Track Listing

1. Parental Advisory
2. Angriest Introduction
3. Real McKoy With A Full Clip - Busy Signal, Mavado
4. Weh Dem A Do
5. Father's Prayer
6. They Fear Me
7. Defitition Of A Gangster
8. Dreaming
9. Don't Cry
10. Cassava Piece Radio
11. Dying - Mavado, Serani
12. David's Interlude
13. Top Shotta Nah Miss
14. Joey D. Ratt
15. Last Night
16. Snitch's Eulogy
17. Amazing Grace
18. Touch The Road
19. Me And My Dogs
20. APB
21. Gully Side
22. Squeeze Breast
23. Heart Beat
24. Sadness
25. Born & Raised

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114775 in Music
• Released on: 2007-07-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Customer Reviews

Gangster 4 life
movado is the best, best cd eva bought if u a fan of munga and vybz kartel this album is definately for you

BULLET!
I love this cd! It's been in the cd player of my car since I bought it three weeks ago and I play it at some point every day. I think Mavado has a lot of potential to "rise and buss". He has a unique quality to his voice and a cool way of flipping words.
It almost seems to me that he was good on this cd without really even trying. Imagine if he went all out. The "gangsta for life" line was used so much that it loses some of its intended effect in my opinion.
I hope when Mavado develops his craft more he will sing a little more. There's something heartfelt in his voice that I would like to hear more of. Maybe he could become the Jamaican Jaheim (but hopefully more successful).
Peace

Overkill?. . .
Critics of modern dancehall are quick to point the finger at several rather large and overlying issues in the dance which signal the `changing of the times' of dancehall. The three largest of these issues are slackness in the dancehall, the actual arguments and public disagreements between the artists and musicians themselves and lastly the obvious shift of overall violence within the music. As the rootical side of the music seems to get more and more pure and back to the vibes where it originated, dancehall, at least according to the critics, has taken a turn for the worse from which will take years to recover. The usual faces of sorts who have made these warnings come about were the typical names Beenie Man and Bounty Killer's seemingly never ending war to the finish; Ninjaman and Mad Cobra, two ultra determined holdovers from the ever so SLIGHTLY less violent era of dancehall just preceding this current one and names like Spragga Benz and Lady Saw who took slackness to a level of which even the late `Slackest DJ' General Echo would be proud. Then came Vybz Kartel, an artist who in himself would push all warning stages to the point of critical mass. Having spent his `developmental period' as a writer for his then mentor Bounty Killer, when the spotlight began to shine on Kartel himself, Jamaica realized it had literally stumbled upon one of its most controversial, yet undeniably most talented champions of all time. Kartel's equally downright odd and downright genius style produced hit after hit and having linked with some of the just as genius young names in dancehall production and the young Portmore native had a claim to being not only one of the undeniably most powerful artists in Jamaica, but one of the most powerful people overall. His music was all three issues to an exaggerated degree; not only could he turn songs like Why You Doing It with Wayne Marshall and Tekk both of which became MASSIVE Jamaican hits; he could be equally `successful' with tunes like Gun Clown, Like Nuttn and Gunz Like Mine all more violent that the one before; Kartel also proved to be a handful for his peers, taking small swipes at some of the biggest names in the business like Beenie Man, (AT THE TIME) Merciless and Assassin, he would eventually declare full blown war on Spragga Benz, infamously Ninjaman and even his own mentor, Bounty Killer. Armed with one of the craziest flows all of music has ever seen and a bag of lyrics which has no bottom, he proved himself able to belong with the legends. In his short time at the forefront of the music, Kartel has not only developed himself into a dominant force in the dancehall, he has, like Ninja and Bounty Killer (I think there's some Papa San and Madd Anju in there as well) inspired him; inspired his own group of young artists, most notably the most likely choices for the next ruling DJ's Aidonia (who you can very well expect a similar styled review from on his debut album later this year/early 08) and Busy Signal (check Bramma too). Also in the mix came a very unusual talent who, unlike his most immediate predecessor, Wayne Marshall, as THE dancehall singer of choice lacked the `dance' part of dancehall and seemed bent on turning the music into his own personal war zone, going as far as taking on Kartel himself.

Enter Mavado. If Bounty Killer were a singer, he would probably be a BETTER HUMOURED version of Mavado (which is saying a lot, I know bricks with more humor than the Killa). Mavado relatively slowly exploded on the scene in 2005-2006 to the point which, at the end of 2006 he had even began to outshine regular sparring partner Busy Signal in the midst of his own debut album release. Thus began a MAMMOTH (in terms of dancehall) bidding war for the services of the young Cassava Piece native singer who through his various hits had attracted more attention than any dancehall singer I can remember. Having found a home with excellent young Kingston production house, Daseca whose style of producing almost over hard yet still highly infectious dancehall riddims fitted the `fast singing' style of Mavado (he, at times, almost comes off as a DJ who hangs on words a little longer) perfectly. When Mavado actually reached the masses and revealed his style (save for a few bits here and there, one of which was a tune over the strange Middle East riddim name Bawl, which oddly enough was the b-side to Kartel`s Dandy Shandy), he was initially not too well received with listeners not knowing what to make of the singer who sung about guns and guns, and guns and guns! While there have been artists who had `specialties' before, most notably, one of Mavado's own mentors in Bounty Killer who took the art of the `gun tune', destroyed it and rebuilt it from the ground up; the late General Echo who could DJ without ending on the subject of sex and sex and sex and others still like Lady Saw's own brilliance with the slack tune, King Yellowman's seemingly never ending infatuation with. . . King Yellowman and to a lesser degree underrated but wicked DJ Round Head's crazy ability to turn nearly ANY subject ultimately into his own favorite subject, ganja; arguably NO ONE has ever `represented' for the overall viciously violent tune like Mavado. Mavado's almost blind obsession with the gun almost mirrors Round Head's ganja affection and Yellowman's affection for Yellowman in that, in never matters what he's singing about, it will almost ALWAYS turn into a discussion of the gun. His style is not at all similar to that of predecessors Killa, Cobra or Ninja in that, he doesn't (usually) harp solely about his own proficiency with the gun, he will relate a story, he will tell of someone else's abilities and break it down to a shocking level of detail the military would be impressed by. Perhaps even to the deficiency of other areas of tunes; he hasn't (at least not as yet) shown the ability to score with the big lover's tune which singers normally add very early to their arsenal, his fans, however, have shown nary a care for Mavado's one track mind as when the gates of hits from the singer opened , after the brief hesitation period I mention, they have hung on nearly every word. His initial signature tunes, Real McKoy and the wicked combination Full Clip with Busy Signal (both over Daseca's Anger Management riddim, with the latter coming over a slightly amplified version, the Angrier Management), both became MASSIVE hits and rarely is a Mavado stage show which still doesn't include both sets in some form. The critics, meanwhile, had (and are still having) a literal trip with Mavado's rise to prominence with some going as far as to mark the singer's rise to prominence with an overall shift, not only in dancehall and all reggae music, but with Jamaican life as a whole, pointing to his bloody war with Kartel which left the studio and the dancehall altogether and reached the streets.

Strictly musically speaking, there is no denying the talents of Mavado, thus there was no surprise when the largest reggae label in the world, VP announced in March of 2007 that they had reached a deal with Mavado for his debut album to be released this summer appropriately entitled after his signature call, Gangster For Life. Having missed the boat previously with raw talents like Kartel and Busy (and in thus, at least to some, seemingly kept there image to the more playful and artful side of the music with their current dancehall signees including names like Sean Paul and Elephant Man (both duel deals with majors), Wayne Wonder and the recently departed Lady Saw showing that and only Assassin who plays both roles equally well and very recently the signing of Bounty Killer representing the more aggressive side of the music), VP apparently went all out for Mavado's services and signed the singer to a multiple album deal. The first product of the deal is here and arguably the most anticipated dancehall album of the year, Gangster For Life: The Symphony of David Brooks reaches shelves and is expected to do very large things for the artist and label alike. There are very few surprises with Gangsta
For Life, it actually reminds me a great deal of Sean Paul's debut with VP, 2000's Stage One (still one of my favorite dancehall albums! I don't care!) which was built largely on the tracks on which the artist had made his name. The exactly same number of tracks, 25 comprised Stage One and seemingly to give it a new feel, several interludes or `skits' were included (Mavado actually tops reggae`s king of skits Sean Paul with an almost laborious nine to seven. ) and the album was with very few high profile combinations, instead, choosing to basically introduce the international world to the artist, and you see what happened in the case of Sean Paul (although with Mavado's style and personality, he has one which almost uniquely Jamaican and I'm not expecting that type of crossover for him, and he probably couldn't care less) . Gangster For Life is very solid introduction to one of the most noteworthy young talents the dancehall has ever seen. As I said, there are very few surprises, and one who is not actually a fan or even know the name Mavado could probably garner much of the vibes just from glancing at the cover.

Though the viciously violent tracks on GFL permeate and dominate the album, the track here which is my choice for the best on the album and the obvious standout is definitely Sadness. Sadness is a track dedicated to Mavado's slain father and a very very nice track over a well powerful Bobby Digital one drop and Mavado shows no deficiency in adapting his normal style to the vibes and actually in the end, it would be hard for me not to be overly impressed with Sadness coming from an artist who made his name in such a different vibes, producing a song which one could only think that his father is equally impressed with. Sadness is top notch! As a mentioned, Mavado's style is so geared towards the violent and aggressive, thus, he can sing (and about his SINGING, Mavado has a nice singing voice, a nice range, although he almost rarely taps it out, and though he won't be mentioned alongside the Wayne Wonders and Sanchez's and Da'Ville's of the dancehall world, he probably could actually fit in there quite comfortably) songs which aren't exactly sounding violent, but you analyze the lyrics, and they are every bit as violent as his more obtrusively harsh tracks. Such a song scores easily as one of the best on GFL and one of the best of his Mavado's career, Dying. Built over a very nice Daseca riddim of the same name, Dying, which features more typical singer, `Serani' (who is actually Craig Marsh, who owns Daseca), could on sound alone probably fit on the R&B side even, but it's a very very powerfully violent song when you actually analyze it and its subtleness actually pushes it to a higher level and its very strong. Also, along similar lines check previous single Dreaming, over Daseca's highly addictive riddim of the same name (which VP released as part of their Riddim Driven series earlier this year, definitely check that out as well), definitely one of the stronger tracks on GFL; even stronger still is the track immediately following Dreaming, is Don't Cry (which flows over a stripped down version of the Dreaming riddim, without the horns). Don't Cry is a track for Mavado's mother which at times doesn't sound like such, but overall is a grim reminder to his mother to "Even if dem kill me, don't cry!"

For the `darker' side of GFL which pulls no punches and lays everything to be seen in the open, it is actually here where Mavado's greatest attentions and efforts have gone (although I'm expecting as he matures his writing to drift almost exclusively to the more subtle, kind of like Assassin's has) thus far. And say what you will, critique what you must, some of that material is flat out brilliance! Although VP was obliged to include both Real McKoy and Full Clip (the only official combination here) in medley form, that vibes reaches its point on the undeniably MASSIVE Amazing Grace. It would take someone along the lines of Mavado to take the term `Amazing Grace' and turn it into a song so incredibly violent as the punch line goes, "Amazing Grace, shot fly through face!". Built over young `Genius' Stephen McGregor's epic Tremor riddim, Amazing Grace is a colorful example of what many people love about Mavado's vibes and what just as many think is wrong. The Genius proves to be quite and accompanying force to Mavado's harsher vibes as he also is helm for previous singles the LARGE Weh Dem a Do (one of the better tunes here) on his Red Bull & Guiness and the Kartel aimed Top Shatta Nah Miss over his epochal Powercut Riddim (missing still are both the almost comically violent How High and obviously from better times, the Kartel combination Rise, both Genius productions with the Ghetto Whiskey and 12 Gauge riddims respectively). Also check the very strong Gully Side over Firelinks' Air Waves riddim and the very addictive Last Night over the pounding Show Off riddim.

The only real and obvious complaint here is that Mavado has focused so much of his time creating his vibes on his favorite subject, he has perhaps done so to the detriment of other areas (which was also a critique thrown at Kartel all the way up until the last 2 years or so). Thus, songs like Heartbeat (which features songbird Alaine!) and ESPECIALLY Squeeze Breast (which Mavado almost IMMEDIATELY turns into a half slack/half violent vibes) come off as downright weird! But his versatility should come ultimately with time.

Overall, Mavado's debut album Gangsta For Life: The Symphony of David Brooks is very solid, particularly for a dancehall debut (and album overall for that matter). Dancehall releases from the genre's TOP NOTCH acts are becoming scarce and scarcer over the past few years with much of those acts seeking exclusive deals (whereas roots artist have the more `have vibes, will travel' approach) and Mavado's debut ranks very highly. I will say that this one is strictly for the dancehall heads, who really don't need me to tell them that, newer fans, DEFINITELY check out some samples before you pick this one up. Gangsta For Life is the debut album for an artist all of reggae need keep their eyes on, for in the future, Mavado may be one of the greats.