Beres Hammond, Buju Banton To Release Collaborative Album

Veteran music icon Beres Hammond has revealed that he and his long-time collaborator and friend Buju Banton are working on a joint album, which is midway through completion.

During an Onstage interview which was aired on Saturday night, Beres had urged Buju to make the announcement that they were “dealing with something musically,” jokingly pointing out that it was the Til Shiloh artist’s responsibility to do so since he was the more talkative of them.

After Buju still held back on making the announcement, Beres, while declaring that a joint album between himself and the Gargamel was long overdue, decided to step in and make the revelation himself.

“We are taking on a project now where this would be the first time recording thing between two artiste, the deejay an myself.  But wi actually a work pan a album project yuh nuh… Wi more than half way already,” said the Rock Away singer.

Buju chimed in: “It’s being kept under wraps.  This is the first time we are actually talking about it.” 

Over the years, Buju, 49, and Beres, 67, have collaborated on massive hits such as A Little More Time, Pull Up The Vibes, Tempted To Touch, Who Say, Honey Comb and I’m Gonna Do My Best, while part of Donovan Germain’s Penthouse outfit.

However, during the interview, the two Reggae/Dancehall icons, who are gearing up for their Intimate Concert in St. Ann on New Year’s Day, also revealed that they had never recorded any of their duets at the same time in any studio.

“We have never been in a recording studio together before.  Never.  The Most High God work it so that whatever Beres Hammond is going through, I am also going through something similar and we sing our pain, we sing our realities, we song our vision,” Buju stated.

“So if he send something to me and I listen to it, it don’t have to call him or anything.  I know where he is going; I know where he is coming from and I can relate to it.   Because I experience something similar.  But hear when it get tricky is whenever I finish whatever is asked of me to do, like return it back to the sender, I say to the sender ‘you know mi left leg hurt mi an him say my left leg hurt me’ and I say: ‘say no more’”, Buju said, in explaining the what he said was a precognitive connection between themselves.

“This has been our relationship over all these years.  I have never gone into a recording studio with this great musician sitting beside me, and he has never entered one with me,” he continued.

Buju went on to add that his and Beres’ lyrics were able to connect to make hit songs, as a telepathic connection exists between himself and the St. Mary native, whom he described as his godfather who, not only was the first to give him access to Penthouse Studios property but also guided him as a young upcoming artist.

“We stay afar and we use the mystics of telepathy to make the music work.  He doesn’t know where I am; I don’t know where he’s at, but I know what he’s thinking, and he knows what I am feeling.   And he makes the music and somehow, I am able to relate to it, wherever I am at.  And this is something we have never discussed with anybody before,” the Kingston native added.