AN EARLY RELEASE FOR BUJU BANTON?

INCARCERATED reggae singer Buju Banton may have a year removed from his 10-year mandatory sentence, according to United States prison records.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ website is reporting the artist’s new release date is December 8, 2018.

Buju Banton, whose given 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.

In 2015 the United States Justice Department announced it would be releasing about 6,600 inmates early from prison in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences. In that same year the entertainer said he would be halting any further appeals, while the US Attorney’S Office announced it would be dismissing firearms charge against the singer.

Last year the entertainer’s fans got word from him in an article published in Vibe Magazine’s popular ‘Boomshots’ column. In it he also blasted contemporary music, describing it as “meaningless”.

“Tell my fans do not be distracted by all the things that are taking place around them because it is designed to throw them off kilter, to make moral decadence even more widespread than it already is, and plunge people into a state of darkness.

“They’re trying to reverse the progress that we have made over the years through the music. And now the music is meaningless. It doesn’t stimulate, it doesn’t educate, it doesn’t reinvigorate. All it does is get you angry because it’s filled with nothing but narcissists exalting themselves over the earthly possessions that they have managed to get. They don’t even have anything—it’s crumbs.

“And therefore, the music is suffering. The people are suffering. Sadness and gloom is prevailing. It’s widespread. But be patient. Because suffering may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Days after his conviction, Buju Banton won a Grammy Award for his album Before Dawn. His other albums include ‘Til Shiloh (1995), Inna Heights (1997) and Unchained Spirit (2000).