January 14 date set for Gully Bop’s funeral
Published:Monday | December 18, 2023 | 7:06 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
A date has been set for the funeral for rags-to-riches deejay, Gully Bop.
His sister, Ann Marie Chamberlain, acknowledging that there has been much speculation surrounding the final rites for Bop, made the announcement on Sunday afternoon. Gully Bop will be laid to rest one and a half months after his passing in the west rural St Andrew district of King Weston where he was born.
“I met with some members of my family today and we decided on a date. All the people out there who are concerned about my brother’s funeral, we have decided on a date. It is going to be the 14th of January 2024 ... we will put our brother to rest,” Chamberlain said, while confirming what had been said by Bop’s manager, that the delay was due to her being overseas.
“Bop was very close to his sister, and she is an integral part of the planning ... she will play a big role in everything,” manager Jackie Hunte said last month.
Chamberlain shared that the burial spot will be in King Weston at the family plot “and I guess he will be churching there too at the church where he used to attend when he was much younger”.
In her six-minute-and-12-second video, Chamberlain made it clear that she was not on social media for the drama, the controversy, nor “to beg money”. She also had a few words for the “naysayers”.
“A lot of things have been said and still have been said ... but I don’t give much attention to the naysayers. People will talk ... and let them talk, it is a balanced world. We need them for motivation. You have to be strong to face the world. We can choose to answer and you can choose not. I chose not to because when you play chess you know when to move,” she declared.
Gully Bop, whose real name is Robert Lee Malcolm, passed away at Kingston Public Hospital on October 31 after prolonged kidney-related health challenges.
He had a chequered career which saw him enjoy a meteoric rise from homelessness to stardom. In 2014, the then Country Man shot to overnight fame when a video of him — with no front teeth and free-styling uber confidently that “every gyal want a wuk offa mi” — went viral. Gully Bop, the Body Specialist, was born and in rapid fire succession he was headlining Sting, performing on Reggae Sumfest and in negotiations for a world tour.
But the Dem Nuh Bad Like We sensation was plagued by addictions, and eventually returned to near obscurity and facing homelessness again. On his journey he had relationships with female artistes including Shauna Chyn and A’Mari DJ Mona Lisa.