The BVI might be praying that David Constantine Brooks, the ‘Gully God’, better known as Mavado, will return a hefty down payment after he failed to perform as planned during the Territory’s festival celebrations last August.
According to the Virgin Islands Festivals and Fairs Committee’s 2012 report, released this week, the Carrot Bay Sub-Committee sent a deposit of $15,000 to Jullian Jones-Griffith, the manager of the Jamaican dancehall singer. According to the report, the Carrot Bay Sub-Committee was informed without explanation that Mavado would not be able to perform and that another date should be chosen.
“A refund was requested and to this date has not been returned,” the report stated.
The Jamaican singer should have performed on August 10 during festival entertainment activities in Carrot Bay.
On August 1, BVI Platinum News confirmed with Marvin Blyden, Chairman of the Festivals and Fairs Committee that Mavado would not be performing. At the time, Blyden said there were some issues with the contract and it was no fault of the committee or Mavado. He said the Carrot Bay Sub-Committee would have issued a press release with further details, but the details and the press release were never made available to the press.
Initially, officials were tight-lipped about the saga and had not offered an explanation for the swirling questions that had started to mount regarding the Jamaican singer.
Stuart Donovan, head of the Carrot Bay Sub-Committee was contacted during the ordeal and was asked repeatedly about Mavado’s appearance, but brushed aside the question as “nonsense”.
Donovan was asked to deny or confirm issues surrounding the Mavado show based on reports coming out of Jamaica, but he insisted that BVI Platinum News should check with Jamaica.
In May, Mavado was found guilty in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court, almost a year after he was arrested for assaulting a St. James man and his son and damaging their car in an apparent case of road rage.
According to a report published by the Jamaican Gleaner, Brooks was fined JMD $80,000 or a six-month prison term on the assault charge and JMD $20,000 or six months imprisonment on the malicious destruction charge. The sentences are to run concurrently if the fines are not paid.
Brooks was charged in connection with the incident on July 22, 2011, in which he and members of his entourage allegedly attacked the complainants, Henry Cunningham and his son Oshane, and damaged their car along the Belmont main road in St James.
Several countries have banned Mavado, mainly due to his lyrics and his role in the musical feud between his gully crew and Vybz Kartel’s gaza crew. Regional Governments blamed the two singers for the escalating violence among youth, who professed to represent varying sides of the feud. Both Mavado and Kartel, who is now in jail facing murder charges, have vowed to end the feud.
Courtesy of Platinum News in the BVI
