IMMIGRATION issues prevented Popcaan’s appearance at the Red Bull Culture Clash competition in Atlanta last Friday.

However, his team Unruly came out victorious against Eardrummers, Disturbing London, and Wondagurl.

Hours prior to the indoor sound system clash, Popcaan released a statement informing fans that he will not be at the event due to circumstances beyond his control.

“It is with deep regret that we have to announce that Popcaan is unable to participate with Unruly at this year’s Red Bull Culture Clash in Atlanta,” the statement read.

“Due to circumstances out of our control and despite everyone’s best efforts, travel documents were unable to be processed in time for the clash. We prepared rigorously as a team for this event and were prepared for a serious clash with Popcaan as the team leader. We are fully aware without the presence of Unruly’s boss Popcaan, things will be vastly different, but we are Unruly and are 100 per cent dedicated to representing for our culture, our country, Popcaan and Red Bull.”

Popcaan and his team won the 2016 Red Bull Culture Clash in London as part of the Mixpak team.

Red Bull Culture Clash comprises four crews competing in four or five rounds of genre-bending musical competition, with the winner decided by volume of crowd response.

It wasn’t an easy win for the Unruly team as they had to overcome stiff competition from Eardrummers featuring Mike WiLL Made-It, who brought out some special guests like Junior Reid, Ludacris, and Pusha T. Unruly had Atlanta hip hop artiste-producer Jermaine Dupri and the crowd went wild.

Disturbing London featuring Tinie Tempah and Wondagurl of team Enjoylife also represented well to the point where they had the crowd in their favour. However, after Unruly won the third round, it was all over. They had some dancehall heavyweight disc jockeys on their team including ZJ Liquid, Chromatic, Jazzy T, and Jabba.

Popcaan (whose given name is Andre Sutherland) has never been able to secure a work permit to travel and perform in the United States since his break in 2010. However, he still manages to find success in the major market that is the US.

Recently, his collaboration Saturn Barz, with British animation group The Gorillaz, topped Billboard’s Reggae Digital Song Sales chart. His 2014 album Where We Come From peaked at number two on the Reggae Album chart, while his 2012 single Only Man She Want reached number 82 on the R&B Hip Hop Songs chart.

— Simone Morgan