“Go check the file.” That’s Buju Banton’s message to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, after the PM suggested some Jamaican entertainers wave the national flag to sell tickets while running the country down abroad.
The Gargamel didn’t hold back in a social media post responding to the jab. “No you wrong, we do not wave the flag, we are the brand Jamaica,” he wrote, arguing that drawing people into Jamaican culture “takes hard work, credibility, plus a body of work.”
He also reminded Holness who was here first. “We have been pushing brand Jamaica long before you enter politics, go check the file. Big man anno so you do things,” Buju wrote.
The whole back and forth started with Beenie Man. Speaking to ITV News, one of the UK’s largest commercial news organisations, the dancehall veteran criticised how disaster relief funds were being distributed after Hurricane Melissa.
He didn’t stop at the money either. Beenie Man also warned that coastal development could threaten the livelihoods of Jamaicans who depend on the island’s beaches, a concern that cuts close for fishermen, vendors and anyone else who earns a living by the sea.
Holness clearly took it personally. Speaking on Wednesday at a ceremony to reopen the Black River Hospital, he called Beenie Man’s comments “a lie that was told on Jamaica by someone who benefits from brand Jamaica.
“We must call them out because they go and wave our flag and get people to attend their shows while they are out there tearing down the country,” the prime minister said. “
It is not going to help one more person get one more grant and these things need to be said. Unfortunately I am the only one willing to say it.”
From the government’s side, the frustration is easy to read. The administration received millions of dollars in donations to help Jamaicans devastated by the storm, and a globally known artist questioning that process on a British news network puts its handling of the money under a very bright spotlight.
The artists see it another way. To Buju, the idea that a Jamaican act can simply drape themselves in black, green and gold and pack a venue ignores decades of grind that carried reggae and dancehall to every corner of the planet.
Both men have the track records to back that up. Beenie Man, born Moses Davis, won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album with Art and Life, while Buju, born Mark Myrie, took home the same award for Before the Dawn.
Buju’s return to the stage after his 2018 release from a US prison became one of reggae’s biggest stories, with his Long Walk to Freedom tour drawing massive crowds. That history gives his “check the file” line real weight with fans.
So far, Beenie Man hasn’t fired back at the prime minister’s Black River comments, and Holness hasn’t answered Buju directly.
With two of the genre’s biggest names now lined up against the government’s messaging, the fight over relief money and who really speaks for brand Jamaica looks far from settled.
