Robyn Jacks Cobra’s Dancehall Style

On Letterman last night, hipster guilty-pleasure Robyn performed her 2006 song “Cobrastyle,” a remake of the 2005 Teddybears Sthlm song, which is itself a complete jack of Cobra's 2001 dancehall anthem “Press Trigger.” This daisy chain opens up a huge can of worms for us, but since we're in the business of fellating any and all attempts at cultural cross-pollination, we figured we'd give it a shot. After the jump, hear the songs and read our full analysis.

On one hand, the “original” Teddybears song was done with Cobra (nee Mad Cobra, who you'd probably know from his 1992 song “Flex” during dancehall's first major-label Stateside invasion), so we can't exactly get all high-horsey about Scandinavian grafted devils jacking original man fi him badman chune deh. But yuh dun know, Robyn, if you're going to gank a song from one of the biggest crossover riddims of the decade (The Buzz, which also brought you Sean Paul's “Gimme The Light,” Sizzla's “Pump Up,” and three or four other hits), seems like you should at least try to get the words right. In “Press Trigger,” Cobra says:

Mi press trigger mi nuh press people button
Nuh bodda chat, come face mi with something

But Robyn turns that second line into something like “nobody chaffs,” which might be true, but sounds more like a mistake than anything else. The song's catchy, yeah, but when she brings in the Kid Rock “Bawitdabar” reference to boot, everything collapses into a big hipster wink at silly urban music. It's like Uffie jacking Audio Two on “Pop the Glock” or Ben Folds redoing “Bitches Ain't Shit.” On the scale of offensiveness, this all ranks somewhere between Sugar Ray-featuring-Supercat and Adrien Brody jumping around like a minstrel in a dreadlock wig on Saturday Night Live.

Robyn “Cobrastyle”

Teddybears Sthlm “Cobrastyle” (2005):

Cobra “Press Trigger” (2001)