Sean Paul
Shining the Light on Dancehall

By Odette Flemming

Deejay Sean Paul is shining the light on Jamaica’s number one export: its music. Just like dance hall music took reggae to another level of acceptance in the late 70’s and 80’s, the new rude boy fusion of dancehall and hip hop has topped the charts with unprecedented success. And no single artist has been more responsible for this recent acceptance than Sean Paul. His infectious lyrics playing over some of the wickedest riddims have earned this young reggae star the enviable position of leader in this new wave of hip-hop-flavoured dancehall music.

Sean’s latest release “Dutty Rock” is the rising star’s second album and his first since joining the Atlantic Record’s roster via a long-term distribution pact with, industry pioneer, VP Records. This bona fide platinum album made him VP Records’ biggest selling artist to date. Quite an achievement considering that VP is the largest independent label for new Jamaican music in the U.S. Check out the credentials and you’ll see why the industry is on fire with the name Sean Paul. “Get Busy”, his first #1 record on the main singles chart, is his second consecutive single to crack the top ten of the ‘Hot 100’. The first, “Gimme The Light”, peaked at #7. “Get Busy” and “Gimme The Light” now stand as the top two highest charting ‘Hot 100’ singles ever recorded in Jamaica by a Jamaican artist, surpassing the historic “Isrealites” by Desmond Dekker and the Aces (which hit #9 in 1969). Label mate, Wayne Wonder’s “No Letting Go” holds fifth place behind Mad Cobra’s “Flex”. “Get Busy” also stands as the second reggae single ever to hit #1 on Billboard’s ‘Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Single & Tracks’chart, following Shaggy’s “Boombastic” in 1995.

His 2002 breakthrough single, “Gimme The Light”, had radio stations and video channels in the U.S. opening their play lists in a way that had not been previously experienced. Sean is the first reggae artist ever to have three songs in simultaneous rotation on New York’s Hot 97 FM and the first reggae artist ever invited to appear in Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert. “Gimme The Light” became the longest running video to air on BET, in rotation for a full six months which is more than double the usual life span. The recently released “Like Glue” already broke into the top ten of MTV’s TRL, Total Request Live, following closely in the footsteps of his second single, “Get Busy”.

Sean’s rep within the hip-hop and R&B communities exploded with his radio success, earning him collaborations with BustaRhymes, Jay-Z, DMX, Mya and, most recently, Beyonce with their latest release “Baby Boy”. “A lot of hip hop artists have been linked to dance hall”, Sean told the New York Times. “It always has been [that way], and now people can see for themselves.” But this is no new trend, any dancehall enthusiast need only think back to the early 90’s to recall the original “Mr. Loverman”, Shabba Ranks, and his hits “Slow and Sexy” with R&B sensation Johnny Gill and “The Jam” featuring blast master KRS One. Shaggy and Janet, Little Vicious and Doug E. Fresh, Barrington Levy and Shine, the examples of cultural crosspollination stretch on.

Born Sean Paul Henriques in Kingston, Jamaica, he was raised in the parish of St. Andrew. A
natural athlete, he represented the island nation in many international swim and water polo meets. He attended UTECH where he studied hotel management and later worked as a bank teller to
support his passion for deejaying. In his early teens, dancehall reggae became Sean’s major focus and he began modeling himself after artists like Major Worries and Supercat. In an interview with JahWorks.org’s Laura Gardner 1 he speaks to those who question his originality saying,” When I first started, Supercat was a mentor of mine and there was a definite link there. I’ve been compared to Supercat, Spragga Benz, and [artists with] that vibe, but same way, people say that they heard me spawn into my own thing. We have to realize that music has been around since the beginning of time as sounds and patterns. Developing your own pattern [using] what everyone else has already taught you is all that music is.”

True dancehall fans know that Sean Paul didn’t suddenly break out on the scene in the year 2000. He had been laying a foundation locally from the mid 90’s. Starting with his release “Baby Girl”, the first in an undeniable string of reggae smashes, he was quickly establishing a solid base among Jamaica’s dancehall massive. “It kind of happens gradually. I was doing demos every night in the studio for three years before I broke in Jamaica. I had to pay bills and I went to school for the hotel management to make sure I got an education, just in case. In the meantime I was learning all about the biz and growing a thick skin. It was a good gestation period. When I first came into the biz, everyone hailed me as an uptown deejay. It’s unusual that people from uptown gain a lot of success in the biz. I showed love to everybody – I didn’t try to snob out anyone. When my career started to take off, people knew me as a kid who was down to earth.”

Sean attributes some of his recent crossover appeal to his ability to break down the language barrier between Jamaican patois and standard American English, much like Bob Marley did during his unprecedented success. For example he states, “In ‘Like Glue’, I use words like ‘trees’, which is slang [for marijuana] from the hip-hop industry. In the reggae industry, hooking Caribbean kids on hip-hop has been happening for a lot of years, so I say I’m just going to switch it around and use words like ‘draw’, which Jamaicans don’t use. We say ‘ganja’. We say ‘kushumpeng’. We say ‘weed’. I think the language I use is one of the reasons I’m hooking people out there. But dancehall as a whole has gotten so much more clever. Songs have more substance. There are artists out there who are writing songs that are more universal and not so local.”

We dun know seh Sean Paul a run de road in today’s dancehall scene. He’s following a path paved by pioneers and legends like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Yellow Man, Shabba Ranks, Gregory Isaacs, Buju Banton and countless others in reggae’s musical pantheon. And as he makes a new way for the dancehall artists to come, there is a feeling that their road will be a little easier for his having gone before.