Naira Marley has revealed that he initially believed reports of Mohbad’s death were just another publicity stunt. In a recent interview, he recalled hearing the news while abroad, where he was with members of Mohbad’s team to shoot a music video. The news, he said, came as a complete shock.
“We were eating at a restaurant when someone said, ‘Mohbad is dead.’ I looked around and said, ‘It’s a lie. He wants to blow again,” Marley recalled. “It was surreal, seeing headlines like ‘Mohbad died of infection’ or cryptic messages on social media. I thought, ‘They’re lying. How can it be that?”
He explained that they were planning to meet Mohbad in Montenegro, and the reaction was one of disbelief, not grief. “This guy hasn’t eaten, he’s so happy,” Marley said, describing their reunion. “He was just hungry. And then someone drops that bomb.”
Marley went on to question the timing of the news and social media fallout. “They started posting old fight videos, trying to rewrite the narrative. They were posting clips from October 2022 even though Mohbad died in September 2023. I could tell someone was trying to manipulate the story.”
Despite his shock, Marley said he couldn’t immediately mourn Mohbad properly. With accusations flying, including suggestions that he was responsible, grief had to take a backseat. “People were posting videos from around the house, everything was turned upside down,” he said. “They even blamed me, ‘You killed him.’ I was out of the country, I have the stamps, the videos, proof.”
“I wasn’t ready to judge,” Marley reflected. “There were too many anomalies. But seeing all of it in real time… it was heartbreaking not just losing a friend but feeling like I wasn’t allowed to grieve.”
