Buju Banton was red hot in Jamaica, Browning, Black Woman, Gol' Spoon and a slew of songs 'running' the dancehall and radio. In 1993, he went on a European tour, ending up at a very prestigious venue in Paris after 12 shows.

Backstage, waiting to perform, "me hear de place a mash up. Me sey a God himself return"!

He went to look and Buju put the mic, which he had in his hand, back on the stand to demonstrate Bim Sherman's performance, to the delight of the crowd at the Undercroft. Then there was a man who cried "Mama!", who was poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. To top it off, Burning Spear "deliver such a set, if them call me right away me run come back a Jamaica".

"Me do my ting like a shame puppy," Buju said of his lacklustre performance that night, adding that he was the first deejay to tour Europe, going from venue to venue.

'I want music'

The next day, a dejected Buju saw Lee 'Scratch' Perry and said to him, "I want music." There was laughter when Buju imitated Scratch, saying, "You have to go and make the music that people want to hear from a humanistic approach."

Then there were strange occurrences on the tour, inexplicably sustaining a wound to the head and his foot getting mysteriously swollen, Buju describing the bundle of mishaps as his first experience with "spiritual wickedness". A set of 12 Bibles were sent for and everybody in the touring party got one. Still, one night the keyboard player collapsed onstage inexplicably and they rushed him to an exit that Buju had spotted before. ("Everywhere I go inna Babylon I waan know how fe come out," he said, to laughter.)

Son of a black man

And his worst experience was to come, as one night on that initial French tour he was performing and "I Mark Myrie, son of a black man, tell you dis, I see a white man come pon di stage an' touch me. I feel weak! I run off the stage and drop inna Reuben (the chef) an." When Buju told him what had happened, "Reuben sey him no see no one."

"So we flee dem!" Buju said. "Come back a Jamaica come work pon de record." That record was Til Shiloh, the 1995 set that marked Buju Banton's growth into Rastafari. He said that a lot of Til Shiloh is based on his initial European experiences.

"Til Shiloh was great, but me still no satisfy," Buju said, adding that he was splitting into two persons musically, the dancehall and the roots reggae personae.

Then came Inner Heights, which also delved into many tribulations, Buju referring to the lyrics from Close One Yesterday.

On his first trip to Africa, he was walking on the border of Uganda and Sudan. He was warned not to go any farther, because of the janjaweed militia. When he came back to Jamaica Buju's "next song was Sudan".

From there, Buju moved into the story of the album that was being launched last Wednesday evening, Rasta Got Soul.

- Mel Cooke