All eight of the original murder music singers, apart from Bounty Killer, that Stop Murder Music sought to embargo have now signed the Reggae Compassion Act, which says that signatories will not “make statements or perform songs” that incite hatred or violence.Beenie Man, Capleton and Sizzla became the first to sign, in 2007. Banton signed shortly thereafter, using his given name of Mark Anthony Myrie — then later denied signing.
According to Stop Murder Music, more recent signatories, Elephant Man, T.O.K. and Vybz Kartel are the only signatories not to have violated the agreement. Since April of 2010, the visas of five artists known for murder music have been visas revoked, though the Department of Justice refuses to say exactly why.
Dancehall star Buju Banton was considered a musical prodigy in 1988 when, at age 15, he recorded what remains one of his best-known tracks, “Boom Bye Bye.” Even in the difficult-to-decipher Jamaican slang known as patois, its chorus evokes violence and dread: Boom bye bye / inna batty bwoy head / Rude bwoy no promote no nasty man / dem haffi dead. (“Boom [the sound of a gunshot], bye-bye, in a faggot’s head / the tough young guys don’t accept fags; they have to die.”)
...The top-rated of 86 YouTube videos of Banton performing “Boom Bye Bye” has been viewed an astounding 3,217,409 times since it was posted in 2007.
...According to the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), Jamaica’s only organization promoting LGBT rights, mobs assaulted at least 98 gay men and lesbians between February and July 2007 alone. Last year, J-FLAG recorded six cases of “corrective rape,” in which men forced themselves on women thought to be lesbians.The Stop Murder Music campaign is an international movement with activists on nearly every continent who urge sponsors to pull funding from offending artists, pressure venues not to book them, and organize boycotts and protests when they perform. Supporters of the musicians “say we’re attacking these artists because they’re homophobic,” said British human rights activist Peter Tatchell, international coordinator of Stop Murder Music. “That’s not true. We’re attacking them because they’re inciting the criminal offenses of violence and murder.”
One 'murder music' video by Buju Banton has been
downloaded more than three million times.
...Jamaica’s cultural homophobia has deep historical roots. The island’s fundamentalist brand of Christianity and its indigenous Rastafarian religion both condemn homosexuality in the strongest terms. Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Sizzla, Capleton and others in the murder-music pantheon espouse Rastafarian beliefs.
Anti-sodomy laws criminalizing sex between men remain on the books in Jamaica and other former British colonies in the Caribbean. As a result, gay men are essentially viewed as criminals, making it nearly impossible for them to bring complaints about violence to the police. Though consensual sex between two women is not illegal, murder music nevertheless includes lesbians in its wrath.
Dancehall group TOK’s track “Chi Chi Man,” about killing and burning gay men, was the Jamaican Labour Party’s 2001 theme song... The melody of the chorus, ironically, evokes the Christian hymn, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” The most viewed of 99“Chi Chi Man” YouTube videos had been seen 869,084 times as of mid-September.
In 2002, the People’s National Party took on the slogan “Log On to Progress” — a reference to the dancehall song “Log On” by Elephant Man (seen 473,400 times on its most popular YouTube video), which also features violent anti-gay lyrics: Log on, and step pon chi chi man / Log on from yu know seh yu nuh ickie man./ Log on and step pon chi chi man /Dance wi a dance and a bun out a freaky man. (“Log on, and stomp on a fag/ Log on, because you know you’re not a fag/Log on, and stomp on a fag/We dance and dance and burn up a fag.”)
In June 2004, J-FLAG co-founder Brian Williamson, one of the only openly gay public figures in Jamaica, was stabbed to death in his home. A Human Rights Watch worker who happened to be in the country reporting on HIV/AIDs was at the scene an hour later, watching in horror as a gleeful crowd gathered outside Williamson’s house. According to her report, the revelers laughed and called out “Let’s get them one at a time” and “That’s what you get for sin,” and also sang lines from “Boom Bye Bye.”
The Stop Murder Music campaign has had an effect on artists, especially in the United States and Europe, said Tatchell and J-Flag's Jason McFarlane. Major sponsors have withdrawn, and boycotts and rallies have increased fans’ awareness of the issue. Dozens of performances and tours have been canceled, hitting artists where it hurts most: in their wallets. Also, as of April 2010, five artists known for murder music had had their U.S. visas revoked — though the Department of Justice refuses to say exactly why...
Murder music is welcomed in some African countries regardless of Western opprobrium.
“The King of Dancehall stuck a sword of words into gay people,” enthused Uganda’s Daily Monitor after Beenie Man’s December 2009 performance in Kampala.
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