Buju Banton to Be Released Dec. 8

The official release date for incarcerated Jamaican reggae singer, Buju Banton, has been confirmed.

According to the United States prison records, the singer will be released on Saturday, December 8, 2018.

Buju Banton, whose real 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.

It’s been nine years since the Jamaica-born recording artist was arrested at his home in Florida and eventually convicted on drug-related charges. (Banton had been targeted and pursued for over a year by an undercover federal informant, and it took two trials for the charges to stick.) Since that time his music has remained a staple within reggae and dancehall circles, but Buju’s fans haven’t had much in the way of new music.

Banton’s last studio album, the 10-track project Before the Dawn, was released in September 2010 one day after his first court case ended in mistrial and won a Grammy Award for best reggae album.

A mere handful of tracks have dropped since then, most notably “Jah Army,” a collaboration with Stephen “Ragga” Marley (who put up his own Florida home to secure bail so Buju could get out of jail while he fought his case) and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley.

Other releases, including the solo cut “Set Up the Mic” and “Those Dayz,” a collaboration with Agent Sasco, were culled from older recording sessions.

Demand for Buju Banton’s music remains high despite his prolonged absence from the recording studio.

A$AP Rocky recently named him “one of my favorite reggae rappers,” while DJ Khaled stated: “I love Buju so much. His music is like praying.”

Source: Billboard