In 2002, Ja Rule ruled the Ugandan FM radio airwaves and then sank into oblivion. But, as it turned out in 2003, the man who made Ja Rule invisible is surely Jamaican born DJ-cum-singer Sean Paul.
If you have been an ardent listener of local radio, you will agree with me that not even multiple Grammy Award nominee 50 Cent beats Sean Paul when it becomes to the popularity of songs here. On most of the countdowns, Sean Paul’s songs feature more prominently. At private parties, the foreign songs that rule are from the new music sensation.
His collaboration with Beyonce in the extremely popular and lewd song Baby Boy seems to have endeared him to a number of fans. Yeah people like lewd things.
Sean Paul arrived on the music scene with the release of his uptown single Get Busy in 2003. He is one of the dancehall artistes who have introduced Jamaican dancehall music into mainstream America. He has blended this genre with reggae, so well that it now looks extremely new in America, though it has been deep-rooted in Jamaica for almost a millennium.
Paul has sprung from the styles of DJ Spragga Benz and Junior Cat to nurture his own unique genre now aptly known as Uptown. It is against such a background that Paul has been compared with reggae greats such as Peter Tosh and Bob Marley by music connoisseurs. His ability to perform, dance and sing has seen him work with Busta Rhymes, Beyonce and a slew of other rhythm & Blues stars.
In 1996, Paul traded a corporate career for the studio by releasing his debut album Baby Girl that had several hits in Jamaica. A year later he collaborated with Spanner Banner to release Ladies Man. He worked with Jeremy Harding who is responsible for songs such as Beanie Man’s Who Am I. Sean Paul was then introduced to the American eyes in 1999 when he recorded with fellow dancehall singer Mr. Vegas on a song for rapper DMX. Here Comes the Boom was the theme song for the movie Belly.
The 30-year-old singer had to embark on a world-wide tour where he introduced traditional Jamaican reggae with an electronic twist, a thing that had every audio producer trying to entice him to their labels. In 2002, he released Dutty Rock, the album that had Gimme the Light, Get Busy and Like Glue, marking his delayed emergence on the music scene.
Born Sean Paul Henriques to an upper middle class family, he went to prestigious private schools in Kingston. His father is half-Portuguese and half-Jamaican while the mother is Chinese/ Jamaican. His songs have won him the MTV Best New Artiste award, Source Award’s Best Reggae Album and he has been nominated in the Best New Artist category by the Grammy Award Academy. Grammies take place in February 2004.
Sean Paul’s year
