★★★★★
The only thing that qualifies this as dancehall is the Jamaican accent of Mavada (a.k.a. David Brooks). Otherwise this is a gangsta hip-hop album and we all know how short-lived - no pun intended - gangsta personas are in showbiz. Mavado "singjays" dense patois lyrics reaffirming how wonderful it is to be alive, and he even closes this set with a version of We Shall Overcome for President Barack Obama. Now if only this dancehall don would lay down a few hooks.
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Mavado's debut album, 2007's epic Gangsta for Life, introduced David Brooks to the world as a tormented dancehall visionary. On its followup, his eerie elegies again strike to the heart of the Jamaican gothic. Key to this aesthetic are Mavado's desolate vocal tones, suffused with conflict and turmoil...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2010-04-02
★★★★★
Kingston, Jamaica, dancehall reggae gangster Mavado opens his second album reciting the "23rd Psalm" over church piano, and closes with a version of "We Shall Overcome" for President Barack Obama. In between, Mavado gets ambitious, undulating his lionesque howl toward Zion, mourning lost loved ones, and braving the shadow of death as gunshots and goth–rock belfry bells and skidding electro–beats ring out. Sometimes on Mr. Brooks . . ...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Mavado is very good at one particular thing, and he does that one thing so many times on debut full-length Gangsta for Life that the album gets boring quickly. That's something of an unavoidable flaw. As with most dancehall long-players, Gangsta for Life is essentially a singles compilation, an hour straight of tracks that Movado's been flooding Jamaica's market with for the past couple of years...
- pitchfork.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Mavado is very good at one particular thing, and he does that one thing so many times on debut full-length Gangsta for Life that the album gets boring quickly. That's something of an unavoidable flaw. As with most dancehall long-players, Gangsta for Life is essentially a singles compilation, an hour straight of tracks that Movado's been flooding Jamaica's market with for the past couple of years...
- www.pitchforkmedia.com
2008-07-30