Trust that Buju is back
Published:Sunday | November 17, 2019 | 12:36 AMYasmine Peru - Sunday Gleaner Writer
The Gargamel, Mr Mention, Buju Banton, call him what you will, he is back.
Not since the release of Buju Banton’s Browning has his co-manager, Donovon Germaine, seen such a frenzy with a new song. The referenced song was co-produced in 1991 by Germain and Dave Kelly, nearly three decades ago when the Internet was perhaps a distant thought.
“Disc jockeys from all over the world are calling me for the song,” Germaine said of the Dave Kelly-produced Trust, which was released midnight last Friday, and which instantly set social media ablaze. If fire emojis were dollar bills, chances are Buju would have been a billionaire before the start of the Sabbath. Within half a day, Trust had racked up close to 130,000 views and more than 3,000 comments on Buju’s Instagram page, alone, and over on YouTube, where they dropped the audio, along with the cover artwork, it was lit. By 10:19 Friday morning, Trust was sitting at the very pinnacle of the iTunes 100 most popular reggae songs downloads. And Germain is still being swamped with requests.
“It’s the biggest song outta road right now. Take it from me,” the Penthouse Productions CEO told The Sunday Gleaner. And that’s really not hard to believe. It’s quite simple. Despite the fact that it is agreed on that there is no formula to a hit song, the reality is that when ace dancehall producer, Dave Kelly, and legendary dancehall and reggae artiste, Buju Banton, sit down together in the studio to make music, more than likely the result will be a number-one song.
NO SURPRISE
Germain and his team are not in the least surprised by the response. “Of course we expected it. As we hear the song, we knew that it was the one. The younger generation, that’s their reality right now, the phone,” he said of the single which taps into the pulse of the savvy, techie-loving Generation Z. Actually, the promo for Trust stated, “New style. New flow,” and as soon as it was released, his followers got very creative. Of the song, a fan who goes by the name verba.tim quipped smartly, “Flow like Digicel,” and there followed a steady flow of positives. Steadymedz: Finally mi G!! Don’t Trust nuttn start with P. No Pastor, Police, Politician, P-/-y, Phone..Just purchased on iTunes. Waited 9 yrs for this.” Monifa: “The beat bad and a real talk.” Shevahroyal: My baby @bujuofficial have a whole different tone...I was “shooketh.” Sexipeggie stated, “Madddddddddddddddddddddddddd! Gargamel is back,” and ardent fan, politician Lisa Hanna, gave her own endorsement: (lisahannamp) “YES Gargamel.”
Also a huge conversation piece is the artwork for Trust. It was designed by Ron Ackins, a freelance illustrator, whose social-media account states that he’s worked for companies like Marvel Comics, Image Comics and Nike. He stated online, “Commission recently done for @bujuofficial ‘s new track, Trust.” Not only was it labelled ‘dope’, there have been calls for the artwork to be made into posters and sold.
Germaine, while acknowledging the power of the artwork, wouldn’t say if actual posters will be made; however, he disclosed that the music video for Trust has already been shot. “It was filmed on Thursday and will be out on Monday. Oh, and look out for new music in December,” he said casually.