Buju Banton (Facebook)
Incarcerated reggae singer Buju Banton may have a year removed from his 10-year mandatory sentence, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
The site is reporting that the artist’s new release date is Dec. 8, 2018. Buju Banton, whose given name is Mark Myrie, is currently being held at McRae Correctional Facility in Georgia. He was arrested in 2009 on cocaine charges, given a mandatory 10-year sentence in 2011 and previously scheduled to be released in 2019.
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would be releasing about 6,600 inmates early from prison in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to nonviolent drug offenders who received unduly harsh sentences. In that same year, the singer said he would be halting any further appeals, while the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced it would be dismissing the firearms charge against him.
Last year, Banton addressed his fans in an article published in Vibe magazine’s popular “Boomshots” column. In it, he blasted contemporary music, describing it as “meaningless.”
“Tell my fans do not be distracted by all the things that are taking place around them because it is designed to throw them off kilter, to make moral decadence even more widespread than it already is and plunge people into a state of darkness,” he wrote.
“They’re trying to reverse the progress that we have made over the years through the music. And now the music is meaningless. It doesn’t stimulate, it doesn’t educate, it doesn’t reinvigorate,” he continued. “All it does is get you angry because it’s filled with nothing but narcissists exalting themselves over the earthly possessions that they have managed to get. They don’t even have anything. It’s crumbs.
Read more here.
