Buju Banton Concerts Canceled Due To Gay-Bashing Lyrics

LOS ANGELES - Under pressure from the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, concert promoter monoliths LiveNation and AEG Live have each canceled upcoming concerts by Jamaican dancehall artist Buju Banton, including the AEG promoted October 14 date at Club Nokia. The artist, who has been decried for his homophobic lyrics, has long drawn the ire of gay rights activists for his invectives, and for the past decade the singer has attempted, to no avail, to make peace with his foes by repudiating his lyrics.
The LA Times scooped us on this this morning, but didn't offer a video clip of the Banton song that started the whole thing: the shockingly explicit "Boom Bye Bye" from 1992. Writes Pop & Hiss's August Brown of the song:
Banton, the popular Jamaican dance-hall singer, has drawn the ire of gay activist groups for years, in large part because of the violently homophobic lyrics of his 1992 single "Boom Bye Bye," which proposes pouring acid on homosexuals and shooting them in the head.
In a press release this morning, LA Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean had this to say: "I hope this victory sends a deafeningly loud message to other promoters and concert venues that singers who glorify violence against LGBT people, or any group of people, should never be welcomed. It shouldn't be necessary for us to pressure promoters to do the right thing; people like Banton should never have been booked in the first place."
from LA Weekly

Hollywood Reggae Show Canceled Over Anti-Gay Lyrics

A Hollywood club has canceled a performance by Buju Banton, a reggae star whose violent lyrics about gays and lesbians have made him a flashpoint figure.
Adam Manacker, general manager of the Highland nightclub and restaurant, said Thursday that e-mail complaints and concerned callers in recent days had prompted him to research Banton's past and call off the Oct. 2 show. Refunds are available through the vendor where the tickets were purchased.
"We felt it was the right thing to do after doing some research on the matter," Manacker said.
The husky-voiced Banton has been a major star in his native Jamaica since the early 1990s with brash dancehall music and, in the last decade, a more traditional reggae sound. His career aspirations in the United States, though, have been stunted and largely defined by the frequent protests against his attitude toward gays.
Banton was tried and acquitted on charges that he participated in the beating of six gay men by a Kingston, Jamaica, gang in the summer of 2004.
from The Los Angeles Times