Exactly one year and five months after being blacklisted by the government David Constantine Brooks more popularly known as the ‘Gully God’ or ‘Mavado’ will for the second time perform in Guyana on September 19 at the National Stadium, Providence.
At a press conference held on the April 28 last year, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had told reporters that Mavado along with his mentor and leader of the Alliance crew Rodney ‘Bounty Killer’ Price – was seen as a security risk to the country and as such will not be permitted to perform here again.
The decision to blacklist the two Jamaicans, Rohee said, was taken by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration after careful consideration of their track records.
On February 23, 2006, Mavado first performed in Guyana at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) Ground and was highly anticipated to grace the 2008 Linden Town Week Celebration, in a show that was hosted by Ward Entertainment at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground and also featured Lady Saw.
Two weeks prior to his arrival, Bounty Killer headlined a show at the National Park, promoted by the Wild Fire Production group, which was marred by sporadic gunfire.
This forced the authorities to put the ban in place as there were mixed feelings about the artist well being based on his association with Price.
However when contacted on Thursday by The Scene, Rohee refused to give his view on the lifting of the ban only saying; “I have nothing to say concerning that”.
It was then mentioned by head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on Thursday that the ban was lifted to give the artiste a chance to redeem himself.
Meanwhile, since word surfaced about dancehall’s most controversial artiste coming back to Guyana, some sections of the society have said that as was the case last year when the government enforced the ban it should have done the same when the ban was lifted.
Mavado is no stranger to this kind of treatment around the world ever since his outburst in 2005 on the Red Bull and Guinness Riddim with his hit “Weh dem do”.
Last year the 28-year-old DJ had several contentious run-ins with governments across the Caribbean.
February last in Trinidad and Tobago, the music of Mavado – whose trademark and latest album title is ‘Gangsta for Life’ – was blamed for the stabbing of a student and as a result of this, some DJs on the island have reportedly refused to play his music.
Prior to the Police Commissioner in St Vincent and Grenadines stopped him from entering the island without an official explanation just days before his scheduled performance at a show dubbed the best of both worlds.
Mavado was charged with illegal gun possession, and his run-in with the law was reportedly what prevented him from getting a visa to go to New York in June 2008 for what should have been a call-up on stage by American hip-hop star Jay-Z who has done a remix of his song “On The Rock”.
Nevertheless, it seemed as though these incidents paid off handsomely for the artiste since he has since signed a multi-million dollar contract with the makers for the popular video game Grand Theft Auto, where he had his hit tune “Real Mckoy” specially redone for the game.
Added to that, he was commissioned by Nike to appear in an EPK (Electronic Promotional Kit) and to make an original track to support the Jamaican efforts at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Nike also made a limited number of ‘Mavado Nike’ sneakers to help promote the campaign.
His popularity grew even more after his clash with Vybz Kartel and his Gaza crew at famous ‘Sting’ stage show last year and this brought out a more versatile Mavado one which has seen the artiste being a bit better received around the world.
Some of his recent hits include “Sweetest Time”, “Dem a talk”, “Neva Believe”, “Hope and pray”’ as well as “House Cleaning”.
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