Beenie Man: 'I'm not homophobic'

A brief incite of an interview with dancehall superstar, Beenie Man on his accused homophobia.

"When you come perform in the Caribbean, it's like you are at home - because it's a few miles away from Jamaica anyway," says Beenie Man back at his hotel room the next day. "So, you get either a more loving spirit because the Caribbean people love the songs from back in the day to now, and when you're an artist that they love forever, and you're still here making hits. It makes a difference, you know. And I've been coming here for, like, nine years now. The people dem really accept you for who you are."

But a fair proportion of homosexuals and gay rights activists in Europe and North America most definitely don't accept him for who he is. It was only a few weeks ago that the award-winning DJ's scheduled concert appearance in Bournemouth was cancelled following complaints from gay rights groups. Days later, a number of groups in the US protested against the singer's inclusion on the bill of an HIV/Aids benefit concert, before it too was eventually cancelled.

Of course, Beenie Man (real name Moses Davis) has become used to the furore that seems to inevitably accompany his activities nowadays. His controversial lyrics such as "Well I'm think of a new Jamaica, me come to execute all of the gays" have led to activists campaigning against him and other dance- hall artists, and their anti-gay sentiments.

Aside from these latest set-backs, the 35-year-old has also been unceremoniously dumped from the MTV Video Music Awards, dropped from the Mobo awards and even snubbed by his former pal Janet Jackson, with whom he collaborated for his 2004 single "Feel It Boy". "She said if she had known [that I was homophobic] she would have not sang a song with me," says Beenie, in a tone that implies he's still annoyed.

It's to his credit that Beenie is prepared to defend himself against criticism - his fellow artists Buju Banton and Bounty Killer have been less than forthcoming about the reasons for their similar lyrical onslaughts. But Beenie's justification of his words has its flaws. For starters, why aren't his views about paedophiles more explicit in his music? And how is the listener meant to differentiate between the use of derogatory terms for gays and lesbians - "batty men", "chi chi gals" - and their use in the righteous skewering of child-molesters?

It's common knowledge that a virtually zero-tolerance policy operates towards homosexuality in Jamaica, from the grass roots to, it is widely believed, the government. Violent acts against gay men are also commonplace. In 2004 Brian Williamson, the country's leading gay activist, was murdered with a machete, though the police continue to claim that the murder happened during a robbery and was not motivated by homophobia.

It would almost seem as though Beenie Man is avoiding the issue of the general victimisation of homosexuals that his music encourages, conscious as he is of the homophobic tendencies of his homeland. "Gay men are dead all over the world," he shrugs, crossing his arms. "One gay man's dead in Jamaica, so what's the difference? Yes it's a big thing, but [the reaction] doesn't make no sense.

"If a gay man [wants to] say that because we say 'Batty man, yeah, you have sex with a man', right there you're gonna find it offensive to you. But it's not dedicated to you. We're not saying kill gay people, you understand? [Reggae star] Sizzla turned around and said he's not apologising to no batty boy, but you need to understand what that means. It means a big man that's sexing a little boy, that's what it is!"

What are his views on gays and lesbians, then? "People need to understand this," he sighs. "I'm a Rastafarian. And I believe in the Bible. I know that if a man sleeps with another man, life ceases to exist because a man cannot breed. Woman to woman can't make no kids. But I'm not fighting against gay and lesbian life. As a man, you don't like to see two men together, you find it disgusting. But that's their life. To you it's disgusting, but to them it's happy. That's why they call themselves gay, they are happy people. They are happy with their life and they're doing their thing.

So it's not for you to come and make these people feel sad and unhappy. And dancehall music never set out to do that because people are people. When I see a gay man, I see a man."
He maintains that he's being targeted, unlike the rapper Eminem, who's been able to get away with his own controversial musings about gay people in the past. "We're a smaller topic," he says. "Eminem is an American. America, they're behind him. You understand? We're a smaller topic, we're dancehall artists, and we are from Jamaica. There are gay people in America, gay people in Europe, gay people in England and all these organisations come against one small group."