By: Staff Writer
August 13, 2024
Jamaican recording artist, Buju Banton, spoke out on the popular Drink Champs podcast with Nore where he hit out at Afro-Beats for not acknowledging Reggae as an inspiration for their genre.
Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, was responding to host Nore asking him about Afro-Beats giving props to Reggae where he corrected him and said: “I said they don’t give F***ing props back to Dancehall or Reggae.”
Myrie in a scathing attack on Afro-Beats and its lack of depth, both spiritually and intellectually, has made shockwaves around the music industry for how candid and direct his criticism of the genre is compared to Dancehall and Reggae.
Myrie also said: “The greatest musician out of Africa was Fela Kuti, Lucky Dube from South Africa. We had Salif Keita, we had Youssou N’Dour and we had Baba Maal. No one wanted to go beyond the pale of what those brothers was doing.
“I went to Africa in 1991 and I spent like three weeks constantly at the university of the Boabab trees, educating people from Ghana all over the continent about reggae music and dancehall, but I was happy when they came to their senses to realize that music is the bridge that’s going to connect us.”
Myrie continued: “But what I was disappointed in they didn’t try to connect with Jamaica, the roots, they connect with everyone else except us.
“So they connected with everyone else except us. But when you look at what they’re doing their music is not free in Africa. It’s f***ry!
“They need to free Africa. In Jamaica and my country and my people fight for free your continent with word, sound and power and you have the ability now and all of your singing is f***ry?
“You don’t sing a song to free Africa all now? We don’t need them bringing this to the forefront of your mind, but we desire more from them. You want money? Go get it. But what’s going to be said about you later on and your posterity? You didn’t make any impact!
“So reggae music still stands per-dominant it is still the king’s music.”
Myrie went on to state that there is no music from the African continent that is uplifting the people despite most of the countries being in need of help and in need of “peace of mind.”
Afro-Beats has been compared to Dancehall music in the past with some observers saying that both genre’s should be joined together.