[Review] Capleton & Cocoa Tea in LA 4/21/2000 Capleton blazed hotter fire at Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles. Cocoa Tea performs well, but leaves the stage frustrated. The long awaited double bill was well attended with about 1000 hardcore fans. Two big sounds played out dubplates and bashment hits before the main event: LA’s Immortal Ruff Cutt with DJ Special and Lion Heart from Virginia. The show seemed more like a eastcoast dance because the soundsystems played for almost three hours before the real deal. It was much longer than most wanted to wait to see the “Prophet” and Cocoa Tea. After the bashment sounds a fashion show put on by the one of the sponsors New York Looks featuring styles from Meoshe, Echo, Sean John and Dolamite shoes preceded the artists and it did not begin until 1:30am. A little after 2:00am Barbara Barabino and Dredd Scott from The Beat 92.3 got the show going. The Prophecy Band, a wicked four piece, started jamming and Cocoa Tea graced the stage much to the delight of the gathering. He went right into “Bust out a Hell” and the rocked his classic “Rikers Island”. This tune was a major hit with the crowd causing him to rewind and come again. The show was on! The tune depicts a young Jamaican emigrating to the United States who should have listened to his elders to stay away from trouble and the gun business, but he did not heed their advice and ended up incarcerated. Cocoa started the lyrics and the crowd finished them “...Rikers Island”. Moving on, Cocoa sang “She Loves Me Now” and followed it with “Love Me Truly”. It was at this point that the mic began feeding back because of the stage and where the super powerfull speakers were positioned. The runway for the fashion show edged past the speakers and when Cocoa went out to get deeper into the crowd it caused pure noise. Cocoa asked the engineer to touch up the mic and it worked for a minute. Like the true professional he is, he worked with it and led into “Israel’s King” on Marley’s “One Drop” riddim and sang a good bit of “One Drop” which was so sweet. The band went into the “Kette Drum” riddim and Cocoa sang another Marley anthem “Chant Down Babylon One More Time”. The mic started ringing again and Cocoa pleaded wit the engineer once again in time with the beat “Mr. engineer could please fix the microphone one more time, cause it soft yes it soft”. The crowd went nuts and backing every word Cocoa sang. Again, the noise subsided for a bit. Going back to a big tune he belted out “Tune In” on the “Far East” riddim and continued new lyrics “Every Jamaican is a Star” brought on another forward and the band brought it down low and then pumped it up as Cocoa worked the mostly Jamaican crowd. And then another old time favorite “Cocoa Tea Come Again” kept things on the positive. “Hurry Up and Come” was the next hit which went into “Where Di Drugs” which is an autobiographical tune about when he was arrested in Barbados for a spliff tail. The sound continued to give problems. Frustrated, he said could not deal wit hit any longer and went off stage. Miss B came out to bring up the vibes and felt the vibes from the crowd and asked if they wanted more Cocoa Tea. Undoubtedly, the crowd wanted more. Cocoa came back out and asked “Do you want to sing even though the sound is not right?” The answer was a definite Yes! So he went in to “Stand Up Straight”, but only did a short piece of it and went off disappointed because the sound problems. The show kept on with two DJs, Judas and Bugsy,who had short sets touching riddims like “Headache” and “Dirty Money”. It was startime for the “Prophet”. He was well ready and dressed in a turban, black velvet shirt with gold threaded shoulder lapels. The band opened with the “Mount Zion Medley” and Capleton hit the stage like a ball of fire singing “Jah Jah City” and got a huge forward with lighters filling the air. The band rewound and kicked in again and Capleton started up for a hot minute. The “Prophet” had to rewind again due to the intense vibes and excitement. Bam! Again he got a forward, but he got to the second verse this time and began there and kept going. He hailed up the crowd and blasted “In or Out” on the “Coochie” riddim and the band had to rewind and come again because the zealous massive. The “Prophet” addressed the crowd quoting the Bible chapter and verse saying that woman was made for man and man was made for woman...man shall not lie with man and them that do will get cast in the fire of hell...so any thing that gets between man and woman he has to burn that. He kept up the heat and went right back into “In or Out”. “Stand Up in De Fire” was next and blazed on with “Never Get Down” on the “Sledgy” riddim both hardcore dancehall shots. Next he touched one of his number one smash hits “More Prophet” on the “Dirty Money” riddim which was killer. The band was firing hot!!! They had their riddims tight and their licks right on. Capleton took time to reason once again about corruption and the evils of society and scorched “Hang Them Up” on the “Matrix” riddim. He had the place jumpin’ and going off. Then he cooled off it a bit a sang “Stay Far From Trouble” accapella style. After the accapella, he said he has a new album coming out titled “More Fire” that will be out soon and then hit the title cut from his last album “On a Mission” rocking it on the “Street Sweeper” riddim which went into “Bad Man Knowledge” on the same riddim. Bigging up the ganja man and woman he sang out “High Grade” on the “www.com” riddim quoting Sizzla adding ‘Sizzla say smoke some herb and have some humble thoughts, Capleton say burn the chalice burn down Rome...’ getting another giant forward. He said me have some tune for the woman dem too and touched down on another number one hit “Look Good in Her Clothes” which led into “Batty Man Fi Get Boom”. The MC returned to bring Capleton on again and he came right on doing a tune on the “Unchained” riddim “Things and Time Will Tell” and closed out with “Stand Tall”, “Slew Dem" and a tune on the “Top Shotta” riddim. The show was hot!!! Jah Love, Carlos Culture