Buju Banton Backstage
at House of Bluse in Chicago
March 29th, 2003 

Our eight minutes with Buju Banton came after a very full day for the Voice of Jamaica.  He had already two in-store appearances, two other interviews and an hour and a half show where he always gives 110%.  We would like to thank Ms. Stevens, Mr. Smith, Ms. Lynn and Field Marshal for working with the ChicagoReggae.com and MidWestReggae.com crew to make this happen.
 

As we walk backstage and into the aft dressing room Buju has had a chance to change, peel an orange and was in the process of rolling a spliff.  He was asking about a woman that was suppose to be driving up from St. Louis to see his show in Chicago.   At that point Issa spoke up and identified herself.  Buju was saying how sorry he was that he didn’t make St. Louis this tour, but the venues that he’s been booked into in the past were “the size of bathrooms.”  Issa fully agrees with him and she will do her best with the current promoters in St. Louis to rectify this situation.  We want Buju in St. Louis!

 Issa:  In 1995 you released Til Shilo and that was one of your first albums where you moved into more of a Roots from the Dancehall.  What inspired you to move to one style to another style or to incorporate…

 Buju:  That’s just natural, you see, to move from one style to another style, what inspired that… as an artist who is involved in art to evolve in a forward process is always inevitable.  That is the way you should always be looking.  I don’t want to be doing dancehall for 13, 14, 15 years, I want to grow.  Now many people ask a question that, I myself, personally, I think it’s a dumb question, because I entered this music as a young man.  I don’t want to be doing the same thing for many, many years.  That’s boring.   I want to venture into the art of music.   I want to force myself to learn to play an instrument.  You know what I mean?  That’s something most dancehall artists don’t normally do…..and thus make my creativity come on to me.

 Issa:  So the creativity that you were feeling inside yourself…….

 Buju:  The creativity I was feeling was expressed on the record and I do think I managed to capture some of that vibe as much as possible and it was also embedded in the Til Shilo album of that evolution in my life.

Issa:  ’97 was the first time I ever saw you live and I was debating whether or not I wanted to see you live because, until Montana came along I wasn’t a big Dancehall fan and I saw you with Jahmali, in Minneapolis.  I was just so inspired by you and the way that you present yourself on stage.  You have this, like, magnetism to you.

 Buju:  My kids say I’m a crazy man.

 Issa:  My daughter says the same thing.

 Buju:  I agree with them.  I don’t know any other occupation and I don’t know any other  joy.  People are fake, most of them, you know.  I have lived through many of those lies.  I’ve read people’s mind and from the first pitch I can determine where they are heading in their thoughts.  One thing that remains pure to me is music.  I can’t fool it and neither can it trick me.  So we just get crazy together and enjoy each other.

 Montana:  Let me ask you something, if I can jump in there on that note.   You say a lot of people are fake.  Now, artists like Capleton or AnthonyB started out on a more conscience level…….

 Buju:  I do not wish to call any name and get it personal.    

 Montana:  Okay, let’s talk about you.

 Buju:   By talking about a AnthonyB or a Capleton because in eventuality I cannot really answer for them.  So whatever I am gonna say would be a critique of their work.  I am not here to criticize anyone’s work, because each man have to bear his own burden, hence carry his own cross for the works he has injected into this society.  I have paid my price.

 Issa:  You know, going on that, you’ve paid your price.  I read the interview you did that was published in The Observer, and I know you don’t want to talk about this, I just making a comment.  When the interviewer was asking you about Boom Bye Bye and she asked if you had changed your opinion.  For me, personally, I – you know how you see people get older and wiser and your reply was “If I’d change my opinion would it change the song.” 

 Buju:  I do not wish to visit a time in 1992 when now I am living in a more modern time, in a more sophisticated time when music and everything else has grown.  If one is still hooked up on Boom Bye Bye, then where is a nation of love and democracy, show me where is the love and show where is the democracy.  You mean that the democracy only exists for people with American passport and American Citizenship.  NO.  The world a free place to see and express exactly how you feel.   Like I am saying this is a time I am expressing  how I feel now.

 Issa:  Do you feel that in this time you are taking more heat for that type of song that is 11 years old.

 Buju:  Let’s put it this way.  Eminem win a Grammy for killing gays and for bashing gays.  Reggae music hasn’t gone a step further in terms of notoriety.

 Montana:  Do you still consider yourself a Dancehall artist and where you see state of dancehall going in the future.

 Buju:  What do you consider?  InI, first an foremost, I consider myself a reggae artist.  Before the Dancehall there was the Reggae.  I, first and foremost, consider myself a Reggae, Dancehall artist.  I am from the dancehall, I never leave the dancehall.  Every year comes up I have to have a hit in the dancehall.   Dancehall is going many places.  Now is Wayne Wonder and Sean Paul, everyone being signed by major conglomerates.  The possibility exists for Dancehall to go places.

 Montana:  Are you doing anything to bring up any younger artists?  Do you have anybody on tour with you?

 Buju:  Not this time.  I normally have people on tour, but not this particular time.  The time has so much change and people can be so ungrateful.  Even the serpent will bite the horse’s heel and cause the rider to fall backwards.  So you gotta be careful. 

 Issa:  What I like about a lot of your dancehall music, in that category – instead of the roots and conscience, is that your bring the conciseness into the dancehall.

 Buju:  My music, whether it’s dancehall or otherwise, must be clean.   That’s my philosophy.  I do not want to make a song that I cannot stand up beside and represent.  Every song I sing give thanks and praise to The Most High G-d, I can stand up and say ‘Yes, I sing this song.’

 Issa:  Do you use ……Like me personally I say myself, if I was embarrassed to do this in front of my children, I wouldn’t do it…..So if it’s something I don’t want my children to hear I don’t do it.

 Buju:  Very good, because it’s my philosophy also.  

 Montana:  We want to hear some more ‘girl’ tunes, we want Champion, we want more tunes like that.  Are you planning on coming out with more?

 Buju:  Well, this album Friends for Life, if you listen to it you’ll be satisfied.  I’m sure you haven’t listened to it or you would have asked me a question like that (teasingly).

 Montana:  I can’t lie. (Buju chuckles).

 Issa:  Now when Unchained Spirit was released I read some articles on RMR that you were disappointed in the sales of Unchained Spirit.  Honestly that one of my favorite songs [meant releases] and Mighty Dread and Better Must Come are some of my favorite songs off that CD.

 Buju:  Well, I wasn’t disappointed in Unchained Spirit.  I was disappointed in the way the promotion was handled.  

 Montana:  Do you feel you’re promoted in the States more then Jamaica?

 Buju:  The other way around.

 Issa:  I was in Kingston in January and went not to far past your house,   actually we drove by your house.  I have a friend that lives near there.  What I find really interesting is that you decided to stay in that area [still a nice area of Kingston] where a lot of people choose to go more Beverly Hills and go into these areas that is not their foundation.  Do you like being that area in Kingston to keep – I always find your roots are always strongest in your home ground. 

 At this point Buju leans back to one of his mangers, the second time during the interview, and in patois explains that he thinks this interview has run too long.  We asked for 10 minutes and we were about 6 minutes into the interview.  He then turns to us and graciously says that he wants to make this “short and spicy so other people waiting get a chance.  You understand darling?”  Montana was more accommodating then I as she jumps up ready to go and I pushed for one more question.

 Issa:  Is there anything you want to say to ChicagoReggae fans that are going to be reading this, before we leave.

 Buju:  Tell them to make sure to go out and get this album because Buju Banton is truly your friend for life.

 We did steal two more minutes of Buju’s time doing the ‘fan’ thing.  He took pictures with Montana and he signed the Til Shilo cover for my 15-year-old daughter.  She’s a big fan of his and that is her favorite CD (the only we agree on).

 We know you were crunched for time,and thanks for letting ChicagoReggae.com and MidWestReggae.com be one of the outlets that you shared your thoughts.

 One Love

 





     pics by issa kelly and montana.  click to enlarge.