Bombaat! Buju Bids Bye Bye?

Good God! Gargamel gone!

From whichever angle you turn this story; front, side or rear, it stinks. Buju Banton arrested in the United States (US) on a drug charge. This time it is not the simple act of finding a ‘cess’ plant growing on his premises. This charge is so serious he can be sent deep into the cesspool. It is an extremely serious offence, “conspiracy to possess with the intention to distribute more than five kilos of cocaine.”

Serious Charge

Such a charge carries a 20-plus year sentence and nightmarish horrors of being incarcerated and not daring to sing his popular 1992 song which begins, “Big it up.” Think, wah di DJ charge fa? He may very well be denied bail ostensibly because the case is a major offence but also because being a Jamaican resident he could be seen as literally a ‘flight’ risk. After all, we have pretty much demonstrated that it is not easy to extricate popular figures simply because the US has charges against them. You simply can't 'pre' residents.

I Con

Buju is a musical and Rastafarian icon, who, if the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has its way, the icon will become I an I con. The immediate reaction is one of shock and consternation. With the benefit of only one hand on the truth, the jerk reaction is that he was set up by the gay lobby in the US for his maligned homophobic song, that he had sung so long ago that much of the Boom had gone out of it and he has pretty much said bye bye to it.

Gay-FLAG

Our own Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays (Gay FLAG), looking askance at the reports, takes exception to the association in the Jamaican press between Buju’s present travail and the flak he had been getting since he has unsuccessfully struggled to put his one anti-gay song behind him. According its spokesman Jason McFarlane, there is no evidence nor any likelihood of conspiracy.

Facts of the Case

Not wishing to pre-judge, let us look at the facts. Buju was allegedly caught on electronic surveillance over a three day period. The DEA has recordings of telephone conversations in which he negotiated the purchase of amounts of cocaine for distribution. Details of the matter are contained in an affidavit from the agent, “pounds dem a buy when a tons man a ship.” Actually, that was from his hit Driver, which he now probably regrets that he recorded.

Nonetheless, he went in the company of at least two other men to link up with someone who unknown to them, was an informer or plant by the Feds. Not a simple onlooker, it was concluded that Buju was a ‘buystander,’ even taste-testing the stuff to determine its quality. If that is true, how would an upful, ital Rastaman know how coke differs from any fake stuff, if he has never himself touched it? Or was it a quality test? After everything, there was a tape, which is at least as damning as the fabled King Size tape supposedly being hidden by the Jamaican police. Whether or not he has carried out the crime he is guilty of one charge; Stupidity! Even if he wanted to buy drugs why did he go himself? Understandably, a Rastaman will go for a chalice but Buju went for cup.

Whatever might be the belief of his fans, detractors and others, the fact is that on the face of it, the Feds have a case that is as tight and impermeable as the latex that more than 32 percent of Jamaican gay men don’t use.

I don’t know what happened but Buju was in places that he should not have been and it does make the sceptics and open minded scientists ask, Is it simply imagination that gave him so much detail of a shipment of contraband across the US, in his song?

Art Imitating Life

Entertainers often sing about illegal and immoral activities and we sometimes conclude that there is a direct relationship between what they sing and what they do or might have done. Others argue that the lyrics bear very little relationship to reality. Leave the Gully-Gaza issue for a while and look at a song by the late Notorious BIG, Niggas Bleed. The details in that song are uncanny, giving the listener and inside view of a drug heist. “Today's agenda, got the suitcase up in the Sentra, Go to room 112, tell em Blanco sent ya… Feel the strangest, if no money exchanges… Just bring back the coke or the cream. ” here's the deal I got a hundred bricks, fourteen-five apiece … Enough to cop a six; buy the house on the beach… Supply the peeps with Jeeps, brick apiece, capiche?”
Check Biggie’s songs such as Who Shot Ya? and Kick in the Door Waving the 4-4. Biggie is still my favourite but I have to wonder if the violence that he sang about followed him and came home to haunt him? So, the question is, Did life imitate art or was his art simply a reflection of his life? I have addressed this in several articles for the Gleaner. Check the link http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080330/cleisure/cleisure4.html

Entrapment?

Still, despite the case appearing so water-tight that fish could swim in it, there is the possibility that Buju was induced into committing a crime that he was not otherwise contemplating committing. In American law that is called ‘entrapment.’ It has not always been a perfect defence, because many a man is rotting is prison because of a DEA agent actually supplying him with ingredients to manufacture drugs and then charge him for it. Two such cases are the 1970s’ United States v. Russell and Hampton and Co v. The United States. The important element there, however, is that the court held that the defendants were already predisposed and inclined to carry out the illegal act.

Set up and Repercussions

Yet, the 1958 case of Sherman v.United States determined that the defendant would likely not have purchased the drugs if an informant who was working for the police not approached and told him to. More recently, the 1992 Nebraska case of Jacobson v. United States established that a man, who was finally lured and hooked by the persistent effort of postal inspectors to purchase child pornography, had no evidence of premeditation. Thus, not guilty.

One question I want answered is, who is this unknown informant who was working behind the scene against Buju? Was he known to him in another capacity but was in the closet or on the down low? What is his sexuality? If he is gay then that is a different kettle of …

I won’t try to master this one but I wait with bated breath. However, if Buju was really set up by a gay or gay sympathiser, what do you think will happen to known or suspected gays in Jamaica?

Remember! Life does imitate art.


By the way, would you believe that some ignorant Americans think that Batty Rider is a homphobic song? http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/entertainment/recordings/20091214_ap_authoritiesbujubantonnegotiatedcocainedeal.html

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