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REGGAE IN THE PARK CANCELLED Protests against “kill gays” singers force concert collapse LONDON – 27 August 2004 The organisers of London’s Reggae in the Park concert have cancelled the event, scheduled for 5 September, following intense lobbying by the gay rights group OutRage!. The concert was to have featured two Jamaican reggae singers, Sizzla Kalonji and Vybz Kartel, who have released records inciting the murder of lesbians and gay men (see lyrics below). Over the last few days, OutRage! had urged the promoters, Capital Radio/Choice FM and Apollo Entertainments/The Glen Yearwood Group, to drop the two singers – or face protests. OutRage! also contacted the Mayor Ken Livingstone, the Metropolitan Police and the concert venue managements - first Tower Hamlets council (when the event was scheduled to be in Victoria Park), then Wembley Arena (when it was moved there). At no point did OutRage! call for Reggae in the Park to be cancelled; only for the withdrawal of Vybz Kartel and Sizzla Kalonji. “We are delighted that Sizzla Kalonji and Vybz Kartel will not be performing, but sorry the whole event has been axed,” said Peter Tatchell of OutRage! “OutRage! has no objection to the other performers in the stage line up and believes the concert should have gone ahead without the two murder-music singers. “Reggae is an important musical genre which has made a positive contribution to popular culture. We want to see it thrive, but without homophobia and misogyny”, he said. The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service are currently conducting a criminal investigation into Vybz Kartel and Sizzla Kalonji over allegations that their lyrics commit the criminal offence of incitement to murder. “Vybz’s and Sizzla’s ‘kill queers’ songs are still in circulation and selling. They continue to profit from their murder music”, added Brett Lock, co-organiser of the OutRage! ‘Stop Murder Music’ campaign. “Sizzla Kalonji and Vybz Kartel do not merely express their disapproval of homosexuality. They call for all homosexuals to be killed and incite their listeners murder gays and lesbians. This goes way beyond an acceptable expression of opinion. Lesbian and gay people have a right to live their lives free from threats to kill them,” added Lock. For more background on the ‘Stop Murder Music’ campaign, see: http://www.outrage.org.uk/briefing.asp?ID=43
Murder music lyrics by Sizzla Kalonji and Vybz Kartel Lyrics in Jamaican patios, with the standard English translation underneath in brackets [ ]. Vybz Kartel – Bedroom Slaughteration Bow cat, sodomite, batty man fi gat assassination
(Yeah) Vybz Kartel – Guns Like Mine Kartel buss one inna batty bwoy spine Vybz Kartel – Sen On Faggot fi get copper to di heart Batty bwoy stand up anna talk and man a park Don run anybody wey fuck batty Me a shot e From yuh faggy Waterford A wet yuh up wid di Maggy From yuh funny, yuh a guh bury Sizzla - Pump Up fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind Shot battybwoy, my big gun boom See:
http://reggaesound.com/lyric/main.php?mod=lyric&id=440 "mi nuh go tek back mi chat... mi kill sodomite and batty man dem bring aids and disease pon people... shot a kill dem, mi nuh go tek back mi chat" [I wont take back my words…I kill sodomites and
queers, they bring AIDS and disease upon people…shoot and kill them, I won’t
take back my words.] [kill them, queers have got to die, gun shots in their
head, whoever wants to see them dead, put up your hand] In an interview by Richard Burnett in the Canadian entertainment magazine ‘Hour’ on 19 August 2004, Sizzla said: "…burn sodomite, burn battyman. Burn all things that are wrong. Burn it... We must get rid of Sodom and Gomorrah right now…” |