Buju Banton on Afrobeat and Reggaeton: “They don’t give f**king props back to Dancehall and Reggae… We desire more from them”
August 10, 2024, 7:48 PM (GMT-5)
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Veteran Jamaican musician Buju Banton believes that the Afrobeat community is not showing respect to Jamaica “the root”, furthermore, the artistes are not making freedom nor uplifting music. Buju Banton shared his views on Afrobeat and Reggaeton music during his Drink Champs Interview.
In the over two-hour-long interview published on Saturday, August 10, Buju touched on many topics other than Afrobeat, however, his remarks about Afrobeat are some of the most memorable from the sit-down chat.
Host N.O.R.E. actually thought Buju said in the past that Afrobeat musicians give “props to Dancehall”, Buju’s reaction was surprising, “they don’t give f**king props back to Dancehall and Reggae,” Buju said sternly.
In highlighting his point, the Jamaican detailed that he and several others have spread Reggae and Dancehall music in Africa in the past, recounting his visit to the continent in 1991 when he spent three weeks there.
Buju believes that music should be the “bridge” that connects Jamaicans and Africans but this is not the case, “what i was disappointed in is that they didn’t try to connect with Jamaica the roots, they connected with everyone else except us,” he outlines before labelling the Afrobeat genre as “f**kery” because it’s not “freeing Africa”.
According to the veteran deejay, Afrobeat is yet to make an “impact” and points to Reggae music as being superior to afrobeat. “Tell me one Afrobeats song that can uplift us?” Buju asked the host of the interview who replied saying “I don’t think i can”.
He next took aim at “culture vultures” like Reggaeton which took elements of its music from Dancehall/Reggae. “Everyone want to take from Reggae…” he stated.
Watch the section of the interview below:
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