Buju Banton has signed a new record deal with VP Records and will release his 14th studio album under the label.
The upcoming project marks Banton’s second partnership with the reggae powerhouse, following his 2003 album Friends For Life, which was released on March 11 through VP Records in collaboration with Atlantic Records at the height of the dancehall boom driven by the success of Sean Paul that year.
On Friday, VP Records hosted a private listening session for specially invited guests, previewing the 16-track dancehall project.
During the event, the Grammy Award-winning artist introduced the album by emphasizing its traditional approach.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” Banton said.
He explained that the project stays true to the foundation of dancehall, featuring drums, bass, horns and layered vocal arrangements that reflect the authentic spirit of Jamaica and its people.
“Dancehall came from a space where it was rudeboys, no sugarcoat,” he said. “Bad boys started this — guys who experienced political warfare, gang warfare, police run-ins and brutality. They sang their experiences, put melodies to their pain and painted pictures that we have embraced through the passage of time.”
Banton began his career as one of Jamaica’s most prolific dancehall deejays. His first three albums — Stamina Daddy(1992), Mr. Mention (1992) and Voice of Jamaica (1993) — firmly established him within the genre.
After converting to Rastafarianism, he shifted toward roots reggae, releasing the acclaimed albums ’Til Shiloh (1995) and Inna Heights (1997), the latter becoming his only album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart.
He later released Unchained Spirit (2000) before returning to dancehall with Friends For Life (2003) and its follow-up Too Bad (2006).
The Driver artist returned to reggae with Rasta Got Soul in 2009, but during the album’s tour he was arrested on cocaine charges. While awaiting trial, he released Before The Dawn (2010), which earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.
Banton was later convicted on drug and firearm charges and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released on December 7, 2018, from McRae Correctional Institution and deported to Jamaica.
Soon after regaining his freedom, Banton signed with Roc Nation and Island Records, releasing Upside Down 2020during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He followed that project with Born For Greatness in 2023. The album did not appear on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart, marking his first studio release to miss the chart since Mr. Mention in 1992. It sold 2600 units in streams and sales according to data received by WMV by sales tracker Luminate. of that amount 500 pure copies weregild and 2.2 million on-demand streams.
