Eddy G Bomba’s manager upset at St James ‘shutdown’

Peyton Morgan-Kenton, manager of popular dancehall artiste Eddy G Bomba, is irate that police in St James will not be granting permits for events on which he is slated to appear.

On Tuesday, Commander for the St James Police Division, Superintendent Eron Samuels, said "I personally will not approve of that artiste performing anywhere in St James", following the death of Constable Linroy Codner, who was mowed down by a motorist earlier this month and succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. Eddy G Bomba's viral single No Cap has lyrics that state, " betta move yuh speeda gun, the beast a come, mi wi lick dung police a grung". Samuels said, based on online comments, the song is an influence for motorists conducting reckless actions against police officers. But Morgan-Kenton called the 'shutdown' stupid.

"It's not like they [the police] have any evidence to show that someone decided they want a viral moment and they are going to do what Eddy said and record it with them listening to the song and lick a police down. Suh all a dis that they are doing is just stupid and they are behaving like they are politicians by making rules," he said.

Morgan-Kenton said that the deejay was merely singing about the reality of what he sees happening around him.

"They are just trying to find somebody to blame for the police officer who died and Eddy was just the scapegoat in all this," he said. He further noted that No Cap has been out for about five months, and that Eddy G Bomba is regularly releasing songs.

"So they are not allowing the artiste to live pass that one song. When he released [ No Cap] he never even expect it to be that big because it was released on a mixtape with 18 songs," he added. The manager said he tried to meet with Samuels and his team but was denied.

"They said they are still in their emotional state in regards to a police officer who died, but we have never encouraged anybody to drive and hit down police officers, and police have been getting hit down before Eddy's song," Morgan-Kenton reasoned. "We understand that they are grieving, but at the same time, we cannot wait for them to get over their emotional feelings which may take a year or suh, and you're telling me that Eddy should not eat or make any money for a year because of your emotional situation." He said that his artiste has not broken any laws, is neither a criminal nor wanted man, and is not affiliated with any gang. Morgan-Kenton implored the public to allow Eddy G Bomba's career to flourish and stop misinterpreting the content of one song, and making an assumption of the artiste's character.

He said prior to the release of Samuel's statement, an event at AquaSol Beach Park "wasn't granted a permit because Eddy was on the show so it got cancelled". He noted that the artiste was also recently pulled from five other events in St James as no permits were granted to the promoters due to his inclusion on the line-up.

"So I'm trying to nip it in the bud from today because I don't want other police officers to follow precedent and seh they're going to ban him from other parties because that makes no sense," he said. Morgan-Kenton reasoned that following this example, the authorities should ban artistes who sing about scamming and guns.

"Suh yuh can't be selective in the problems you want to address," Morgan-Kenton opined. Attempts to get a comment from Samuels or other senior members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force proved futile.