BUJU BANTON UP FOR GRAMMY AWARD

International, Music by Simon McD on December 7, 2009 at 12:09 pm

Jamaican gay-hate singer, famed for lyrics that promote torturing and killing gay men, has received a Grammy nomination.

Jim Key, Chief Public Affairs Officer of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center (LAGLC), said: “We’re shocked that Buju Banton, a singer with a long record of performing a song that glorifies the murder of gay people, would be honored with a Grammy nomination, regardless of the artistic merit of any of his work. Throughout his career, Banton has performed music that promotes a culture of violence against lesbian and gay people; he sings in “Boom, Bye Bye” that “faggots get up and run” when he comes, that “they have to die,” and that he will shoot them in the head or “burn them up bad.” He is completely unrepentant, refuses to stop performing the song, and recently said, “There is no end to the war between me and faggots.”

He adds: “Banton’s music has helped foster such an anti-gay culture in his home country of Jamaica—where several prominent gay activists and many other LGBT people have been murdered—that Time magazine recently asked, ‘Is Jamaica the most homophobic place on Earth?’ Banton himself was charged with a violent anti-gay hate crime.

It’s an affront to LGBT people, and to all fair-minded people around the world, that Buju Banton was even nominated. We certainly hope the members of the Recording Academy will not bestow the prestigious honor of a Grammy on someone whose music promotes murder.”

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