Mavado Speaks His Mind - "I’m Definitely Immune To Haters"

“Some of them say they’re my friend, but because of my things and because of my success, people just start change and try to make it seems as if you are the one that change. If you have your friends and you’ve been with them for so many years, why would it change now? I realize that just me being stuck in Jamaica, it can’t help music. It can’t help me. Music need a life. Our music, dancehall music, need a life. So I’m devoted to put my life, and to put my all, and put my heart in it. That’s the reason why I’m here in America, working. Because people got so much love for me over here. I’m like a… I’m not even “like a.” I am a legend. I’m legendary. So being here, people say a lot of things. But meanwhile, there’s only one thing for me to say—it’s just music. And even when I’m doing music, I have to talk to the haters, the enemies, the ones them who want to see me go down.

“That’s the reason why I say “Chat them a chat / Yap dem a yap / Gullyside me ah action packed. / Me no cuss cuss, me no wear a frock / Gully side we ah action packed. / Tell them anything ah anything / Dem ah say me leave a foreign and we nah come back / Have the house pon the hill / Them say we can’t done that.” You know? It’s all about me just letting them know, Right now, me just ah do me. Me wish everybody else can just do them, do themselves. Because think about it—this bag of crabs in a barrel. Each time a next youth tries to rise, we try pull them down, then nobody nah go reach nowhere. We just gonna be there every day and look at each other’s face. The best thing for me is when I look and see other youths arise. Just like you have little youth like Popcaan. You have youth like Konshens. You have youth like I-Octane. You have youth who are out there and them ah try build music. When I sit down and watch them, I don’t even try to go in a competition with them because it would just make me seem so small. Them youth deh come and I’m gonna try and come and build a competition with them? I’m not on that, me just feel a joy in myself when me listen their music. To know that most of these youths, when you think deep and you listen to their songs, you can know say Gully Gad is their main mentor. You understand? So when me say “Them say we live ah foreign and me nah come back,” that’s just words of people that want to see me fall. Think about it, I’ve been in Jamaica for so many years. So if me spend five, six months in America, that’s nothing. It’s all about me working. It’s all about me trying to make better. You understand?”

-Gully Gad "MAVADO"