INTERVIEW : MAD COBRA
Interview by : Benoit Collin & Benoit Georges
Pictures by : Benoit Collin
on Tuesday, October 10th 2006 - 10 316 views
An unmissable deejay of the 90s and still a very active entertainer, Mad Cobra remains associated through his songs with the hardest-core dancehall. Cobra, who enjoyed enormous success in the United States from 1992, nonetheless seems to live far from the characters he plays through his music. Mellowed, he leads a simple life in the residential area of Spanish Town, a quiet little community west of Kingston, a neighbourhood with the feel of an American suburb. Which does not stop him from still being present on a great many riddims. Sitting on the patio in front of the house, we go back with him over a career that is already long and rich in experience.
Reggaefrance / Can you tell us about your beginnings in music and your first sounds?
Mad Cobra / I started on sounds like Inner City, Climax, Originator, Star Scope. At that time I was still at school: I was young and trying to make a name for myself through music, doing shows here and there to get a bit of publicity. That's how I got my first buzz on the street and in the underground, because those sounds were fairly underground.
How did you choose your stage name?
The name comes from a character in the GI Joe comic, a character who seems quite calm but acts stealthily. That character is a lot like me.
Apparently it was your uncle who gave you your first studio break.
Yes, it's my uncle Elroy Thompson. At the start he didn't really believe in it and didn't take my passion seriously. When he then saw that other producers were recording me, he changed his mind. I recorded my first song for the producer Earl Mason of the Wildfire label, called Respect woman. That was in 1986 or 1987.
In the early 90s you found yourself recording for Donovan Germain's Penthouse label. How did you meet him?
I met Donovan Germain through Dave Kelly. At that time, Dave Kelly was working as an engineer at Tuff Gong with his brother Tony Kelly. When they left to work with Donovan Germain, they introduced me to him. That's when I recorded Yush, Gundolero or Badboy, my first hits.
Incidentally, you've never left Dave Kelly since, and you still appear on productions from his Mad House label.
Dave Kelly is a friend. When he has a riddim that might suit me, he always calls me: he always includes me in what he does.
As far back as one can go, you've always had two favourite themes in your songs: girls and guns. Why?
Because I leave no room for "counteraction". I like being able to approach reality from these two angles. I try to keep that balance so people can go from "gangsta style" to "girls style".
Still in the same period, you put out some of the most explicit "gun songs" ever recorded: you talk about the gangs of the time, you advise rude boys to clean their guns properly (Tink a little gun) and you even go as far as complaining about the price of guns and ammunition (Price a gun)!
Actually, I just write what I feel. It depends on my mood. I don't write just because the subject is there in front of me, but because I feel the need at that moment. I think you always have to try to catch the public's attention. All those songs like Price a gun deal with serious subjects but the form is fairly comic. I like the idea of making people laugh when they listen to these tracks, even if the subjects are serious.
In 1992, with the track Flex, you became the first dancehall artist to hit number 1 in the United States. You were 24 at the time; didn't it happen too fast?
No, I don't think so, because I've always made music: I write and perform songs. Even before that, I already had stage experience through dancing. So it wasn't as if it was all new and I was afraid of facing an audience. But I still faced the problem any young artist meets: you choose to make music but when success comes, it becomes your job, everything is different. In 1992, when that song became a hit on the American charts, I was still surprised because at that time I had barely recorded enough songs for an album. I found myself with a big record company, with photographers and cameras around me. It was like a dream. But I've always looked reality in the face: I knew that once I'd broken through, I had to stay. When the flashes went off around me, I played the game because I'd already spent five or six years in the underground: taking the mic on sound systems, carrying the equipment cases or the speakers, recording free dubplates, working without being paid... I'd been through all those stages. So I hoped that one day success would come.
Right after that, you signed with Columbia.
That experience was both good and bad. Bad first, because Columbia limited me: I couldn't voice this riddim or do that collaboration. On the other hand, local producers and concert promoters in Jamaica think you're being disrespectful, that you're too "big" to work with them, when it's the record company that forbids it. As if it wanted to control you. I'm someone who doesn't let himself be controlled, so I left. It was a difficult decision but as long as you have your roots and the street backs you, there's no problem.
There weren't many of you signed to American majors back then...
Before me there was Shabba Ranks and I want to mention him because Shabba invited me on tour with him to open for him in 1991, 1992. We're in the same camp. I'm very grateful to him, first for breaking down the doors in the United States and then for letting me have that experience. Me, I was just lucky enough to have a track in the Billboard charts.
In the end the deal didn't keep its promises and you found yourself back in the Jamaican underground, which still ensures your longevity. Was the fall hard?
It was a choice. I didn't feel good at Columbia. I'd known the money, the media coverage, the red carpet, the American Music Awards... But at the end of the day, you remain a man despite everything and I didn't feel good like that. I'm a man before I'm a musician. So I had to make my choice and I preferred to go back to my roots. I won't name names but many artists went to the United States at the height of their glory. They had their moment, they enjoyed it and forgot their roots. When the bubble burst, they were forced to go back to their roots: the problem is that their roots no longer accepted them. I remain a guy from the gullies and the gutters ("gully and gutter"). That's what I chose and it's what I still am today. I have no regrets.
So you returned to the local producers with success: the Jammy's family (father and sons), Digital B...
King Jammy's is truly a king. In terms of studio work, he has his own sound and nobody can imitate it. At that time, the younger members of the family went into production: John John, Jam2, Trev, CJ... Bobby Digital comes from the same school as Jammy's: he does everything in analogue on tape whereas today's young producers mostly use Pro Tools. Senior producers like Penthouse, Jammy's, Bobby Digital or Sonic Sound keep working in analogue on 16-track consoles and two-track tape: for me that's the real sound. But you have to evolve with technology because generations change and music changes every day. You can't stay stuck on one type of sound: you have to listen, you must know what 15-year-olds like. You have to get inside their heads. In Jamaica, older people don't buy as many CDs as young people.
You remain very prolific on singles but your albums are hard to find in Europe. What's the story?
My latest album isn't that hard to find. It can be ordered on the Jetstar website. It came out in May 2006 and it's called "The sniper way": it's ruff, authentic, sick, psychopathic... Now I'm working on a project called "The other side of coin" which shows a cooler side, more "smooth gangsta", with tracks for the women too, which reflect life without being too aggressive: but nothing too soft, nothing too hard.
Two years ago you released a track on the Hard drugs riddim, a conscious tune with a chorus sung in falsetto. Could you start singing more regularly?
No, not really. I'm not a great singer: I can't hold the notes... But I write songs I feel. I was in that inspiration when I wrote that track. Like I told you, the subjects I deal with depend a lot on my mood.
To finish on a lighter note, do you prefer the company of a woman or a gun?
Both! (laughs)
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