocaine, of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offence and using the wires to facilitate a drug-trafficking offence.

However he was found not guilty attempted possession with the intent to distribute cocaine. The artiste hugged his lawyer David Markus when the verdict was read. Many of the artiste's supporters left the courtroom crying. He has been detained and has had his bail revoked..

Buju Banton's signature is only a small victory

Blaming musicians for homophobia is like blaming gangsta rappers for gang violence. They don't help matters, but nor did they create the problem.

So Buju Banton has finally bowed to pressure and signed the "reggae compassionate act". No news, though, on whether he did so with a smile. Given that protests related to the Stop Murder Music campaign have cost Jamaican artists an estimated £2.5m after the cancellation of concerts and sponsorship deals, one suspects that his assent was motivated by pragmatism rather than a sudden change of heart.

For years, Banton was synonymous with Jamaican homophobia. Despite trading so-called "slack" lyrics for consciousness-raising roots reggae after his conversion to Rastafarianism in the mid 90s (1995's 'Til Shiloh is a classic of its kind), he refused to distance himself from the sentiments of Boom Bye Bye, the song he recorded as a hot-headed teenager. When I raised the subject with him four years ago, he stonewalled: "That's the past. I've been down that road a thousand times and I refuse to go there again with anyone."

I could see why. Countless other dancehall artists had equally contentious views on homosexuality but until 2002, when OutRage! began targeting the likes of Beenie Man, Elephant Man, TOK and Vybez Kartel, Banton was the only one whose entire career - in Britain, anway - was overshadowed by the issue. Then again, he was filmed performing Boom Bye Bye last year, and in 2005 was charged with assaulting a gay man. (The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.)

But will this change anything? The whole idea of signing an act is dubious. Take the priggish wording: "There's no space in the music community for hatred and prejudice, including no place for racism, violence, sexism or homophobia." Firstly, there is no single "music community", and it's absurd to claim there is. Secondly, the neutered art that it describes does not fill my heart with joy. No violence? Farewell, most hip hop, not to mention Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. And how exactly do you decide when sexism reaches an unacceptable level? It reeks of muddle-headed censorship.

In the case of Jamaican music, the act targets the symptom, not the cause. Homophobic dancehall lyrics are not a frowned-upon fringe interest, like Nazi rock is in Britain or America. They reflect, albeit in a lurid, exaggerated form, the views of a society that the US-based Human Rights Watch describes as the most violently homophobic it has ever encountered. Steeped in conservative Christianity and hardline Rastafarianism, Jamaica has yet to decriminalise homosexuality. You might as well ask the Pope to endorse condoms as expect the average Jamaican man to embrace another man's right to be gay.

Blaming musicians for homophobia is like blaming gangsta rappers for gang violence. They don't help matters, but they didn't create the problem, nor do they have the power to solve it. Murder music, admittedly, is a particularly repellent genre, and if the campaign manages to stop mainstream acts from singing about shooting the "batty boy", then it may end up saving some lives. But removing homophobia from Jamaican culture is way beyond the remit of pop music. As victories go, the acquisition of Banton's signature must count as a small one. SOURCE  Jamaica Observer.com

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