Bye Bye Buju Banton… Anti-Gay Reggae Singer Arrested On Drug Charges

12/13/09-by Paula Brooks
Controversial Anti-Gay reggae singer Buju Banton is making headlines for wrong reasons once again after he was arrested Thursday in Miami on federal drug charges.

According to the DEA, Buju Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, has been charged with possession of more than five kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Florida DEA spokesman David Melenkevitz said Friday, “Mr. Myrie was arrested on a case based in Tampa. He is charged with intent to distribute cocaine, five kilos or more,” Right now he’s in custody in South Florida and he’ll be transferred to Tampa.”

If convicted, Banton could face as many as 20 years in prison.

Buju Banton has drawn the anger of the LGBT Community for years, in large part because of the violently homophobic lyrics of his 1992 single “Boom Bye Bye,” in which celebrated the murder and torture of gay people by pouring acid on them and shooting them in the head.

Banton also was charged in connection with a 2004 incident in which he, and a group of about a dozen other men, allegedly beat six men believed to be gay, after forcing entry into a house in Kingston, near Banton’s recording studio. One of the victims lost use of an eye in the attack. Charges against Banton were eventually dismissed in that case in January 2006, “for lack of evidence.”

Banton has continued to sing “ Boom Bye Bye” on his current US concert tour. In October 2009, Banton was quoted as saying, “This is a fight, and as I said in one of my songs ‘there is no end to the war between me and faggot’ and it’s clear.”

Due to an outcry by LGBT activist, promoters across the United States ended up canceling the bulk of shows scheduled on Banton’s US tour, and after an announcement that Baton’s latest album Rasta Got Soul, released earlier this year, was up for a Grammy award, Gay Men of African Descent and the National Black Justice Coalition joined with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in a petition drive protesting that nomination.