Loved ones wish Gully Bop took better care of himself

Dancehall artiste Gully Bop, given name Robert Lee Malcolm, died on Monday following years of battling various illnesses.

The deejay had previously spoken about his health issues, including complications from a hernia, blocked tubes and kidney-related disease. He told THE STAR in August that he had undergone surgery at the Kingston Public Hospital in 2021, and had received a kidney transplant, but stressed that he was still ailing and using colostomy bags. Almost everyone with whom THE STAR spoke yesterday, said Gully Bop did not take care of himself, including allegations of substance abuse. He was not a man to mince his words when confronted about his lifestyle, however they never took it personally.

"Gully Bop a mi son uncle, but to me, is a man nuh care how you talk to him and try to help him, he will be 'facety' towards you. If you help him up today, tomorrow him gone back down the same place. Me and him good still, enuh, because him would say 'Brother-in-law wah gwaan'? and if him ask me for a thing, mi give him," said Rodney Smith.

Wayne Alvaranga, Gully Bop's friend and landlord before he finally moved into his mother's house in Grants Pen, said that whenever he was scolded, he used to retaliate.

"We accepted his behaviour and know is him that, but he could have been better if he took care of himself and took advice from the people around him," he said. "He was in and out of the hospital, and as soon as he felt a little better, he left the hospital without being discharged. I carried him to UC [University Hospital of the West Indies] many times." His condition worsened on October 16 when he collapsed.

Namyshae Johnson, who Gully Bop called the 'Original Chin', works at the bar which was his regular spot.

"When him drop down him call mi name 'Chin'. When I went out there he was in and out of consciousness so I called the police and other people for help and they took him to the hospital and from then I haven't seen him back. He cut his own life short because he didn't treat the cut [from a previous surgery] and he didn't change the [colostomy] bags," she told THE STAR.

Johnson said Gully Bop was promoting his latest song Naah Badda Dead "because him did start show we the money say him rich again".

"Him say when him dead him ago know and see it deh him dead fi true. All said and done, he was a good person," she said. Gully Bop's younger sister Ann-Marie Chamberlin, is saddened by his death.

"Everybody knows his personality, he can be very nice and he can be the opposite. He had an addiction and within myself I cannot deny the fact. Nobody would like to know that their brother had an addiction and now that he is not here anymore I cannot bash him, only God can be the judge of that. He knew why he did the things he did, he chose to be who he was."

Gully Bop rose to fame in 2014 when a video of him freestyling went viral. By the following year, he had secured work visas to the US, UK and parts of the Caribbean.