Mad Cobra : "I am a no nonsense man!"

Let me tell you what happened.  The stage was wet and that's why I fell.  But you know what?  You have to be spontaneous in your actions.  So if I slip and try to get up, it's a bad start.  So I just stayed there and do the song I was starting with and then I rise up and the song end up in a forward.  Some people don't know what happened, only some of them have seen it…  I had to get the show going like nothing happened!
So far so good, everything went well, I love my first performance here and I'm grateful and hope to be back very soon.

It's very important indeed.  Rather than being a recording artist, you have to learn to deliver.  Even in the worse situation, you have to try and make the best of what you have.  That means for example that, if the riddims are not selected the way they are supposed to be selected, you can still freestyle, or work with the crowd, or work with what you have.  Because the audience come to see a show and if something goes bad, it is your duty to try to do whatever you can to get the show going.  You have to be spontaneous and you have to do what you came here to do.

Is it the first time you played with City Lock Sound?

No!  City lock is my brethen.  City Lock is like my brother… from another mother.  Whenever I am in Europe, City Lock represents for me.  And City Lock alone : he does the booking and the ground work here.  Over the years, I didn't shine over Europe but my management team is busy.  And I am glad because I still have a string of hits, I still have current songs and there's a one drop album coming out very soon so there's a lot to come.  Right now, in Europe, the sky is the limit.  I am ready for Europe.  It's just mad music, mad support and mad love.  I love the response so far.

In Jamaica, I haven't worked for the last six years... My reason is professionalism.  I stay away from shows where you have fifteen artists on stage.  Jamaican music is great because it's like the factory, the background, of danchehall and reggae.  But sometimes some artists try and disrespect you.  So I rather stay away from that type of events.  I am a no-nonsense person.  All selectors, promoters and artists understand what I am saying…

Yes and no.  Because when Capleton, myself and Buju Banton were coming out, we came out as a batch, after veterans as Shabba ranks, Supercat, Ninjaman or Josey Wales.  When we came out as new artists, people used to say "Look how them hype and dem show off".  I used to look at this as a disrespect coming from the elders. 

So these youths that just burst now and do their thing, I have to understand them. I have to understand that it is a generation change.  So you can't burn them out and say that they are hype.   I love what they are doing.  I just don't love the physical confrontation.  But musically and lyrically I love it.  The Gaza and Gully thing, I have no problem with it.  Kartel is my deejay, Movado is my singer.  I love it when they go at it musically, but not physically.  Because physical confrontation will spread out at the fans, causing some people to get hurt.  

Let me tell you something: it's all about the way they're coming into the music.  Back in the time when I was coming out, things were different.  Look, Bounty Killer is from this era, Beenie Man is from that era too where you trained to deejaying just in the way that it sounded on your record.  When I sing, you can hear that my voice sounds like the record. 

Some people use computer enhancement, like the auto-tune.  Nothing wrong with that: I also use it sometimes, depending on the song.  But when you are a deejay, you have to deliver what people love about your music.  You can not just come and do the first verse and stop.  You should perform your song.  If you see me on stage rushing my tunes, it's only because the time span can be short.  But when I have my time, I do my song fully, interact with the crowd and get the crowd involved and deliver.

In the new generation there are only a handful of artists who can actually deliver their song as it sounds on the record.

I got the news today via the Internet that Buju Banton was bailed.  For me this is a good gesture.  Because for the past year, since the incident occurred, people have been saying "Look at those deejays, look at Buju Banton what he has done, and wey wey…" But me didn't doubt about him because I know him since we grow up.  But you know, sometimes, you can be at the wrong place at the wrong time.  For example I could be in a vehicle where weapons are found and I am not responsible.  Well, this is a lesson to be learnt and it is sending a message that one needs to be very careful and stay out of problems.

Well don't worry.  I don't have any problem talking about this.  The thing is that you have people who don't like to work and rather live as extortionists.  I am a man, as I said, who is a no-nonsense man.  I was shot because of envy, grudgeful, or someone trying to prove something to himself.  But I didn't react at them back with violence.  Some people who love and respect me told me "Cobra, you have a career, you have your music, you are lucky to be alive… The way you was shot, you should be dead right now…"  So I just look at this event like being one of the bad days in life.  I pick up the pieces, pick myself up and move forward.  That's why I wrote that song called "Draw Me Out", to let them know that they can't draw me out.  If it wasn't for the help of God I wouldn't be here now.  People expected violence and payback, but I didn't do that…

That particular picture came about when I was drafted for a movie.  That was the Shottas Part Two where they wanted to use me as the villain in the movie.  That's why we did this series of pictures.  The director and the people who scout him did a photo shoot with the guns, without shirt and you know the whole thing.  But all arms are legal firearms on that picture, nothing illegal.

When the movie was scrapped, I asked the permission to the photograph to use it and that's how it used it on the "Snypa Way" album.

Yes because I enjoy my work.  Sometimes when I deliver lyrics, people say "Oh, too much gun lyrics…"  But the greatest thing is that we have communication and we can see each other.  And then understand what each other means by looking at each other's face.

It is easy to criticize our songs.  But look, the most violent thing is a cartoon.  Every cartoon is violent.  Because Roadrunner is trying to kill the bird, then Sylvester the cat trying to eat the Tweety Bird… You see? Music is just reality.  I am from the ghetto.  So I speak about what affects me.  I see bullets everyday.  I see people die every day in the streets.  So in my lyrics I speak about the guns and about what the guns can do.  But I don't tell to take a gun and go kill someone.  No one will hear in my lyrics "Go and rob".  I never say to go and kill innocent people.  But to the "fassy", those who seek for war, the adversaries, I say we won't turn the other cheek to them!

Yes, it is called "The Other Side Of The Coin".  Nothing violent in it.  Only slow songs, love songs, a bit of sex in it and so forth,… It is showing a different side of my music.  It's been recorded on reggae riddims, kette drum vibes, string vibes… Different thing,