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Germaican Observer: They broke into your house and stole your computer that had al ot of recordings on it, did you manage to retrieve those songs?
Cobra: I retrieved the hard drive but not the songs, the songs were erased.
G.O.: Did you find out who did it and why did they break into your house they know who you are?
C.: Greed, that is the only word I can use greed...
G.O.: There weren’t a lot of songs from you coming out, but that has changed since last year and you seem to be doing mostly 'badman songs’...
C.: It’s not really just a badman thing yuh nuh, it’s the songs that take off because I never stop recording but the music fraternity it is like a system sometimes they decide who go through, sometimes they don’t give you the love that you deserve but I’m not a deejay who deejay for the shouts and the applause I do songs what I feel, what I love...
I do universal songs, I talk rudebwoy songs, I talk songs for the ladies, I talk songs for people who believe in consciousness.
At one stage why I wasn’t doing much recording because most of the songs were about the same topic and I think most times artistes should find other topics to write about.
G.O.: You did a song called ’Gangster Role’ on the Messer Banzani riddim outa Germany, how do you feel about recording on riddims that are not out of Jamaica?
C.: The riddim is good and music is a universal language and sometimes you have to adapt other musicians culture and I’m grateful to share the artform so sometimes you find some people say this is their views on the music and how they play it.
It is a challenge...
G.O.: When you write a song does it depend on the mood you are in, or do you choose a theme?
C.: It’s just a theme and sometimes it’s the mood, it both goes... because sometimes it’s the mood you are in at the time.
G.O.: You have been going to school recently, why did you decide to go back to school and what have you been studying?
C.: First I went to do a computer course to get more computer friendly and I went back and did mathematics, english and economics did the GCE exams and I got an ‚A’ in english and C’s in maths and economics... right now I am fixing to go back to do management because after I stop performing I’m gonna be moving on owning my own record company, managing my own artistes and when I’m doing those things I have to be qualified. I already have the street-knowledge so is just the theory, I have the practical already and is just the paperwork that I need to get in line.
G.O.: How did you actually come up with this idea because most artists don’t think along that line, they are performing and earning money so they think they are stars.
C.: The thing is that I always try to think ahead, I think about my next move before I do it and most times you have to sit down and choose the direction where you going , where your career is going and where you want to go... so at the time I said I’m gonna release a new album so instead of hanging out in my free time left I said “if I get 3 hours out of a day and if I use 20 minutes out of it in a class it can be productive.“
G.O.: Do you actually make enough money to survive from the music or do you have other business?
C.: I’m a business man I own like stores, minibuses, taxi service and those things, I don’t sit down.
G.O.: Your album ’Mixed Personalities’ should have been out but isn’t...
C.: Everyday we find new songs and new ideas, I need to make an impact... not only because we can put 15 songs on it, I have 15 strong songs but I need to make sure that I choose the right label because a lot of Labels are shopping for me, but I don’t want to make the wrong decision and I don’t want to give the wrong person my album who is not going to market it, who is not going to license in the markets where Cobra is well known.
G.O.: Any tours or shows coming up any time soon in Europe or Germany?
C.: Well I should be having a promtional tour with Teddy Bear in Sweden and we have something going so far so good, a remix of ’Press Trigger’ and it is already in the movie soundtrack ’After The Sunset’.
Every year I do a promotional tour with or without an album coming out I always try to do a promotional tour.
G.O.: How do you view the Dancehall scene in Jamaica right now, last year there were so many dance songs coming out...
C.: It is nice to dance, but you can’t let the thing get monotonous, you can’t let the thing get played out everyday it’s the same thing you need to use different ideas... just like the deejays that can’t deejay if they don’t curse gays, they let homosexuality be a problem... if I’m gonna do a gay song I’m not gonna do the song to impose violence on gay person I would do it in a joke form, the comedians in America run gay jokes so I can run a joke but that is just a joke but when you actually say “go out there and kill this man because of that is what one choose.“ Because they know most of the people in Jamaica are anti-gay they try to get forward and applause on a particular topic... so the dancing thing also was a topic that came out and Elephant Man was being successful with the dancing so you find some people start follow him, which was a good turn because you find the dance was too violent at the time.
Germaican Observer: Well thank you very much for your time and hope to see your album out soon.
Cobra: Yeah much respect, alright.
Text: Nadine Reid/ G.O. Leipzig/Germany
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