World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Buju Banton

Artist. Dancehall, reggae

Active
1988-present
Sunrise
July 15, 1973, Salt Lane, Kingston
Also known as
Gargamel, The Voice of Jamaica

Mark Anthony Myrie grew up in Salt Lane, one of the poorest parts of central Kingston. "Buju" was a family nickname meaning breadfruit, given for his shape as a small child; "Banton" he took from the deejay Burro Banton, whose delivery he had copied and who had attended the same school.

He began recording in his teens and by 1992 was the biggest deejay in Jamaica, with a voice that, the Rough Guide notes, had become noticeably rougher and deeper, and a run of hits including "Bogle," "Love Me Browning," and "Batty Rider." The same book hears on his first Penthouse album Mr. Mention "the sharpest, most confident deejaying since Shabba's," and on "How Massa God World A Run" the first of a series of critiques of the system from a ghetto perspective. That year he also released "Boom Bye Bye," a song calling for the shooting of gay men, written when he was fifteen. It ended his American crossover prospects, generated protest and cancelled tours for the next quarter century, and he did not formally withdraw it until 2019.

The lives of two deejays, Panhead and Dirtsman, were taken in 1993, and this appears to have redirected him. "Murderer," his response, is a straightforward denunciation of gun violence by someone who had been trading in its imagery. Over the next two years he grew locks, converted to Rastafari, and remade himself as a singer as much as a deejay.

'Til Shiloh (1995) is the record that transformation produced. Made with several producers, among them Donovan Germain, Bobby Digital, Dave Kelly, and Steely and Clevie, it combined digital programming with acoustic guitars and Nyabinghi drums. One retrospective calls it a bridge between the technology-driven dancehall of the 1990s and the roots of reggae, and it credits the album with laying a foundation for Capleton, Sizzla, and Anthony B. "Untold Stories," a semi-acoustic song about poverty and endurance, is for the Rough Guide his most mature statement on record. Inna Heights (1997), Bradley notes, showed no drop in righteousness, which told against talk that his conversion was a matter of his Mercury deal, and Rasta Got Soul (2009) and Before the Dawn (2010), which won a Grammy, followed.

He was arrested in Florida in December 2009 and convicted in 2011 on cocaine conspiracy charges. He served most of a ten-year sentence, was released in December 2018, and returned to Jamaica, where the Long Walk to Freedom concert in March 2019 drew a crowd of tens of thousands. He has recorded and toured since, and "Too Too Bad" (2026) marked a return to his dancehall roots.

Last updated November 4, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Barrow and Dalton give "b. Mark Myrie, 1973, Kingston": Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 331. Wikipedia gives his birthplace as Barbican Road, Kingston 8: "Buju Banton," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buju_Banton.
  2. Wikipedia says "Buju" was a childhood nickname from his mother and that "Banton" was taken "in tribute to the deejay Burro Banton, whom he admired as a child": "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  3. Barrow and Dalton describe him as the deejay who took Shabba Ranks's place "as the most prolific voice of the ghetto youth": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 331.
  4. On "Love Mi Browning" (summer 1991) and "Batty Rider," made with Dave Kelly at Penthouse, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 331, 333.
  5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 331, 333.
  6. Barrow and Dalton date its recording to late 1992: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 333. Wikipedia says it was "recorded when he was 15 years old and later re-released in 1992": "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  7. Barrow and Dalton note that the controversy "set his career back" and cost him a Womad appearance with the Penthouse Revue: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 333. Wikipedia dates the song's removal from his catalog to March 20, 2019: "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  8. On Pan Head's death in 1993, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 332-33. Wikipedia names Pan Head, Dirtsman, and the singer Mickey Simpson among friends killed that year: "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  9. Barrow and Dalton call "Murderer" "a tune instrumental in changing the focus of deejay lyrics away from celebrations of the gun": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 333.
  10. Barrow and Dalton note that he "began to grow dreadlocks" after "Murderer" and that he "makes a better singer than most deejays who have tried": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 333. See also Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 539.
  11. Bradley dates 'Til Shiloh to 1995 and notes the claim that his Mercury deal lay behind the change: Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 539.
  12. "'Til Shiloh: Buju Banton's Groundbreaking Album," uDiscover Music, accessed November 4, 2026, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/buju-banton-til-shiloh-review/; "'Til Shiloh: The Redemption of Buju," Jamaica Observer, August 25, 2022, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2022/08/25/til-shiloh-the-redemption-of-buju.
  13. Barrow and Dalton describe "Untold Stories" as "a semi-acoustic song" and "his most mature statement on record": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 333.
  14. On Before the Dawn and the Grammy for Best Reggae Album, "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  15. Wikipedia dates his conviction to February 22, 2011, and gives the sentence as ten years and one month: "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  16. Wikipedia dates his release to December 7, 2018, and says the March 2019 concert at the National Stadium "attracted over 30,000 people": "Buju Banton," Wikipedia.
  17. Masouri describes the album as marking "a return to his dancehall roots," in his summary of his four-page Echoes feature on Buju Banton. John Masouri, "Echoes Magazine - August 2026," John Masouri, October 1, 2026, https://www.johnmasouri.com/single-post/echoes-magazine-august-2026.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map