Family, friends say last goodbyes to Gully Bop
Entertainers, exes shun funeral
Published:Monday | January 15, 2024 | 12:09 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Members of the entertainment fraternity did not come out to pay their last respects to one of their own, Robert Lee Malcolm, also known as ‘Gully Bop’, on Sunday at his thanksgiving service at the Louise Bennett Garden Theatre on the grounds of the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre. And neither did Gully Bop’s popular exes.
This lack of representation was a topic of conversation from the pockets of persons who jammed on the periphery, hoping to get a glimpse of entertainment royalty, as well as the colourful characters who played a role in Gully Bop’s rise to stardom.
“The artiste dem shoulda deh here fi show some support fi Gully Bop and give him family strength. Maybe him never buss big like Beenie Man, but him did have a trending a gwaan from 2014. Maybe if Ninja Man did deh a road him woulda mobilise the artiste dem to come out,” Terryann Stewart, who described herself as Gully Bop’s long-time friend, shared.
She added, “Mi glad seh Gully Bop go home like a gem inna him red suit with him mic, but him still don’t get the funeral that him deserve.”
She lamented the fact that one of Bop’s exes, A’mari DJ Mona Lisa, who was scheduled to fly down from the US last Saturday, was entangled in some well-documented drama at the airport and ended up missing her flight.
“I follow A’mari on Instagram and she did a live about her ordeal at the airport ... but maybe she will still come,” Samuels said wistfully.
It was mainly family members – led by Gully Bop’s teary-eyed mother, Norma Blake – as well as close friends, bloggers and vloggers who filled the less than 50 chairs set out in the venue. However, entertainer-turned-herbal doctor Snagga Puss put in an appearance and paid tribute, and so too did a Gully Bop lookalike, Barry Black. A veteran who traces his roots to Black Scorpio sound, Black, who many thought was related to Gully Bop, said he was asked to represent.
“I have friends from overseas who cannot make it to Jamaica and I am not telling any lie, they pass taxi fare to give me to come here and show respect on their behalf. There is an artiste name DJ Grace and she voiced Gully Bop, too, and she was one of those who couldn’t make it. but I am here for her,” he said, as he joked that it was Gully Bop who looked like him.
He recalled an interaction with students at a school where Gully Bop was supposed to perform.
“When the kids see me they run come to me, and everybody want to touch me because they think I was Gully Bop. So, I have a song that seh Who Seh Gully Bop look like Barry Black? Him did name Ugly Man first ... [he] is the first artiste ever hit so fast that him enter on the BBC chart. But people in Jamaica judge you in certain way ... like how dem judge Yellowman. Bop was easy-going, and may his soul rest in peace,” Black said.
Gully Bop’s son, Nico, said that he was not surprised by the no-show artistes.
“It’s like this ... time is the master. Maybe when fi dem own [funeral] a gwaan nobody nuh go, either. My expectations are not that high. I just expected my family, and they are all here,” a satisfied Nico said.
Two and a half months after his death, Gully Bop was finally laid to rest in a family plot in King Weston, the west rural St Andrew district where he was born. Gully Bop, 51, passed away at Kingston Public Hospital on October 31.
It was in 2014, that 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. However, over the years, his fame and fortune waned, and the charming gully-to-the-money story took a grim turn as Gully Bop’s health also deteriorated, leaving him battling kidney disease and stomach cancer.