Konshens clarifies previous statement making it clear that he wasn’t dissing Buju Banton nor Vybz Kartel.
Buju Banton’s statement that Vybz Kartel is still running dancehall from behind bars in an interview with Onstage host Winford Williams over a year ago came back to light when Konshens shared his reaction.
Despite some negative response Konshens received for his statements expressing discomfort with Buju Banton’s claim in a recent interview, the artist is still standing by his words that he personally felt offended.
In an interview with Sound Chat Radio on May 25, Konshens said he was offended by Buju’s claim that dancehall has not progressed over the last decade and that Vybz Kartel was the only artiste ‘doing good’ for the genre.
Some bloggers took the Subkonshus deejay’s comments as a disrespect towards Buju Banton and Vybz Kartel even though it was not. This now forces the deejay to add some clarification.
Konshens hopped on his Instagram Live yesterday to let it be known that he is not retracting his statements but is clarifying that he was not disrespecting Vybz Kartel or Buju Banton as bloggers and social media users are claiming.
The “Pay For It” deejay set the record straight, highlighting that his interview was widely misinterpreted. “Bloggers a gwan like dem want to take wah mi a say out a context….the interview wasn’t about Buju Banton or Vybz Kartel, it was actually about violence and gun song reasoning an if gun song contribute to violence,” he explained.
“How Buju and Kartel come up, it was in making a point, and mi a make a point fi say Jamaican media and industry players and society pon a whole love highlight negativity and quick fi put aside positivity or shadow it away.”
“So mi make reference to a case where that happen in front a we eye, where Buju fawud and him say a Kartel alone a do good an him even say ‘weh the rest a man dem deh’….and in saying that mi say I was offended by that…”
The deejay explained that his point in the interview was that Buju Banton had said a number of positive things during that interview, but all was avoided as his statement about Vybz Kartel controlling dancehall from behind bars was what made the headlines.
The artist added that while he does believe that Vybz Kartel has been “running di place,” there are many other artists who are also putting in the work. He says even though this is Buju Banton’s personal opinion, he, as an artist that has been working, was offended by the statement.
The “Gal A Bubble” deejay reiterated his respect for Vybz Kartel’s music, naming him “one of the greatest lyricists of all time.” But, he maintained that “facts is facts. More man out deh a work.”
In the May 25 interview, Konshens had listed Charly Black, Popcaan, Kranium, and Gyptian as men who have been working to keep dancehall on top and have since achieved numerous local and international success.
