Supercat, the enigmatic Jamaican street figure turned dancehall artist that came on the scene in the 1980s. He found international fame with party cuts like “Dem Nuh Worry We” with Heavy D and even played a role in the early career of Biggie Smalls with the single “Dolly My Baby” and the lyrical “Nuff Man A Dead.”
His career defining album “Don Doda” turned thirty this year. Released May 12, 1992, it was his first album on Columbia Records and one of the first dancehall albums for a major label.
The album which he co-produced, title refers to Super Cat’s street name and appealed both to Jamaican dancehall audiences and American hip hop audiences.
Robert Livingston, was the co-producer of Don Dada and Super Cat’s former manager. Robert speaks exclusively with World Music Views about the album on its 30th year of release, and what it was like working with Super Cat in those days. He reflects on the process and the painful lessons he learned along the way to bring the “Boops” deejay to the world.
“We had a good working relationship up to when the album started to do very well,” he told World Music Views. “It was a roller coaster ride with different opinions and different mindsets, it was about what he wants to control, what he wants to let go, and I guess I was too powerful around him in bringing him into this world that is very exciting,” he says.
30 years on Robert says he has tried to forget about the album because of the downturn in the relationship with him and the Wild Apache. He recalls however that he invested a lot in the making of the street dancehall artist and into an international star.
“We both produced the album, and I did a lot of work on the album,” he says
Other than Dem Nuh Worry We and Dolly My Baby, which got international attention, Don Dada also spawns political songs like “Them No Care,” and “Fight Fi Power,” and Robert was tasked with finding a foot for Cat amidst a sea of emerging hip hop acts.
“I kinda watched what was going on in the market and how the urban market was gravitating to the dancehall market. We did the collaboration with heavy D, and a lot of fusion was happening at the time, the whole reggae vibe in New York City was getting attention from the key DJ’s. The energy was good,” he recalls.
It helped that Super Cat offered the market something unique which could not be cultivated in the streets of New York.
“Super cat had this unique sound and style and was gaining respect, marketing wise I got the American urban market to respect him,” he states. “Super Cat fit the urban crossover, the song with Sugar Ray crossed the top 40. For me I was blessed to have that knowledge and that understanding,” Robert says.
When asked who are some of the artists that followed Super Cat’s Don Dada blueprint he says emphatically, “Junior Gong and Sean Paul,” and adds that Shaggy had other influences.
“Shaggy was more influenced by Shabba(Ranks), Super cat was more influenced and influential to hip hop, they liked his style, he was more a street approach. He gained that respect.”
In the video for “Ghetto Red Hot”, Robert, the producer for the track rides Super Cat through New York city on a Ninja Motorbike. He says ‘bikes’ as it is called in Jamaica were important to the dancehall culture back then.
“I was a good bike rider in the streets, bike was what we know as street people, even a man who have a car always maintain him bike, the girl look nice on the back of the bike and it’s a scene,” he explains.
Don Dodda And Columbia Records
The Don Dada album peaked at No. 37 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart and Cat would stay around with Columbia for another two albums between 1993 and 1995.
Although Robert didn’t stick around for the duration of Super Cat’s Columbia Records career, he says the relationship with Columbia was an enjoyable one.
“I really enjoyed being with Columbia, we had a Jamaican product manager, Karen Mason, a good product manager who understood the culture and who understood who Super Cat was. The fact that she understood who he is and having me explain to the label what he can do, it was kinda quiet easy to channel him through the label. Maxine Stowe, who was the A&R responsible for signing Super Cat, was doing a compilation with Columbia’s David Kahne and she was very instrumental in the signing of Super Cat to Columbia records,” he explains to World Music Views.
Super Cat was Stowe’s first signing to the label but Robert says he was the man on the ground with the young Cat getting the records and remixes made by forging key relationships.
“David Kahne is not really a street A&R but he understood. Specialist Dillion was there too. Rough House was signed to Columbia, they had Kris Kross, Jermaine Dupri’s father used to manage Kris Kross, Cypress Hill and the Fugees were there. I was really instrumental in getting Cat to get into that field. Columbia was a great place to be having all these avenues and stars around, not just for the album but marketing. He did the remix for Jump with Kris Kross,” he explains.
He tells World Music Views the story of how difficult it was to convince Super Cat to get on the Jump remix which was already a successful original song.
“It was an opportunity that he didn’t see, he didn’t understand and I had to do what I had to do to get him on it. I had to call Bobby Brown late one night to get him some time to record cause we didn’t have a studio. We got into Atlanta and Jermaine Dupri finished it and we did and the label accepted it.”
“For me I was just punching up the business and trying to find my way through it. That Kris Kross record really helped Super Cat,” he reflects.
“I said this song is a big song, there is nothing you’re gonna do to help this record, this record is gonna help you, I had a rough time in the business trying to convince artists to do something that will help their careers. I was really upset with what happened and I have no royalties from that record, I just bounced,” he said with much disappointment.
When asked what was the reason for the professional split with Super Cat he explains:
“I can’t even pinpoint any reason, one of the time I heard him put my name on the record, he wanted to own everything but he didn’t want to do the work, I said to him that you and I could do the record but I think he had a perception that Riley and those guys did ‘Boops’ and he didn’t make any money, so he didn’t want that to happen again so he try to work hard and not make that happen again.”
He further commented, “After he realized that we were more than just business people we were just brothers, if a fight bruk we were always together, 20 years after he realized, and we still have a good relationship now, but when I signed Shaggy I didn’t talk to Cat, because I heard that I robbed him and I called him and say tell me how did I rob you because we just started making money.”
Music Catalogue For Sale
Livingston owns an extensive catalogue of reggae and dancehall hits, and with song fund companies like Black Rock, Primary Wave and Hipgnosis buying catalogues of major stars and rights holders, he says he has not given much thought to whether or not he’d sell the music he owns, but says he’d be open to it for the right price.
“I wouldn’t say I would or wouldn’t, I get a lot of calls and approach like that but that’s not something I would talk, if somebody come with the right money you never know, I would never say no and never say yes so depend on the deal and the approach, its business, it’s fun but it’s also business, artist can go on a stage and sing but I can’t so I have to make sure its business.”
On who owns the master for Don Dada, he says Columbia owns it but he has an idea to get it back from the label.
“Colombia owns the masters for Don Doda, Super Cat can get that master back if he decides to negotiate with them, the best way is to let me and him do it and re-record it over, that’s the way to do it,” he says.
“If I wasn’t a producer or songwriter, I wouldn’t make any money with shaggy, he coulda just walked with everything like Super Cat, because for shaggy he wanted to prove to the world that what he did it and its for him, he wanted to erase what I had done for him and take all the credit.”
The Big Yard Studio owner now spends his time working with Rising Stars winner Chris Martin who has had several local hits. He believes Chris can make the transition like others before him, and he hopes to play a role in his career. He hasn’t been paying much attention to the Trap dancehall era but says artists now have their own agenda.
“I think Christoper Martin has great potential to go places but I never really look at the other artists in dancehall, they are doing their thing and it’s working for them to the level that they want it to be. Sometimes artists have an idea of where they want to go, some want to be a superstar but in a special way, so after a couple of years you realize them people yah nuh want to be no superstar, they want to do what they want to do.”
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