Artiste: Mad Cobra

Album: Helta Skelta

Genre: Dancehall

Label: DJR Records

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Graphic! That best sums up Mad Cobra's latest album, Helta Skelta. Ironically, the 'Parental Advisory' label is a footnote on the album cover, and not the standard style.

Mad Cobra, aka Skelta, offers a linguistic guide on Jamaican curse words. All 21 tracks are laced with the most colourful of Jamaican lingo, it was as if he had a list of the words clipped to the mic in the studio with the heading 'Attractive Adjectives'.

Whether he is deejaying about "mekking a duppy" or his prowess as a "bedroom gangsta", Cobra relays his slithery thoughts with wild abandon.

And why not? Helta Skelta is Cobra's alter ego - his split personality that preserves his deepest, darkest thoughts.

If the listener can meander through all the cursing (Even Satan gets an earful in Devil's War), the album's core is revealed. Cobra's brashness comes off as supreme confidence in not only his ability as an artiste but, as a veteran who regards himself as one of the best alive, despite being low-key in recent years.

The collaborations on the album are also a good fit. Hard-core DJ Spice represents for the fun-loving women in Dat Me Want and rapper Big Beast's infectious flow complements Cobra's on Me and My Crew and Just Chill.

The foul-mouthed, braggadocio serpent's eighth album is available in stores.

Track listing

1. Intro

2. Watch Face

3. One Lip to a Spliff

4. Bedroom Gangsta

5. Freestyle

6. When we Chat

7. Mad Head

8. Lead Poison

9. Dat Me Want

10. Gangsta Flex

11. Swear Gal

12. A Nuh Gangsta

13. Me and my Crew

14. Hustler

15.Devil's War (Duppy Song)

16. Hungry Dawgs

17. Whoi - Galang So

18. Just Chill

19. SYM Remix

20. Trap We

21. Poetic