Buju Banton Says He Initially Hated The Nickname “Gargamel”
Buju Banton has revealed that his compatriots Wayne Wonder and Frankie Sly bestowed upon him the moniker “Gargamel,” inspired by the villainous character from the cartoon series The Smurfs. According to the Champion artist, he initially detested the name.
During an interview on Revolt TV’s Drink Champs podcast, Buju was asked about the “interesting nickname,” derived from the “foul” cartoon character who relentlessly pursued the Smurfs.
“That [name] was given to me by Wayne Wonder and Frankie Sly, you know. Because growing up, I was a troublemaker. I was a rude bwoy, you know. I nuh teck talk from he nor she den. I jus do work,” Buju explained.
When host N.O.R.E asked: “So, when they named you that, did you like it?” Buju replied in the negative, explaining that in Jamaica, it’s common for a nickname to stick when someone openly dislikes it, and that was exactly what happened to him.
“You know how nicknames go in Jamaica… If you don’t want a name to stick on you in Jamaica, like it. You gotta like it. Because if you resent it, then it’s yours. That’s a mistake I made. I resented it,” he added as the hosts erupted in laughter.
“But over time, they keep calling me Gargamel, Gargamel, Gargamel, Gargamel,” he added.
N.O.R.E expressed fascination with how Buju eventually embraced the nickname, even going so far as to use it for his music label title, Gargamel Music.
“It sounds kind of dope. It does sound dope. And especially for people who didn’t see the Smurfs, who don’t know that that’s an evil character, that just sounds like a very unique name, Gargamel. Like, you ain’t gonna hear nobody else say that,” he said.
Buju’s explanation is a far cry from a video circulating on a Reggae-dedicated YouTube channel which claims the Downtown Kingston native was given the name by a selector after he convinced him to allow him to “test his sound system skills on the microphone”.
Buju Banton first refered to himself as Gargamel publicly in the song Deportee, which was released in 1993 when he was 20 years old.
In the intro he declares: “Take this from Gargamel, otherwise known as Buju, anytime yuh guh foreign, neva you throw stone behind you, caw wicked tings wi teck yuh”.
The fictional character Gargamel, who was a wizard and sworn arch-rival of the Smurfs, served as the main antagonist in The Smurfs television show and comic books.
The character was originally intended to appear in one short story. However, his role as the Smurfs’ established adversary led Peyo, the creator, to incorporate him into subsequent stories, where he became their primary foe.
In the 2011 film The Smurfs, Gargamel is portrayed as going after the Smurfs’ “mystical essence” to power up his magical wand.
Visually, Gargamel is depicted as a hunched figure in ragged clothing, with yellowed teeth, who lives in a ramshackle shack with his cat, Azrael. Although he despises the Smurfs, Gargamel, at times pretends to be their ally when it suits his purposes.
Gargamel also frequently insults and abuses his cat, who often responds in kind.
The plot of The Smurfs had Gargamel’s desire to harm the little blue people, varying across different portrayals. In the earlier cartoons he wanted to use their essence to make gold, their bodies as a key ingredient for a recipe, or to destroy them completely, and in the 2011 film, Gargamel seeks to exploit the Smurfs’essence which is shown to possess mystical powers, for various purposes in New York City.