David Constantine Brooks better known by his stage name Mavado is one of the biggest Jamaican dancehall artist of this time. He was raised in an area known as “Cuba”, a micro ghetto within the heart of Kingston, Jamaica’s Cassava Piece community. The community was considered dangerous and Mavado was exposed to many different things in his youth. Mavado had two major influences in his life that made him want to pursue a career in music. His grandmother who raised him, brought him to church with her each Sunday, and this helped to ignite his love for music. What kept the flame burning was his second influence in his music; his idol, mentor and current label mate Bounty Killer.

His music was also crossing new boundaries. The dancehall luminary landed his single “Real McKoy” as the theme song for the fourth Grand Theft Auto trailer entitled “Everyone’s a Rat.” The hit song was also used in the Grand Theft Auto IV in-game radio station, Massive B Sound system. For the U.S presidential campaign, Mavado cleverly flipped his popular “On The Rock” to “We Need Barack” for tycoon Russell Simmons and Green Lantern’s official Barack Obama mixtape. According to the UK’s Guardian, Mavado’s tune was “the most interesting of the compilation’s contributors.” Mavado was also selected for a special Nike 2008 Olympics campaign, where Mavado made an exclusive track “On The Go (Faster Than Bullet)” for Olympic sprinter Asafa Powell’s Train for Speed, a 35-minute interval workout sold on I-Tunes which is coached by the track superstar over a reggae/dancehall soundtrack. Nike also created an exclusive custom sneaker for the dancehall star which represented his neighborhood Cassava Piece.

Mavado has gone from obscurity to ghetto super stardom with his enigmatic gangster façade. Part prophet, part superhero and part fugitive, Mavado is the voice of the streets and represents dancehall for the next generation and is no surprise that he is amongst my favourite artists today, his future seems to be one to look out for and only great things can come from this star.