ENTITY · PERSON (ARTIST, SELECTOR, PRODUCER…)
Mavado
Probable
David Constantine Brooks, born 30 November 1981, grew up in Cassava Piece in Kingston and took the name Mavado from the Movado watch company. Bounty Killer heard him as a teenager and mentored him, which placed him inside the Alliance and, later, on one side of the decade's defining rivalry. The voice is the reason he lasted: a sing-jay delivery that carries a melodic, near-mournful line over hard dancehall rhythms, so a song can sound like lament and threat at once.
"Weh Dem a Do", "So Special" and "On the Rock" made that sound ordinary in the dance. Gangsta for Life came in 2007 and Mr. Brooks: A Better Tomorrow in 2009; in September 2011 he signed to DJ Khaled's We The Best, one of the first Jamaican deejays of his era to be absorbed directly into American rap's label system rather than crossing over through a pop record.
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