Buju Banton & Kanye West Collab Confirmed, Police Say Kanye Did Not Breach COVID Protocols On Jamaica Trip
It appears that the rumors are indeed true. Buju Banton and Kanye West have a collaboration coming.
It was three days ago that the American rapper West landed in Jamaica, arriving on a private jet. Social media was abuzz with chatter of a sighting of West and reggae and dancehall star Buju. Kanye West shared a photo of him and Buju at Banton’s Gargamel Studio on social media.
The snapshot showed, seated behind studio equipment and instrument, West (centre) with Buju Banton (right) and Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke (left), and Buju seemingly making a point, while Kanye looks on in the direction of the camera. The controversial rapper captioned the photo on Twitter, “GREATNESS IN THE MAKING,” hinting at a possible collab.
This would be the first time that the two are collaborating, much to the excitement of fans.
Buju Banton’s manager and long time music producer, Donovan Germain, though he confirmed a collaboration with West and Buju, he was a bit tight-lipped regarding the details of the project. Germain told the Jamaica Observer West was chilling in Jamaica when he paid a courtesy call on Buju at his Gargamel Studio.
He stated, “Kanye and his friends just came to Jamaica to chill for a couple of days. And, on his way down to the hotel, he just stopped and hailed Buju. Nothing more than that.”
He added, “Buju did a song with him earlier in the year. It hasn’t come out yet. But, they have been in dialogue.”
Kanye is not a newcomer to Jamaica, but this weekend’s trip did raise questions about whether Kanye followed quarantine rules and other COVID-19 protocols.
Dennis Brooks, senior communications strategist for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, told the Jamaica STAR, that while the international artiste did not quarantine, that does not mean there were any breaches of protocol.
“There are different methods of gaining approval; so he could have applied to come here on business, therefore testing would have been different. If he came here for four days to record an album or to get a beat from Buju Banton, then we could assume that would be a business trip,” Brooks said.
“There are different regimes that are particular to the purpose of travel as well as the orders he would have signed to when he arrived,” Brooks added. “Nonetheless, at this time, I am not aware of any breaches being made and from a constabulary perspective, we act quickly when there is a breach of the order, and as I stated before, it must be specific to the order they signed.”
Kanye West has won 21 Grammy Awards so far in his career, becoming one of the most decorated Grammy artistes of all time.
Still, Kanye appears to have a hate-love relationship with the Grammys. Just recently, after showing off his record deals, Kanye posted a video on his Twitter account in which he (so it appears) is seen urinating on a Grammy award in the toilet. He captioned the video, “Trust me. I won’t stop.” This questionable behavior comes amid his self-declared feud with the record labels Sony and Universal.
In July 2020, Buju won the Jamaica Festival Song competition with the entry, I Am A Jamaican, which was written by Germain. Upside Down 2020 is Buju’s latest studio album, released on June 26, 2020, by Gargamel Music/Island Records/Roc Nation, his first in a decade and follow-up to acclaimed ‘Before The Dawn’ in 2010.