ON THE BUJU VERDICT - Sizzla, Ifrica comment on the deejay’s incarceration

BY STEVEN JACKSON Observer staff reporter

Sunday, February 27, 2011

DEEJAYS Sizzla and Queen Ifrica have expressed divergent views on the guilty verdict of reggae star Buju Banton. Sizzla has called for Banton's release from 'Babylon' whilst Ifrica has warned wayward artistes to take heed.

"Free Buju Banton, burn up di wicked and trod a Mount Zion/ Red yuh nah ready and mi tuff like iron," sang Sizzla in an adaptation of Trod Mount Zion at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) Black History concert series on Thursday morning in Kingston.

Deejays eager for crowd response now toast Banton similar to the Free Jah Cure slogan in the mid-2000s.

"Buju Banton, they just can't stop you now, even though they set their traps they just can't stop you now," was another Sizzla adaptation.

Sizzla referenced Banton five times during his 45-minute set which included 24 songs: Holding Firm, Git it Right Here, Mash Dem Down, Trod Mount Zion, Simplicity, Why Should I, Praise Jah, Guide Over Us, Good Ways, Words of Divine, Woman I Need You, Thank You Mama, Can't Keep a Good Man Down, Dry Cry, All the Best There Is, Get to the Point, Karate, So Lovely, No Way, Pump Up, Give Me a Try, Be Strong, Black Woman and Child and Take Myself Away.

"If yuh love Buju Banton seh Gargamel," stated Sizzla whose empathy for Banton runs deep. In 2005, Sizzla was one of 33 persons arrested — but never charged — following a police find of six AK47 rifles, three sniper rifles, one M16 assault rifle, two shot guns, one Intratech 9 submachine gun, 23 AK47 rounds of ammunition, 31 rounds of 9mm rounds, four M16 rounds, two bullet-proof vests, 11 assorted magazines, and a silencer buried in a bag in a chicken coop at Judgment Yard — a Rastafari compound to which Sizzla is affiliated.

Queen Ifrica alluded to Banton in her commentary and the crowd howled at the inference.

"It's a lesson to us all, look before you leap," stated Queen Ifrica mid-song she later added: "When you see an artiste behaviour stray, tell them to stop it before it's too late, if you see them a do wrong, save them from the atrocities."

Banton was found guilty on three charges by a 12-member panel of jurors at the United States Sam M Gibbons Federal Court in Tampa. The artiste was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilogrammes of cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offence and using the wires to facilitate a drug-trafficking offence. However, he was found not guilty of attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine. The artiste hugged his lawyer David Markus when the verdict was read. Many of the artiste's supporters left the courtroom crying.

On February 13, one day before the start of his second trial, Banton, born Mark Myrie, won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for the project, Before the Dawn. A US industry accolade for the artiste plagued by cancellations of the tour to support his previous release, Rasta Got Soul. Buju Banton said the win signified that his music was being played and understood by those in the US.

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ON THE BUJU VERDICT - Sizzla, Ifrica comment on the deejay’s incarceration