Idolator

Buju Banton is the latest Jamaican dancehall star to put his name on a petition that says he'll curb his notorious (public) homophobia. The petition is part of a push by a number of international gay rights groups, coming together as "Stop Murder Music," to target dancehall's gay-bashing lyrics through protests that have cost the artists big time bucks. As a dancehall fan who's always been uncomfortable/embarrassed/ashamed over the prevalence of the genre's requests to burn "batty boy" and stomp on "chi-chi man"—how many U.S. hip-hop stations played the hell out of TOK's infamously catchy piece of hate speech "Chi-Chi Man" in 2000 and how many non-Jamaican listeners had zero idea what was going on in the lyrics under the patois, at least at first?—this feels like an ostensible victory. More »