Reasoning with Sean Paul

LG: I saw the segment with you on "BET Tonight with Ed Gordon," and he said that reggae will always be "some people's party music." That might be true, but it's much more than party music. How can we dispel that myth?

SP: It is much more, of course. Dancehall is just like hip-hop in that it doesn't always talk about bling; it talks about conscious issues. In the dancehall you could move to a very religious sounding song. In the dancehall you could hear a very harsh sounding song, but it represents a part of society that's out there in the world. In the dancehall you could hear a song that's just hyping up the ladies and everybody enjoys when the ladies are enjoying themselves, even the men too. It's a music that speaks on many different issues. I don't see any other music like that. In the dancehall arena, look at me—I'm the girls' deejay, and even I have conscious songs that are out there. Dancehall is a music that is digging into social stuff.

LG: Speaking of being the girls' deejay, I'm sure the women out there want to know what your status is.

SP: [laughs] A question that is always popping up! Definitely. I have been in the biz for a lot of years. When I first started out, I had a girl and we broke up. I went through a long, long stage of groupie vibes and being out there. It just so happens that at this time, when I'm about to break onto a bigger international scene, I do have a little girlie in Jamaica. She basically grew up close to the family and that's my girl.

LG: That's really positive to hear.

SP: Straight! Sometimes you have to take a break from being a crazy kid. You can't be doing that all the time. Sometimes you just have to pay respect to your own simple-ness.

LG: So true. Have you noticed your privacy starting to slip away a bit?

SP: [laughs] That's funny! Boy, I'm not really a public person. It's good to know that people appreciate the vibe. I don't think that people are being hectic around me or rushing the vibes for any other reason than they appreciate that. So I have to appreciate them for appreciating my music.

In Jamaica right now it's getting pretty strange! There's a lot of crazy stuff that happens where people call me all over the place, "Yo, Sean!" It's weird and funny too because in Jamaica there's an expression called, "wagonis."

LG: Get on the bandwagon.

SP: Yeah! I would hail them up and they would never show encouragement until they saw certain things. It just goes to show that a lot of people listen to reggae music—a big demographic throughout the world, throughout the universe. You have to know that basically reggae artists need exposure, and that is what's happening right now. We're getting exposure for authentic dancehall tracks right now—on BET, MTV, on all the radio stations, and it's just bigging up reggae all that more. I love that vibe!

Even hip-hop producers have become more dancehall-oriented. You can look at Timbaland and The Neptunes. On the "How High" album, Redman and Method Man paid respect to a dancehall track.

LG: Missy Elliott . . .

SP: Missy, there's Tweet, there's Miss Jane, there's Benzino—all of these artists are quite dancehall sounding. Busta [Rhyme]'s new album has some stuff on it. I just feel that it's the next music. I just did the "Gimme the Light Remix" with Busta.

LG: When does that release?

SP: It should be out in a couple weeks. It's on the same rhythm. That's the funny thing and that's the thing that I really respected about Busta— they said to him, "We want to do the remix," and he said, "Alright, but just don't put me on any other rhythm. I'll go on that same rhythm," because he loves the rhythm and that's crazy!

LG: I remember a couple of years back when "Hot Gal Today" came out, there were rumors about a scuffle between you and Mr. Vegas. Do you want to talk about that?

SP: [laughs] Yes, the scuffle . . . Sometimes the dancehall business is so small. In Kingston alone, there are like 10,000 artists—a lot of artists! So there's a lot of competition. Even though I'm not a clash deejay, the rivalries don't always come out in the public eye. I've had my fair share of competition between people, and friends too.

Vegas and I did "Hot Gal Today" and it blew up because it was a big hook and the togetherness that we had hadn't been done recently. It ended up being a big song and then my album was ready to go and this song was on there. Vegas didn't have it on his first album.

VP Records owned the song, and they put out a single because it was still hot in New York on Hot 97. My picture was the only one on the cover of the single. Vegas got upset about that and basically, there's no hatred now, but at the time it was very hectic between us. He wondered why I would let that happen. I tried to explain to him that things don't always happen the way I want them to all the time. There are times where I tell [the record label] to do things and they don't do them. Sometimes they don't tell me what they're going to do, and they just do it. I didn't know it was going to be made a single off of my album.

Basically, it was a mix-up between the record companies. They wanted to do a video with me and Vegas, and Greensleeves, which was his label, didn't want him to be in the video because VP wouldn't give them the song for his next album. It was really between the record labels, but he got involved because Greensleeves ran back to him and said, "Sean don't want . . . " and Vegas came back to Jamaica and went on TV and said, "I've been downtrodden because of this and that." It was just a competition vibe. Right now, it's all good. He did a song after that saying he wasn't going to do any more songs with me. It's just a vibe—you have egos.

LG: True. Those competitions are bound to come up, I think. The Cecile single ["Can You Do the Work" on the Liquid rhythm] is very hot right now! Who would you like to work with whom you haven't had a chance to yet?