‘Jus gimme the light, and pass the dro, buss another bokkle on moe‘
This is the first thing that comes to mind when you think Sean Paul. Sean Paul Francis Henriques was born in Kingston Jamaica, on the 9th of January 1973. 46 years old now, Sean can boast a illustrious career as a deejay, singer and record producer. Having sold over 26 million records and collaborated with numerous global pop stars, there is no doubting his legendary status.
With his swimming background Sean Paul could have easily been known for swimming, as opposed to the dancehall icon he is now. His grandfather was a national water-polo player along with his father who also did long distance swimming for Jamaica. His mother was a proud swimmer who excelled in backstroke and her sister (Sean’s aunt) swam butterfly. The family tradition did not end with Paul as he also played water-polo for the national team from 13 to 21 years of age.
Judging from Paul’s eventual success, this article could have been about an Olympian swimmer with record breaking feats to match. Fortunately the musical world are beneficiaries of an artist who has managed to connect people from all over the world eventually turning dancehall riddims into global pop songs.
Managed and produced by Jeremy Harding, Paul had mild success with his debut album Stage One. The stand out tracks that grabbed people’s attention were ‘Infiltrate‘ and ‘Deport Em’ on Playground Riddim and Bookshelf Riddim respectively. Infiltrate was the alternative to Beenie Man‘s ‘Who am I’ , and garnered huge support after the Beenie buzz died down. There was a similar effect with Deport Em and the Sean Paul sound started to take shape.
