Buju Banton has entered the argument, and he did not come to wave anything.

The reggae star posted a sharp reply to Prime Minister Andrew Holness after Holness accused Beenie Man of lying about Jamaica and criticised entertainers who, in the Prime Minister’s words, wave the flag abroad while tearing down the country, according to DancehallMag.

Buju’s answer, posted on social media, rejected the idea that a flag fills a venue. “No you wrong, we do not wave the flag, we are the brand Jamaica, we cannot wave a flag and people attend an event, it takes hard work, credibility, plus a body of work to get people more into Jamaican culture and we have been pushing brand Jamaica long before you enter politics, go check the file,” he wrote, according to DancehallMag. World Music Views carried the same statement, closing with his line, “Big man anno so you do things.”

How this argument started

Beenie Man questioned the distribution of Hurricane Melissa relief funds in an interview with ITV News, and raised concerns about coastal development and the livelihoods of beach communities, according to DancehallMag.

Holness answered on Wednesday, October 28, at the ceremony reopening reconstructed wards at Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth, a year after Hurricane Melissa devastated the area. He said more than J$300 million had been spent repairing the hospital, and suggested Beenie Man should have been invited to see the work himself, according to DancehallMag.

His charge against entertainers was direct. “It is a lie that was told on Jamaica by someone who benefits from brand Jamaica and we must call them out because they go and wave our flag and get people to attend their shows while they are out there tearing down the country,” Holness said, according to DancehallMag.

The dispute underneath the quotes

Behind the sharp words is a documented argument about disaster recovery. Beenie Man told ITV News that assistance was failing to reach people who needed it, and urged Jamaicans to demand accountability together, according to DancehallMag.

DancehallMag also pointed to reporting on an Auditor General review which found that the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management had spent J$26.2 million, which is 1.8 per cent of J$1.44 billion in cash donations, by February 23, 2026. That figure covers one relief fund, and the Government points to far wider recovery spending across the response.

Nation reported the Prime Minister’s Black River answer in full yesterday, and this reply is the next chapter of the same public exchange, not a new claim.

Fans React: artists as the brand

The reaction online split along a familiar line. One side hears Buju stating a plain truth about the culture business: Jamaican music carried the island’s name into rooms politics never reached, decades before social media, and the audiences came for the work, not the flag.

The other side asks whether a star’s platform carries a duty of care when the subject is a country still rebuilding, and whether criticism voiced overseas should travel with the full set of numbers.

Both readings were visible in the replies to Buju’s post and in the coverage by World Music Views and Reggae Media TV, which also referenced the Jamaica Observer’s reporting of the Prime Minister’s remarks.

What happens next

Beenie Man has not yet posted a direct reply to Buju’s defence or to the Prime Minister’s invitation to Black River. Holness has not answered Buju.

What is confirmed is the exchange itself, in both men’s own words. What is not confirmed is any private contact between the camps, and Nation is not presenting talk of one as fact.

When either man speaks again, Nation will report it the same way: their words, named sources, and the numbers underneath.

Photo credit: Buju Banton on stage, via 876-411.