FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BUJU BANTON GRACES COVER OF SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

- Investigative Feature Explores the Man, The Music & The Mayhem -

(Kingston, JA/New York/NY - 6, October 2006) International reggae icon and Gargamel Music CEO Buju Banton graces the cover of Friday's San Francisco Chronicle Datebook entertainment section. The investigative feature story is the first national newspaper article to delve deeply, questioning the newly revived controversy surrounding the 16-year-old missive "Boom Bye Bye."

Using the local dramas surrounding Banton's recent Bay Area show as the backdrop, writer, Eric K. Arnold, does an excellent job of finally bringing long overdue balance, perspective and context to what has mostly been a one-sided smear campaign against Buju Banton, dancehall music and Jamaican culture in general.

Below are some pull quotes:
"I know this is a song he did a really long time ago but its effects still live on... [It's not relevant] that the other music doesn't talk about shooting batty boys in the head."
--Jasmyne Cannick - Black Lesbian Anti-Buju Blogger

"Making a judgment about whether this concert would be safe based on violence or lack thereof after other reggae concerts is irrelevant... There are several LGBT venues near this concert venue and we must be sure that no possible fanatic followers might try to harm them..."
--Nancy Nadel - Oakland City Council

"More than a culture of violence, there's a culture of confrontation" in Jamaica. Along with rampant poverty, sexism and misogyny, she says one of Jamaica's biggest problems is that "there are a large number of people who have no education around homophobia or HIV."
Stacyann Chin - Jamaican-Born Poet and Out Lesbian

"Reggae music artists speak to what's happening around them. I am a person who sees the world as a place where people like me have been silenced every day. We have been blacklisted and called terrorists by the people who are in power. The spirit we have, with reggae music, there's no question, America don't want to see the next Bob Marley."
--Buju Banton