American company Apple Inc has removed songs from dancehall artistes Buju Banton, T.O.K. and Elephant Man from their iTunes site citing that the songs incite violence against homosexuals. In response to letters written by the pro-homosexual Canadian-based organ-isations Egale and SMM (Stop Murder Music) to iTunes in January, iTunes has removed controversial murder music from Jamaican artistes in its North American markets. Boom Bye Bye from Buju Banton, Chi-Chi Man from T.O.K. and Log On by Elephant Man have all been pulled from iTunes stores and the iTunes website. Apple's iTunes is the leading on line distributor of music in North America through their websites and iTunes stores. Since 2008 over four billion songs have been downloaded since the service first launched on April 28, 2003. When the STAR spoke with Akim Larcher founder of SMM (Canada) he explained that SMM had written to the two biggest record distributing companies in Canada to pull these songs and songs from other artistes. According to Larcher, iTunes gave a positive response and has not only removed the songs, but the albums they were on, as well as any compilation CD that contained the songs. In a release issued Mr Larcher said "this is an historic victory for the LGBT community here in Canada and in the Caribbean. iTunes is exercising its corporate responsibility by pulling this murder music and raising the bar for other retailers and distributors to do the same." Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale - a national organisation that advances equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-identified people and their families across Canada; stated in the release "we are extremely pleased with this decision. We have also contacted HMV, Archambault Inc, and Amazon.ca and we are optimistic that they will follow iTunes lead." When the STAR contacted Flexx of T.O.K. he was unaware of the situation but not worried that the song would no longer be on the website. "That song came out six years ago in 2002 and is still a problem I guess people are just trying to hang on to get publicity. We have matured as artistes and have done so many other songs, I guess people just love that song" he said. The song Chi Chi Man was released on T.O.K.'s first album My Crew, My Dogs which will be pulled from iTunes stores. However, Flexx is unworried stating that the album is a classic and they have tons of other songs on iTunes. "Let them try to stop the album, our songs, people have other means of getting music, iTunes isn't the only thing out there" Flexx said. Stop Murder Music (Canada) advocates against anti-gay lyrics targeting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified communities. In 2007 Stop Murder Music successfully launched a campaign to stop concerts in Ontario Canada of artistes such as Sizzla, Capleton, Elephant Man, Baby Cham and Beenie Man.

i would like remix this tune

f**kery datt

why dem faggot ya nuh find a cliff & jump off head way star...hissteeth BADANG!!!

yow a wah di fcuk do dem battymon..dem a try mash up we entertainer money.. fi a faggot..soon dem a go tell we seh any website weh use harsh words gainst dem a go get ban too....kmt

i tink di fish need to go drink a tall glass of bleach

dem fi dead

i wonder y di faggot dem a get dem way so much in society?????y we cnt have a goverment weh bun dem...may b di place wulda betta widout dem

Mek itunes go f**k off

typical...
dem fish fi fry...

runway wid itunes

f**ka dem

me nah blame ITunes still.me ago blame the likkle fish dem that fightin gainst the man dem

mi no undastan wat steppa mean by "f**ka dem" fcuka who? clear up u statement my yute

eh

lol @ doc i agreeeeeeeeeeeee all bake 2

-- Edited by BABY at 23:56, 2008-04-09

jah kno star is like we cya win, but we still nah bow to dem system, dem fi ded!!!!!!!!!!!

TELL APPLE WHO CREATE ITUNES,WHO DESIGN IT,WHO THINK BOUT IT AND WHO INVENT IT FI GO SUCK DEM MUMA

haha watch itunes ah falla now mi seh dem love falla but tru dem love man dem affi falla battyman run di rerl unno nuh seet it gaan bad areadi theres nutten we can do

ah f*kry dat is.....dem nuh have better tings fi do then ban di man dem pon itunes (personnaly i don'T really care because i d'nt use itunes) but for those who you use it, tit's anodder story....still di fish dem ah still waan fight  fi nutt'N..b*m*oCLAAAT..bun itunes