Is Sean Paul white?
rootlesscosmo
12,848 Posts
First off, no disrespect. Some of my best friends are white.And I know race relations in Jamaica are real complicated.And I know that "race" is considered by many to just be a social construct anyway.But it seems like this cat has largely dodged the whole "white" label despite that he's...white?Maybe in Jamaica he gets clowned (for being white or for producing the most "slackness" dancehall music currently out there), I dunno. But here in the US, at least to my knowledge, he hasn't had to deal with the whole white stigma/commentary that people like Eminem are subject to.Anyone have any insights as to this guy's status in JA? 
Comments
He's not white, but he definitely comes from more privileged circumstances than most major Jamaican artists.
SUPERDUPS!!!!!!!!
my boy Bambino is definitely black and he looks real similar.
??????. I highly doubt that is true.
yeah that's why I'm asking. not sure how this guy is received in JA. but his subject matter is pretty vacuous and I know some of the more "conscious" dancehall artists hate on these types of DJs...
his music seems to be both. no sure though. school me.
He's not even in the top 25 of JA artists when it comes to slackness. He doesn't make gun tunes and never makes chi-chi man tunes from what I've heard, and songs about gettin' weeded aren't considered slack.
Part of his outernational success comes from the conscious effort he makes to tone down his patois, especially in the hooks, so that foreigners can understand and sing along.
What have you heard about "race relations" in Jamaica?.
In Jamaica he's judged to have "High Colour"(a light skinned complexion) and "Pretty Hair"(straight hair).He would probably be addressed to "in the streets" as a "Red Yout/yute" (the next step above BROWN)but since he's well known they'll just bawl out "SHAAAWN PAAAWWL!!!!" instead.
I know it works in reverse in the US,with the latin person being called "Brown" and the native american being referred to as "redskin".
I've heard that if youre even 1% of anything else you aren't white.so i wouldn't say he was.
OHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
How is his music any more vacuous than Vybz Kartel's, who is the MOST popular dancehall artist of the past 3 years? How many times can you say "Up to di time" or "timeless" in a song? Many, apparently.
And Sean's got a conscious new song called "Never Gonna Be The Same" over a rootsy new riddim (Seasons, the Don Corleone followup to the massive Drop Leaf riddim) that's gonna be HUGE. It's his ode to his fallen homie Daddigon, founder of the Dutty Cup crew, who was killed in February. Check out a snippet here (in Real Audio) or here (at the top of the mix).
interesting. is his patois really that strong to begin with? is this a guy that has consciously ratcheted up his patois to seem more street and is now toning it down in order to gain more US appeal? i'm assuming here that there is a patois-strength-socio-economic-status connection which there may not be. never been to JA. school a brother.
just as vacuous as Vybz Kartel to me. i'm not saying vacuous content = not popular. quite the opposite (just like here in the US). but I'm saying that he may be a chart-topper but lack the respect of the more conscious DJs. that's what I was trying to figure out.
I don't know where he resides now that he's a big international star, but you definitely heard wrong.
Here's a little known fact, Snow was living in Jamaica after he dropped his first album,trying to assimilate into dancehall scene downhere.He did some stuff with Dave Kelly and he also recorded a lot of "Dubs" for the soundsystems here.
I know many of you may get this impression that he wasn't respected in Jamaica but that's where you are wrong.
did his recordings for junior reid get any heat ?
what about domonik (fava boy george)?