Post by Jah Mike on Oct 16, 2009 11:43:20 GMT 1
" Four members of San Francisco's gay community met this afternoon for 40-minutes with Jamaican singer Buju Banton in Larkspur, up in Marin County, to discuss his troubling history with gay people.
According to Buju and his advisers, this was his first meeting ever with gay advocates, and they really want to put an end to the controversy that continues to dog him over violent homo-hating song he sang in his late teens, "Boom Bye Bye."
At the meeting were gay leaders Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who arranged the meeting, Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the SF gay community center, Andrea Shorter of Equality California and myself. Also present was Supervisor Eric Mar, a progressive straight leader in the Asian community, and, of course, Buju and Tracii McGregor, president of his music company. About ten minutes into the meeting in the hotel lobby of where the singer is staying, some of his p.r. people joined the conversation.
The meeting was very civil and productive, even though at times I had to play the "bad cop" activist, especially when Buju was dominating the discussion, and we made several suggestions for him to consider, in order to start to undo some of the problems he has in the gay community because of his past anti-gay lyrics.
We proposed that he think about making statements in Jamaica calling for love toward gays, donating to the JFLAG group, hold a town hall meeting in Kingston about the need to respect gays, and sing about loving gay people. All the suggestions were rejected, frustrating us.
It was explained by us that American gays are not singling him out, as we advocate for gay tolerance in Jamaica, but that we have also applied pressure on the government and business leaders to affect change that benefits gays across the island nation.
While there certainly was little movement on his part, and we didn't agree to tell any other gays to stop protesting his concert tour or suggesting he do more to confront the terrible, and sometimes deadly, anti-gay violence in Jamaica, we felt it was a very positive step forward that the meeting took place.
Our hope is that we will continue to speak with him and his representatives to address the pervasive hatred gays face in Jamaica, and work together to reduce homo-hate. I believe Buju fully understands that today's meeting was a beneficial first step and that the gay community will want more concrete steps taken, before our actions against his concerts cease.
Many thanks to Bevan for arranging this important first meeting, and thanks to Buju for taking the time to listen to us, and to let us hear his views. Let's keep the communication going."
Vybz Kartel’s Latest Album Sells Only Eight Copies In First Week
Dancehall.Mobi special update - just last week, leading dancehall deejay Vybz Kartel released his “Pon Di Gaza” album independently via Adidjahiem Records/NotNice Records, but according to some reports - based on Nielsen SoundScan figures - a measly eight copies of the album were sold in its first week. 519 individual downloads of various singles off the album were recorded for the same first week period.
While the album release was done without the backing of a major label/distributor, and seemingly with minimal marketing support, if the numbers are indeed correct, they are particularly stunning given Vybz Kartel’s local and global popularity. How could it be that Jamaica’s most popular (at this time) deejay manages to sell only 8 copies of his album in its first week?
Quite a few factors seem to be at play here, with the key one likely being the simple fact that hardcore dancehall / reggae fans do not support Jamaican music by buying it; they really prefer to download it for free (a quick search at Twitter and Google shows numerous places to download “Pon Di Gaza” illegally at not cost). There was no visible attempt to market the album to a crossover audience (i.e. American / British / Japanese etc. listeners who will actually pay for music), and the hardcore base of dancehall / reggae fans apparently do not want to pay for music.
Dancehall/reggae is popular, but it has never really been a huge seller. Sean Paul’s “Imperial Blaze” album was released in August, and reportedly sold almost 30,000 units in its first week; but compare that to Jay-Z whose “Blueprint 3″ reportedly sold almost 500,000 in its first week just last month. In the past decade, Shaggy and Sean Paul have been Jamaica’s biggest international sellers, while others such as Stephen Marley, Elephant Man, Mavado and Serani have enjoyed some success in recent times. The key factor in all instances has however been the crossover marketing. If the product isn’t marketed for crossover appeal, it will have to rely on sales via reggae / dancehall fans, and unfortunately this continues to be disappointing.
JAH WARRIOR about dancehall scene
I can tell you that in London it seems to me it's the musical backdrop to a lot of very negative stuff - like gangs of kids going out attacking (& sadly often shooting & stabbing) each other. We've all heard about a lot of the f*ckries going on in JA with certain artists representing certain ghetto areas & bringing arguments into their music. As if there isn't enough black on black violence in London fuelled by the gang mentality which often gets glorified by both gangsta rap and elements of dancehall, the latest thing now is LA style crips & bloods gangs here, or blues & reds as they call themselves. I'm not going to blame dancehall for this cos there are all sorts of other factors at work but I don't really hear any calls for the violence to stop coming from the dancehall camp, all I hear is dubious mixed messages which can easily be interpreted as justification for badness by naieve ghetto youths.
According to Buju and his advisers, this was his first meeting ever with gay advocates, and they really want to put an end to the controversy that continues to dog him over violent homo-hating song he sang in his late teens, "Boom Bye Bye."
At the meeting were gay leaders Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who arranged the meeting, Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the SF gay community center, Andrea Shorter of Equality California and myself. Also present was Supervisor Eric Mar, a progressive straight leader in the Asian community, and, of course, Buju and Tracii McGregor, president of his music company. About ten minutes into the meeting in the hotel lobby of where the singer is staying, some of his p.r. people joined the conversation.
The meeting was very civil and productive, even though at times I had to play the "bad cop" activist, especially when Buju was dominating the discussion, and we made several suggestions for him to consider, in order to start to undo some of the problems he has in the gay community because of his past anti-gay lyrics.
We proposed that he think about making statements in Jamaica calling for love toward gays, donating to the JFLAG group, hold a town hall meeting in Kingston about the need to respect gays, and sing about loving gay people. All the suggestions were rejected, frustrating us.
It was explained by us that American gays are not singling him out, as we advocate for gay tolerance in Jamaica, but that we have also applied pressure on the government and business leaders to affect change that benefits gays across the island nation.
While there certainly was little movement on his part, and we didn't agree to tell any other gays to stop protesting his concert tour or suggesting he do more to confront the terrible, and sometimes deadly, anti-gay violence in Jamaica, we felt it was a very positive step forward that the meeting took place.
Our hope is that we will continue to speak with him and his representatives to address the pervasive hatred gays face in Jamaica, and work together to reduce homo-hate. I believe Buju fully understands that today's meeting was a beneficial first step and that the gay community will want more concrete steps taken, before our actions against his concerts cease.
Many thanks to Bevan for arranging this important first meeting, and thanks to Buju for taking the time to listen to us, and to let us hear his views. Let's keep the communication going."
Vybz Kartel’s Latest Album Sells Only Eight Copies In First Week
Dancehall.Mobi special update - just last week, leading dancehall deejay Vybz Kartel released his “Pon Di Gaza” album independently via Adidjahiem Records/NotNice Records, but according to some reports - based on Nielsen SoundScan figures - a measly eight copies of the album were sold in its first week. 519 individual downloads of various singles off the album were recorded for the same first week period.
While the album release was done without the backing of a major label/distributor, and seemingly with minimal marketing support, if the numbers are indeed correct, they are particularly stunning given Vybz Kartel’s local and global popularity. How could it be that Jamaica’s most popular (at this time) deejay manages to sell only 8 copies of his album in its first week?
Quite a few factors seem to be at play here, with the key one likely being the simple fact that hardcore dancehall / reggae fans do not support Jamaican music by buying it; they really prefer to download it for free (a quick search at Twitter and Google shows numerous places to download “Pon Di Gaza” illegally at not cost). There was no visible attempt to market the album to a crossover audience (i.e. American / British / Japanese etc. listeners who will actually pay for music), and the hardcore base of dancehall / reggae fans apparently do not want to pay for music.
Dancehall/reggae is popular, but it has never really been a huge seller. Sean Paul’s “Imperial Blaze” album was released in August, and reportedly sold almost 30,000 units in its first week; but compare that to Jay-Z whose “Blueprint 3″ reportedly sold almost 500,000 in its first week just last month. In the past decade, Shaggy and Sean Paul have been Jamaica’s biggest international sellers, while others such as Stephen Marley, Elephant Man, Mavado and Serani have enjoyed some success in recent times. The key factor in all instances has however been the crossover marketing. If the product isn’t marketed for crossover appeal, it will have to rely on sales via reggae / dancehall fans, and unfortunately this continues to be disappointing.
JAH WARRIOR about dancehall scene
I can tell you that in London it seems to me it's the musical backdrop to a lot of very negative stuff - like gangs of kids going out attacking (& sadly often shooting & stabbing) each other. We've all heard about a lot of the f*ckries going on in JA with certain artists representing certain ghetto areas & bringing arguments into their music. As if there isn't enough black on black violence in London fuelled by the gang mentality which often gets glorified by both gangsta rap and elements of dancehall, the latest thing now is LA style crips & bloods gangs here, or blues & reds as they call themselves. I'm not going to blame dancehall for this cos there are all sorts of other factors at work but I don't really hear any calls for the violence to stop coming from the dancehall camp, all I hear is dubious mixed messages which can easily be interpreted as justification for badness by naieve ghetto youths.