::.:.:. a review by robnemar
First off massive, let me start of by saying that Buju Banton is my DJ for life. His latest concert just reminded me of that fact and how much of a living legend he is. Big up One Man Against the World promotions for sponsoring this event. This concert was held at Club Negril and the place was filled to capacity. The only time I have seen a crowd that large personally was for the past Buju performances and for the artist named Beres Hammond. The crowd was as diverse as it was large. Every culture was represented to see the one named "Gargamel." Buju has such a stage presence that is almost unmatched in the reggae and dancehall world. His band came out blazin and they started off by playing the "Diwali" riddim. Which "Lenky," who is a member of Buju's traveling Til Shiloh band produced. The "Diwali" riddim is the riddim that has made Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder house hold names with there respective tunes, "Get Busy" and "No Letting Go." Buju started out the set by doing his early early tune named "Stamina Daddy." And from there, there was no looking back. In my opinion, out of all the tunes that Buju has in his catalogue, the tune that got the biggest response was his newer tune named "Mr. Nine." He gave a speech about life and then went in to the song. That is a big tune. But he killed that tune and the crowd even further with a wicked freestyle during the running of that tune. He did several cuts from his latest album "Friends for Life." He did some vintage tunes from his earlier days and earlier albums. To me, it was really nice when towards the end of his performance, he did what he called the throw back years. During this portion, he ran tunes like "Browning" all the way to "Deportee" and "Boom Bye Bye" and a whole slew of others. It is easy to take for granted just how many classic tunes Buju has. It is Amazing. Buju also covered the duets he has with Beres Hammond and Wayne Wonder all by himself. That was very nice to hear Buju do a little singing. Buju had something for everyone. Whether you are a lover, a warrior, or a raggamuffin. The Houston massive needs to big up themselves. What a tremendous showing. It was very nice to see such a large crowd even if it was uncomfortable at times with heat and bumping elbows. Buju and his backing singers and his Til Shiloh band are welcome anytime. As I close, I can't leave out the events before Buju performed. The early juggling was done by Super Gold and Super Neil and Lion Roots sound out of the ATL. They rocked the crowd nice. But that comedy routine by Ali was just to much. Lawd Gawd, the dude was horrible. I laughed so hard when the massive started booing him like we all of a sudden took the place of the crowd at Showtime at the Apollo. But even Ali knew that he was no match. All Houston wanted was the Banton. ....Say Your Piece