“They said to me, you will never come back to the United States of America,” dancehall and reggae maven Buju Banton told the sold-out crowd at Long Island’s UBS Arena on the steamy evening of July 14. “I said to them, lets see what God will do.” Banton took the stage in New York for the first time since 2008 and in the U.S. for the first time since 2011, the year that he was found guilty of federal drug crimes. He served seven years in a Georgia prison before being released and deported to his native Jamaica in 2018. Earlier this year, he was granted a visa to return to America, and over the course of a mid-July weekend, he received a hero’s welcome with two back to back shows at the 18,500-capacity venue. Rolling Stone was there for the electric reunion concert, dubbed “Long Walk to Freedom – N.Y.”
Photos by Sacha Lecca
Words by Mankaprr Conteh
Words by Mankaprr Conteh
