Buju Banton – Welcome Home
For any Jamaican of a certain vintage, the name Mark Myrie will always hold a special meaning. The man who later took the world by storm through the combination of tone of voice and biting lyrics, was just a wiry teenager when he started making his name within the burgeoning dancehall space/sound. It has been said that Mark begun making his name by his sobriquet, ‘Buju Banton’, as early as 1987 however it was in the early nineties when he truly became known as an act to take notice of. Releases such as ‘Informer Fi Dead’, ‘Stamina Daddy’, ‘Gal Fi Beg’, ‘Browning’, ‘Love Black Woman’, ‘Quick’, ‘Gold Spoon’, ‘Operation Ardent’, ‘Deportee’ set Jamaica, and by extension the North American Diaspora, ablaze.
Meanwhile on the UK side, a young Banton released ‘The Banton Affair: Buju Banton and Friends’. The 10 track dancehall LP was recorded, voiced and mixed at the Striker Lee Studios in Kingston. ‘The Banton Affair: Buju Banton and Friends’ introduced those across the pond to the sound of Buju and helped to solidify his fanbase in Europe and more far-flung areas across the globe.
It is quite mind-blowing to know that it was just two short years after in 1995 that a change in musical direction manifested itself on the introspective masterpiece that is ‘Til Shiloh’. This release would turn out to be an album that was not only a turning point on Buju’s musical journey, but also on his spiritual journey as he embraced the tenets of Rastafari into his life. However, anthems such as ‘Champion’ and the nursery rhyme-esque ‘It’s All Over’ served as not so subtle reminders of where the roots of this artiste are firmly planted. In the Dancehall!
This move, although most observers were unaware of it at the time, set the course to help setup Buju Banton as the only act who can claim legendary status within the two of Jamaica’s most prominent indigenous genres Dancehall & Reggae. Buju’s next few years had a few notable album releases: ‘Inna Heights’, ‘Unchained Spirit’ and ‘Friends for Life’. All which continued, mostly, to reflect his dedication to his spirituality. ‘Mr Nine’, ‘Destiny’, ‘Hills and Valleys’, ‘Love Sponge’, ‘Pull It Up’feat Beres Hammond were the tracks that helped to maintain Buju’s place in the playlist of any serious reggae/dancehall disc jockey between the years of 1997 – 2005.
It was during this time, however, while dancehall begun to truly explode in North America; Buju began to receive backlash for a song written and recorded while in nascent stages of his career. ‘Boom Bye Bye’ was first officially released in 1992 but was a dancehall staple at least a couple years before that. While it was not the only song within the dancehall space that criticized the homosexual lifestyle, it was by far the most graphic with plenty of exaggerated rhetorical violent imagery which to be fair is a normal part of the often controversial sub-genre. Buju Banton, among other dancehall practitioners, begun to see their normal bookings overseas decrease with even the shows that went on being subject to boycotts or at the threat to stage boycotts.
Noel –Andrew Bennett and myself had started Backayard Magazine at least two years before we had the opportunity to have our first sit down with Buju Banton. Facilitated by his then manager, Tracii Mcgregor, we both experienced the birth of Buju’s personal imprint Gargamel Music, pretty much as it happened at 10 Carlise Avenue; location of Buju’s studio and complex. Buju explained in Backayard Issue 6; the ‘Set Trend and Pattern Mellow’ Edition where he was profiled as the cover act: “We have a next album supposed to come out, distributed by Tommy Boy, we not sure if we if we are going to let go this year or early next because I’m still working on this one. I like to work the records; I don’t want to just put them out there and run away and hide. We are trying to make a difference.”
The album Buju was referring to became 2006’s ‘Too Bad’ with the help of the worldwide phenomenon of the ‘Driver A’, (pronounced Driver-AH), single; ‘Too Bad’ became one of Buju’s most notable releases in his illustrious career as represented his complete return to a dancehall style which many critics felt he was past being relevant in.
Unfortunately, that moment of glory sadly was short lived as despite the consternation of many within and outside the Jamaican industry; Buju Banton and his team decided to conduct a tour in the U.S to support the release of his ‘Rasta Got Soul’ album in 2009. Earlier in the year, Buju’s ‘Rasta Got Soul’ European tour was mildly successful. This was in spite of threats to boycott several tour stops by gay organizations based in Europe. The situation only worsened when a media smear campaign was launched by various North American gay rights groups against Buju to shut down the tour before its start date of September the 12th. However, Buju Banton and his camp remained undeterred and after a ten day pilgrimage to Africa, Buju Banton and his Shiloh band began the ill-fated US leg of his Rasta Got Soul tour in Philadelphia. Buju would not get a chance to return to Jamaica as on December 10th 2009 he was arrested in South Florida and charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Just a week prior to this, Buju’s ‘Rasta Got Soul’ album was nominated for a Grammy, his fourth at the time.
There were many issues with Buju Banton’s imprisonment and subsequent trials. The same judge who presided over Buju Banton’s two trials and sentenced him to 10 years in prison found that one of the jurors, Terry Wright, committed egregious misconduct and found her guilty of criminal contempt of court for conducting research during jury deliberations in direct contravention of the court’s orders. Despite this extraordinary decision, which would cause any reasonable person to doubt the integrity of the verdict, Buju received no relief. This was a tragedy because the juror’s misconduct sent a man to jail.
With all the talk of the misconduct, many have forgotten that this case was about how a con-artist named Alex Johnson set up Buju Banton. Johnson, a career criminal who was paid over US$3.3 million by the government, relentlessly pursued Buju who had no prior convictions. He vowed never to stop trying to turn Buju into a drug dealer even though his target repeatedly said no.
Using every trick and pressure point he had learnt to use over his lengthy career of crime, Johnson became frustrated that he couldn’t get Buju Banton to do anything other than talk. So he tricked Buju into a warehouse of cocaine, telling him that they were going to have some fun on a boat and to discuss how Johnson could help Buju with his music career.
Even though Buju realised at that point that Johnson was not for real and broke off contact with him, Buju was arrested two days later after Johnson did a deal, unbeknownst to Buju, with Buju’s friend, Ian Thomas, while Buju was home in bed across the state.
Buju never invested one penny into the drug deal and was never supposed to make one penny out of it. Alex Johnson, on the other hand, made thousands of dollars from the United States government for getting this deal done.
After hearing these facts, the first jury in Tampa (one of the most conservative jurisdictions in Florida) voted 7-5 for acquittal. In a drug case in Tampa, this is just about unheard of as prosecutors convict over 97 per cent of drug defendants.
Ultimately, the judge declared a mistrial because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. Even though it was pretty clear that Buju was no drug dealer, the Federal government was undeterred. It proceeded with a second trial against a person with no prior record, a person with no history of involvement with the drug trade, and a person who was not even present when the informant drug dealer sold cocaine to another individual.
It is at this second trial that the juror committed misconduct by conducting Internet research about Buju himself, the jury instructions, and the law. The prosecution argued that the research was harmless, but interviews of the jury after the verdict revealed that the initial vote was 10-2 in favour of acquittal.
One of the two jurors favouring conviction was Terri Wright. After the tainted jury convicted Buju, the judge was required under the law to sentence him to a minimum mandatory 10 years in federal prison. Ten years! This is more than the big-time supplier of the cocaine received, more than the co-defendant who had a gun received, and more than the purchaser of the cocaine received.
Buju Banton received the highest penalty in the case, by a lot, because he went to trial and fought for his innocence.
Terri Wright, who calls herself a “passionate” juror and wished she could make jury service her profession, didn’t just commit misconduct in the jury room. She did so before and afterwards. During voir dire, the part of the trial where jurors “speak the truth” about their background, she told the court that she had only served previously “on a civil case”, when, in reality, she had served on seven prior criminal and civil cases.
When all of her misconduct was discovered, she lied under oath about her actions and even produced a fraudulent computer hard drive to the court to be inspected. It gets worse – even after all of this came to light, Terri Wright sat on another jury and did not disclose that she was the subject of a criminal contempt proceeding for her misconduct as a juror.
US District Judge James S. Moody, rightfully outraged that a juror would disregard his instructions, found Wright guilty of criminal contempt and even ordered her to write a report about the cost of Buju’s expensive six-day trial.
Buju Banton was released from the McRae Correctional Institution on the 7th December 2018. Almost exactly 9 years to the day he was first arrested. While inside, Buju has won a Grammy, for ‘Before The Dawn’ in 2010, received a Masters Degree in Music Business Management from the University of New York and managed to maintain the love and adulation from fans from around the world. Now a mere days before the ‘Voice of Jamaica’ makes his return to the stage at Jamaica’s National Stadium for the beginning of his Long Walk To Freedom tour on March 16th, the world waits with ‘bated breath to hear what he has to say to his audience about hopefully their long time together from now on.
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