Live Nation Sponsors Artist Who Sings About Killing Gay People

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-24 16:54:00 UTC
Topics:

Buju Banton

Generally speaking, if you hear someone sing about taking an uzi, holding it up to a gay person's head, and then blowing the trigger, you wouldn't anticipate that they would get a national concert tour sponsored by one of the leading music industry promoters in the world.  That's not the case with Buju Banton, a Jamaican artist who has repeatedly called for the execution of gays in his songs, who is being promoted by Live Nation for a series of concerts at the House of Blues this October.  Live Nation lists four concerts for Banton, in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, and Houston.  And they're all at House of Blues.

If you'd like to let Live Nation and the House of Blues know that this type of music doesn't need a nationwide audience, feel free to let them know right here.

Banton's songs are laced with the type of violence toward LGBT people that one would expect from a terrorist, not an international music star.  A sample:

Anytime Buju Banton comes

Faggots get up and run.

Boom (gun shot) bye bye (Goodbye, as in you're dead)

In a faggot's head

Rude boy don't promote any nasty (queer) man

They have to die...

Send for the automatic (gun) and

The Uzi (gun) instead

Shoot them, don't come (to help them) if we shoot them...

If a guy comes near me

Then his skin must peel

Burn him up bad like an old tire wheel

I'm curious what part of that song Live Nation most wants to promote?  The part where he advocates shooting a gay person in the face?  The part where he advocates pouring acid on a gay person's skin?  Or the part where he wants to burn gay people like old tires?

Efforts to protest Buju Banton have been around for quite some time, and even led the singer to sign in 2007 a "Reggae Compassionate Act," which sought to root out homophobic lyrics in reggae music.  Pink News, however, reports that Banton withdrew his support for the Reggae Compassionate Act and never signed it.

Whether he did or didn't, Banton has continued to use pretty vile language to define the LGBT community.  He's called LGBT protestors of his music "stupid" and "ignorant," told them to "fuck" off, and continues to sing homophobic songs (like the one above).  YouTube video of him singing the song above in Miami came out AFTER he made a pledge to stop singing the song.  Banton also sang the song at a Guyana music festival, causing the ire of local LGBT activists.

If Buju Banton is going to renounce homophobia in his lyrics, he should make that commitment extremely public.  Until then, by Live Nation choosing to sponsor his tour, it sends the message that singing about murdering gay people is not only appropriate, it's lucrative.

Let Live Nation and the House of Blues know what you think. He's got four dates scheduled on Live Nation's site.  Gayliberation.net has even more dates listed for Banton.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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