Buju's 'Rasta Got Soul' launched at UWI

Not even end of semester exams, which start soon, could stop a large number of University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, students from apparently making up the bulk of Wednesday evening’s launch of Buju Banton’s ‘Rasta Got Soul’ album.

It was presented at the campus’ Undercroft, Professor Carolyn Cooper, who hosted in the stead of Dr Anthea Morrison, noting that Buju Banton’s lyrics are used in the Reggae Poetry course.

But while Rasta Got Soul was the focus of the night, with Dr Cecil Gutzmore going back to the early days of Buju’s career to show that his insight and lyricism were present from the get go, and Buju speaking about the album itself, the evening turned out to be a trip through Buju’s career with him as a very engaging storyteller.

And, responding to questions, Buju also gave his views on a range of issues.

strategic release

He said Rasta Got Soul had been in the making for five or six years and he had replaced nine of the original tracks. “It is a strategic release. It should have been released a couple years ago. The climate was not conducive to an album like this. They would have overlooked it,” he said, commenting that “the dancehall momentum was too heavy”.

Among the musicians who played on Rasta Got Soul are Nambo Robinson, Chico, Dean Fraser, David Madden, Scully, Flabba Holt, Mitchum Khan and Paul ‘Wrongmove’ Crossdale. Singing for the first time in the launch, after musing musically “I wonder” Buju said “me never write that because of Obama, me write it because of the political system in my country”. He went through other songs like Optimistic Soul and laughed as he commented “a no nutten too far-fetched whe you cyaa compose. A true me have de time”.

mature audience

“This record is geared towards a mature audience,” Buju said. And when he was asked who the target market is to Rasta Got Soul, Buju said “everybody, the young, the old, the gay, the lesbian, the obese, the slim”.

In the interactive section of the launch, Buju Banton was asked if he had a message for the ladies on Rasta Got Soul and he said his message goes “across the board”. Still, he quoted from the album the advice “Mary relax your mind, you’re going to need it when you’re older”.

“To me that’s a lot of upliftment,” he said.

Source: JamaicaStar