Reasoning with Sean Paul

Who would have thought that a Jamaican swimmer and water polo player from uptown Kingston would introduce the world to authentic dancehall music? Clearly Shaggy has become a worldwide household name by breeding pop with reggae. Even Bounty Killer got a glimpse of the top when he collaborated with pop superstars No Doubt on the Orange-County-flavored track, "Hey Baby." But the torch is now in Sean Paul's hands as dancehall ambassador, and he vows to stay true to the genre.

Sean Paul, whose hit single "Gimme the Light" recently hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and whose accompanying video is in medium rotation on MTV and BET, is mingling with the upper echelon of the U.S. recording industry—he recently voiced tracks with hip-hop superstars Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, and Mya. He has meanwhile maintained island loyalty by recording and collaborating with local Jamaican artists such as Cecile and Sasha, which has concurrently kept him at the top of the Jamaican charts.

VP Records, who had pushed back the release of his upcoming album by months, now has a valid excuse with the VP/Atlantic Records merger. The album, entitled "Dutty Rock," is set for a November 12 release date with supped up distribution channels, a streamlined media circuit, more videos, and the money to back it all up. As they say in patois, "Big t'ings a gwaan."

Sean Paul is clearly a dancehall artist. Unlike other dancehall deejays who survived ghettos, hustled in town, or overcame great financial or social obstacles, Sean Paul grew up in a stable home, stayed in school, and was involved in sports throughout his childhood. During his school years, he "was following [the music industry] very hard. I wasn't in the biz at the time, but I knew the details, like when Buju [Banton] was going out of town."

He began working seriously in the reggae industry in 1994, and garnered a significant West Indian following with danceable tracks like "Deport Them," "Hot Gal Today" (with Mr. Vegas), and "Infiltrate," by being down to earth and true to himself. His first album, "Stage One," [VP, 2000] was a testament that full-length dancehall albums could be good, and it put him on the international reggae map in communities like New York, London, Miami, Los Angeles, and Toronto.

October 13, 2002 was Sean Paul's first time in Oakland, California, although two months prior he had played to a crowd of 10,000 at the Reggae on the River festival in Humboldt County. The show was at Kimball's Carnival in Jack London Square, an unlikely venue for Bay Area reggae, and the promoter had pre-sold 500+ tickets. A definite sell-out.

I had the great fortune to reason with Sean Paul at the hotel prior to his show, and what follows are excerpts from our 40-minute interview. He discussed his upcoming album, the VP/Atlantic merger, his scuffle a few years back with Mr. Vegas, his recent collaborations in the hip-hop world, his personal relationships, his musical influences, and much more. The language has been changed for clarity and readability:

LG: How did you get started with the music?

SP: I started by being a lover of music. I came up in the biz about 1994. I was in school before that always doing small little lyrics and songs. By the time 1994 came around, I started doing long demos like 4 minutes long—songs with four verses. Then the vibe changed where I shortened my verses, started to get catchy hooks, and found out which hooks were needed from me.

LG: Which artists inspired you at that time?

SP: When I first came out, I was listening to Tony Rebel, Buju Banton, Terror Fabulous, and those cats— just their styling, I was into them a whole heap! They encouraged me a lot. I was also trying to be more of a conscious deejay too at that time. I had lyrics that I wrote about society, about life, social issues in my country and in the world.

LG: What made you change your focus?

SP: A lot of producers at home were saying, "We don't see that from you right now." The market was saturated at that time with [conscious dancehall artists like] Buju, Louie Culture—all those people were hitting right then. Not only was the market saturated, but it was also about that time when people wanted to hear more "jump up, jump up" girl stuff and party club music. I started doing that just to try to get an edge and it just kept taking off. I stayed in that realm.

I mean, I have stuff to say and I do say it from time to time. On my first album I had two tracks dedicated to the conscious vibe. On this album, I did a track earlier this year that was left off the album, which I'm a bit pissed off about. But I figure if I keep doing these tunes and I have a listenership, then the companies will one day decide to go with it. The companies have decided, "Yeah, we should go with this kid when he's doing the girl songs." So every now and again, if I keep hitting them with some conscious vibes or some vibes that make sense in terms of my whole personality, I'm sure people will pick it up and notice, "Yeah, it's time to log on Ôpon that flow of this kid!"

LG: Exactly. How do you get ideas for lyrics?

SP: My lyrics come from my experiences growing up in life, trying to find out and express who I am. That's basically it. I'm not trying to be a prophet or anything like that. I'm just reflecting on life.

LG: What do you make of some of the artists who claim to be prophets?

SP: A prophet is someone who talks of behalf of someone else, and it's usually of God. So if you believe that you are talking on behalf of God then you can call yourself a prophet. A prophet is not necessarily someone who is going to tell you the future, but if you feel that that is your title, then it is a good thing. To me, I'm just doing music.

LG: You're gaining so much popularity and clout right now. "Gimme the Light" is currently #5 on the KMEL charts, which is our hip-hop station here in the Bay Area.  How much did hip-hop influence you and which artists do you listen to?

SP: As a kid, one of my favorite albums as a youngster was Slick Rick—the storyteller. He was doing things I had never heard before, like rapping and using a second voice, answering himself, and telling a story at the same time. It was very creative. I also understood that he was a Jamaican. He was a big influence in how I like to present a song. I don't use different voices like that but I'm trying to tell a vibe in my songs every time, not just a song about this or that.

I have to give respect to KRS-One. I also have to big up people in the hip-hop industry that were closely linked to Jamaica—Special Ed, Heavy D, Shinehead, the BDP [Boogie Down Productions], KRS-One, Busta Rhymes, Christopher Wallace—all of these people have linkage to Jamaica or to the Caribbean. There are a lot of other kids: Rakim, some big vibe from long time. Snoop [Dogg] was a big album for me in 1994 or 1993. It sounded like he was freestyling all the time—it sounded hot. I used to check out Biggie.

Nas to me is just very, very deep. When you listen to what he's talking about, you might have to listen back quite a few times to get what he's really saying. I love songs like that because you can really meditate. It's not just blunt up in your face—you can play them over and over and keep finding new things about the song. So I really love that vibe.