Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
(This is the third and final part of an interview with deejay Mad Cobra, which began in the Sunday Gleaner).
THE MAD Cobra does not perform in Jamaica regularly. And when he does, it is not in the common 'pass the mic in a group' way, making a big impact at last August's 'Beenie Man Summer Sizzle' in Clarendon.
"Is the direction music take in a sense," Cobra said about not being a regular name on posters locally. "Back in the 1990s when you find Cobra, Terror Fabulous, Pinchers, it was a stage show. Man went on at their time and did a full set. It is more hype now than a real love of the music. I stay away from the hype and the disrespect."
"Overseas, you get to do Cobra in concert, hour and a half to two hours and you get to interact with the audience," he said. He travels with the aptly named Venom Band or uses recorded tracks if necessary. "I love Barbados, New York, Miami, Japan, Hawaii, England... The biggest audience I ever face was in Japan, over 100,000 people, a sea of people moving along with hits after hits. You have to perform," he said.
And as for that other thing which often happens when more than one deejay hits the stage at a time, Cobra is not at all averse to clashing. And he is very good at it even though he is wary of how it is taken in this era of fragile egos. "I am always prepared," Cobra said with a smile. "Nothing is wrong with the clash, is how people take it afterwards."
"Clash now is a joke thing. You must allow a man to do him lyrics and counteract," Cobra said.
Cobra has been zipping to and fro on planes for a long time, what with 'Flex' making it huge internationally in the early 1990s.
"Is not that I put Jamaica behind me. Jamaica is the factory, when you go out you represent."
COMBINATIONS
That representation has meant combinations with various overseas artistes, including R. Kelly for the Adams Family soundtrack, Ghetto Boys with Run DMC and, of course, You Make Me High with Toni Braxton. "Toni Braxton show us love. I met her years before she get big," Cobra said.
"The best hip-hop artiste I ever go on the road with is Tupac. He want to be a Jamaican. From Africa to Jamaica, that is what he is about," Cobra said.
He won't, of course, be touring forever, but the stage will never be quite out of his blood. "I want to be like Admiral. The energy! If you hear Admiral deejay Jump Up is like it just record," Cobra said, also mentioning General Trees. "When me stop perform, me have to exceed. I hope dem buil' a deejay Heineken Startime, for me have to be there."
