American rapper Fat Joe and Jamaican dancehall icon Buju Banton have addressed a past naming controversy involving Nigerian singer BNXN, who was previously known as “Buju.”
Speaking during a conversation, Fat Joe recalled how he publicly challenged the use of the name, insisting that it was exclusive to Buju Banton.
“Yeah, Buju you know, it was the guy in Africa, fake guy, used the buju name, you know, I dissed him on TV. It was when I was hosting the Wendy Williams show? Shut him down. He changed his name. I told him there’s only one Buju Banton, the Don Gaga Mel… I don’t play that.”
Buju Banton, on his part, explained that his name holds deep personal and cultural significance, noting that it was not casually adopted.
“You know, like, most people get their name from their friends, My name came from my mom. Yeah. So it wasn’t a name given to me by my friends. And I put the name Banton due to my adoration for Buru Banton and his musical delivery in the dance hall, you know, because so often we have to keep in mind, that there’s a distinguished difference between a DJ in Jamaica and a DJ here. A DJ here is the guy who plays the music. The DJ in my country is the guy who hold on to the microphone and talk on the version, speak on the beat. So prominent one from in those years was Buru Banton, he came to America and made a name for himself.
He further explained that the similarity in names created confusion, particularly with digital algorithms.
So when a young man came and said the name Buju I knew the problem it poses because automatically most of the algorithms is run now by a certain way and all the algorithms start getting confused. They’re going, who’s Buju? So we had to regulate that to make sure that, you know what I mean, we have to go find a new name.”
The naming dispute eventually led to the Nigerian artist rebranding to BNXN.
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