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Fred Zind Music
Stephen Brush of International Artistes Agency, a known American music promotion company, is upset at the cancellation of Sizzla’s long awaited US tour, which was scheduled for November/December, after US authorities denied him entry.Brush issued the statement below to explain the cancellation :
“In 15 years of agenting and working with international artistes from every area of the world, I have never seen anything so screwed up as this mess with Sizzla’s immigration. Sizzla, myself, his lawyer were all promised the moon and the stars when we began booking this tour. We were so careful that we allowed a three-month leeway to secure all the appropriate visas beyond when the immigration attorney said she would have them. He was given his I129 and O1-B Status and all was presented as well. In short, the interview did not go well and they denied his entry into America.
“It is not a dead issue, but I am no longer comfortable waiting and seeing. What I would like to do is postpone the tour and look at rebooking it for February and March 2014.”
He went on to say:
“I am deeply saddened by the news and I can say this is one of the worst weeks in my career. I would like to speak with each and every one of you and welcome a call. For the sake of alleviating some stress right now, I am at a loss for words and very upset. My company worked very, very, very hard and was given some unfair guidance and as a result we as you are left holding the bulk of this disaster. I am confident in Sizzla and I do really like him and his management team. They are good people and we expect that this will be a very lucrative tour in March and April. We are hoping to have his clearances overturned in the coming week or two. I really need to be extra careful and limit any more last minute cancellations.”
The tour was scheduled to run from November 21 through to December 22 with seven shows in Virginia, Washington, DC, New York and Colorado.
Sizzla has not performed in the United States in over five years after his visa was revoked in 2008.
Sizzla’s fans are not happy about this cancellation which came about as a result of lobbying by Jamaican and American gay rights groups. They accuse Sizzla of promoting anti-gay hatred among the people. Jamaican gay rights group, Jamaica Association of Gays and Lesbians
Abroad (JAGLA) are celebrating the news calling it a victory for gays.
“This is the result of the “Fyah Bun” anti-gay lyrics in one of Sizzla’s songs. If you hate gays so much, why desire to perform in countries that protect the rights of members of the LGBT community? Hypocrisy,” the group wrote on their Facebook page.
“Thanks to members of the LGBT community in the USA who lobbied against Sizzla’s Tour! Big Unnu Self,” the group said.
I asked one Jamaican who lives in Zimbabwe what he thought about Sizzla’s song, “Fyah Bun” and the cancellation of his visa to the US. This was his reply:
“Big up mi dj Sizzla. Dem man deh a badman real bobo. Gunshot fi same sex unno can’t bring forth life jus pure nasty batty man fi dead” ( I am in support of DJ Sizzla’s stance. Those homosexuals are bad people. They deserve to die. How can those nasty people of the same sex bring life to the world?)
He added: “We in Jamaica cyan’t stand no battyman. Dem a mash up dem progressive posse. Every reggae artiste mus condemn dem nasty battyman.”
I told him that homosexuality was not the only “evil” thing on earth. There are other doings which society considers to be evil such as smoking of ganja, murder, robbery, rape and drug trafficking but I am yet to hear reggae artistes condemn these evil things with the same passion as they do homosexuality.
Besides, this hate speech cannot be good for the reggae business. Bob Marley sang peace, love, unity and harmony. Why should this change now?
Quite a number of dancehall artistes have been known to be associated with violence and anti-homosexual (battyman) lyrics. They have been criticised by many international organisations for preaching hatred. A lot of Jamaican artistes like Lutan Fyah, have now come to realise that hate speech is not good for business and is putting dancehall music into disrepute.
They have also realised that the anti-homosexual stance taken by some of them is the real reason why Buju Banton is serving a prison sentence in one of the American penitentiaries.
Framing Buju Banton for trading in drugs was just a front. It is said that the homosexuality community was so outraged by his 1992 song ‘Boom Bye Bye’ in which he advocated for the shooting of homosexuals and they decided to set a drugs trap for him.
Dancehall artistes should know that well-known musicians like Elton John, Boy George and George Michael, who are known homosexuals (to mention only a few), are powerful and influential in the music business.
A lot of dancehall artistes have been lambasted for their lyrics calling for violence against gay people.
In 2003 British LBGT group known as OUTRAGE called for the arrest and prosecution of several dancehall stars including Sizzla Kalonji, Elephant Man, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man for violation of hate crime statutes. In 2004, Elephant Man was dropped from the MOBO (Music of Black Origin) awards because of his homophobic stance. Since then, a number of dancehall artistes who have been pressurised by both record companies and music promoters have begun to make a U-turn as they have realised that being homophobic does not make business sense. Most of them now prefer to avoid songs with lyrics deemed to incite homophobic violence.
Lutan Fyah, who says he has no problem with gay people who are minding their own business, however, says that he would really like to “burn out” all the Catholic priests who sodomise young boys. (Is that not the same thing, Lutan?) He goes on to say that he does not have an issue with homosexuals because he does not care what one does if it does not harm anybody.
“Really an truly mi nuh business if a man waan have im boyfriend, but mi do lyrics offa the situation weh mi see wid the Catholic priests dem but di way how dem write it a like seh mi guh pon stage an bun out the people for no reason,” he remarked after a newspaper article condemned his anti-gay stance.
Due to the misunderstanding, Lutan Fyah said he has missed out on a show and he doesn’t want the matter to get out of hand.
“Mi even lost a show because of the mix-up. The promoter read what dem write and was worrying that corporate sponsors would pull out and cancel di ting. “Anuh like seh yuh see nuh bag a gay a run mi dung fi ban mi or nothing.”
Jamaicans often refer to homosexuals as battyman. There is no female name for such people and I am yet to come across lyrics talking about female homosexuals.
The most common terms for homosexual people to the rest of the world are lesbian for females and gay for males, though gay is also used to refer generally to both homosexual males and females. The number of people who identify as gay or lesbian and the proportion of people who have same-sex sexual experiences are difficult for researchers to estimate reliably for a variety of reasons, including many gay people not openly identifying as such due to homophobia and heterosexual discrimination. Many gay and lesbian people are in committed same-sex relationships, though only recently have census forms and political conditions in Western countries and South Africa facilitated their visibility and enumeration.
There is no substantive evidence which suggests parenting or early childhood experiences play a role when it comes to sexual orientation.
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