Gully Bop

Gully Bop Freestyle

Arguably the biggest dancehall star of the moment, Gully Bop quite literally went from rags to riches in a matter of weeks, after an amateur video of him freestyling landed online last year.Watching said video with no sound, viewers could be forgiven for thinking the man featured was either high on something, or was several sandwiches short of a picnic. Skinny and disheveled with several teeth missing, the Jamaican video star rocked and bopped, whilst throwing his arms around wildly. But those who took time to listen, quickly discovered that looks can most certainly be deceiving. The man who had indeed been branded “mad” and accused of being a drug addict (more on that later), was spitting lyrics with impressive flow, demonstrating his deejaying prowess.

“Slackness” at its best, his lyrical content was sexually explicit and, as such, wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea. But as the featured man paced up and down whilst declaring, “every gyal want a wuk offa mi,” little did he know that stardom would soon beckon.

The video went viral, introducing the world to a deejay known as Gully Bop. And just a few weeks later, he was performing in front of thousands of revelers, headlining dancehall’s biggest and internationally-renowned annual stage show, Sting. There, he stole the show, strutting across the stage with energy, whilst throwing lyrical shots at his supposed arch-nemesis, fellow deejay Ninja Man.

Fast-forward to 2015 and Gully Bop has graced many stages, most recently, here in the UK, performing sell-out shows in London, Luton, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

“This is the first time I’ve left Jamaica,” Gully Bop told Life & Style during his recent trip to the UK. “This was my first time on the plane.”

Was it a surprise for him to discover how many fans he has out here?

“Yeah man, big surprise! [My fans in the UK are] better than in Jamaica. Over here, they’re more sociable with me; they treat me better. In Jamaica, I just feel ordinary, but when I come to England, my shows sell off. Dem mek me feel like a superstar!

“I have fans all over the world, but when I reached England and saw how many fans I had, one thought came to my mind: I wish I could have fans like this everywhere I go.”

Enjoying his UK stay, the 49-year-old was even happy with the climate.

“The weather is alright,” laughed the entertainer, born Robert Lee Malcolm. “God ease up the cold for me. Right now mi look outside and see the sunshine, so it’s alright.”

                                                                     GULLY BOP INTERVIEW MARCH 2015 

                       

After bursting onto the reggae music scene last year, Gully Bop quickly found himself earning plenty of media attention. Stories began to emerge that the deejay had previously been homeless, while others alleged he was a drug addict.

But despite these persistent accusations, Gully Bop says these stories are untrue.

“People just said dem tings for hype,” he claims. “Nutt’n never go suh – I was never on drugs. And I wasn’t homeless. I was just poor. I didn’t have anything. So I ended up ah sit down in South Side and Grants Pen in Jamaica doing nothing except fixing old fans and old TVs – but that couldn’t maintain me. When I mek the likkle money [from that], I couldn’t even buy a suit.

“But God felt sorry for me. He saw I was good people and he lifted me up – and me nah drop back again.”

He continues: “In Jamaica, mi see a whole heap ah bad man. And I know where drugs and guns put you. If I was into drugs or guns, mi woulda dead long time. Coz I grew up in the worst place in Jamaica: South Side in Kingston Central and Grants Penn in Kingston 8. Go inna di media and read about them places and you’ll understand. When you’re on drugs in them places, police ah kill you. I never troubled dem tings [drugs].”

Another story that Gully dismisses as hype is one that suggests he and Ninja Man are enemies. The story went (don’t you just love internet rumours?) that back in the ‘90s, when Gully made his first attempt at music success under the guise Country Man, Ninja Man supplied the aspiring deejay with cocaine, in a bid to destroy his career.

WAR OF WORDS: Gully Bop's lyrical nemesis Ninja Man 

The pair clashed on stage at Sting last year

 but Gully insists the “war” is not personal, 

and that he and the Permit to Bury hitmaker are in fact friends.

Gully Bop Ft Imari Drop Mi 

“Me and him not in war – it’s just lyrical war, not personal war. Ah mi fren’ man,” Gully insists. “Let me tell you about Jamaican artists: they might war lyrically, but you’ll see the two of them sit down together on the street drinking a beer, happy. It’s just lyrical war. When we go on stage, him say him bad and him can mash up any deejay. So me just mash him up, coz mi nuh ‘fraid to mash him up!”
One story that is true is that the entertainer is engaged to his manager, Shauna Chin. Will the couple be getting wed soon? “Not for now,” says Gully. “We’ve been together nearly two years.” And he’s in love? “Always in love!

And what about those teeth? Though the deejay now dons attire more fitting for his newfound fame, he hasn’t yet found it necessary to get his missing teeth replaced. And apparently, he’s in no hurry to do so.

“Every day me eat dumpling and banana and yam same way, so my teet’ is not a problem right now,” he says. “I’m gonna get mi teet fixed, but I’m on tour, so I can’t think about that right now.

“Me can’t mek dem go in my mouth and kill up my mouth like dem ah plant food in the ground! Right now me ah tell you di truth – you know how much that would set back my career? I’ll get it done but not right now.”

So what is the future for this fast-rising star?

“Let me tell you… I’m gonna step likkle further and beat them bad,” he laughs. “If you’ve been following my career, you’ll have seen that dem [the media] have blasted me nuff.

“They said I wouldn’t get a visa or a passport because I’m a mad man. They said I couldn’t do Sting because nobody would want to hear me at Sting. And they said if I did do Sting, Ninja Man woulda mash me up.

“Dem say a whole heap ah tings about me, but as long as Father God is behind me, nothing can stop me, no matter what people say.”

For more information, visit www.gullybopmusic.com

                                                                             2015 DANCEHALL VIBES