Mavado

Biography David Constantine Brooks was raised in the Cassava Piece community of uptown Kingston, Jamaica. He cites the music of Bounty Killer as an early influence. He decided to name himself "Mavado" after the Swiss watch company Movado, with his manager altering the spelling.

In 2005, Mavado had his breakthrough with his first single, "Real McKoy". The single "Dying" from the album was featured heavily on New York's WQHT (Hot 97) R&B/hip-hop radio station. Mavado was released two days later on a $3000 bail and was subsequently refused entry into the United States.

In March 2008, Mavado was featured performing a rendition of his song "Real McKoy" for Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer #4 "Everyone's a Rat". "Real McKoy", along with "Last Night" (both from the album Gangsta for Life), were also featured in the game on the radio station "Massive B Radio". Mavado was also featured on the G-Unit track 'Let It Go' along with Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks for the album: T·O·S (Terminate on Sight) in 2008. He was the only non-G-Unit feature on the album. In 2008 Mavado was given the UK MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act.

In April 2010, Mavado starred in a music video as a gangster in Drake's song "Find Your Love" for Drake's album Thank Me Later. Mavado formed his own label, Mansion Records, in 2011, which debuted with the single "Delilah". Along with Bounty Killer, he has cited 2Pac as a childhood idol, comparing the late rapper's life to his own. On 1 September 2011, Mavado appeared on the Angie Martinez show on New York's Hot 97 radio station to announce that he had signed a deal with DJ Khaled's record label We the Best Music Group. Mavado released three singles "Emergency" featuring Ace Hood, Soulja girl and "Survivor" featuring Akon on We the Best Music Group.

In May 2012 he was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and malicious destruction of property after a driving incident, and was fined a total of $100,000. An appeal against the sentence was unsuccessful.

In 2016, Mavado's song "Progress" on the Mineral Boss Records produced "Money Boss Riddim" was featured in DJ Khaled's Major Key album. The album was nominated for the 2017 Grammy Awards on the "best rap" album category. In 2017, Mavado, Alkaline and Jahmiel formed a camp known as MVP, which Mavado claimed to be the "biggest thing" in dancehall at that time.

In 2018, Mavado collaborated with Sean Paul for an inspirational song called "I'm Sanctify". In 2019, Mavado released a song called "Top Shotta Is Back" On a Riddim called The Aircraft Riddim produced by Chimney Records.

In 2020, Mavado recorded and released a Drake diss song called "Enemy Line".

Discography

Albums

2007: Gangsta for Life: The Symphony of David Brooks 2009: Mr. Brooks...A Better Tomorrow

Singles As lead artist "Weh Dem Ah Do" (2007) "Real McKoy" (2007) "Lost Dem" (2011) "Do Road" (2011) "Take It" featuring Karian Sang (2012) "Give It All to Me" featuring Nicki Minaj (2013) "Million Dollar Man" (2013) "Tie Yuh" (2014) "Ben Ova" (2014) "My Pan " (2014) "Ain't Going Back Broke" featuring Future and Ace Hood (2015) "Ghetto Bible" (2015) "My League" (2015) "Big League" (2016) "Progress" (2016) "Mama" (2017) "Red Rose" (2017) "Dress to Impress" (2018) "Enemies" (2018) "I'm Sanctify" featuring Sean Paul (2018) "Father God" (2018) "Enemy Lines" (2020)

As featured artist