Snow, he walks the walk to back up his talk. But as Canada’s foremost gangsta rapper, his is the kind of walk that can land a body in jail.
Which has already happened to the singer a number of times. It seems like every time something big happens with the 25-year-old rapper’s career, it’s paralelled by a brush with the law.
Snow spent yesterday afternoon holding court at the King Edward Hotel to promote his new album, Murder Love. In the morning, he was held in court to answer a charge of uttering death threats. This could be serious; he’s already barred from entering the U.S. and another conviction probably won’t help. Or it could go the way Snow hopes; a guilty plea and a fine. But the case wasn’t dealt with yesterday and has been held over.
“The real drag is that the incident is old news; you can hear on the new album that I’m moving away from gangsta talk. Now this charge comes up and it’s like I’m doing this now.
“The incident happened after an AIDS benefit, when me and some people went back to the hotel. Basically, I got into a shouting match and as you know, you get mad, you’re just yelling, blowing off steam. I guess I was just in the wrong place and things got blown up.
“I don’t need it to sink in any more that I can screw up my life with that crime stuff. When I was in the detention centre this last time, some of the brothers inside, they were yelling to me ‘Man, you’re Snow, you got something happening. What you doing in here? To hear those hardass guys lecturing me, I don’t need any heavier reminders than that. But it’s all old, y’know?”
What’s new is Murder Love, the much anticipated follow-up to the million-selling Informer, which vaulted young Darrin O’Brien from the housing project street corners to international stardom.
Like most Canadian music successes, he’s much better known away than at home. The album was recorded in Jamaica, where Snow was accorded the star treatment throughout his on and off, eight-month stay. He had no trouble meeting everybody in the island’s busy music industry and was invited to play at Reggae Sunsplash.
“The experience of being in Jamaica definitely shaped the album. When I’m working, I don’t listen to other music, for fear of stealing something unconsciously. But down there, you can’t get away from music, it’s all around you.
“The forward thing in dancehall reggae now is being positive, not singing all the time about gun talk and women. More than the beats, that had an influence in how the songs came out. Because I was going in that direction, it came together naturally.”
The album’s a smooth mix of socially conscious and straight ahead lover’s rock, a sound that may allow Snow to escape the gangsta groove, and if it sounds easy on the CD, getting the recording team together took some doing; MC Shan and Americans Michael Warner and Hurby “Love Bug” Azor, had to travel to Jamaica to cut the album, as Snow is currently prohibited from entering the U.S.
This is the real biggie among the many penalties imposed on Snow. This means until the ban is lifted, he can’t tour in the U.S. and without that, selling records there will be problematic. But Snow is confident the lawyers can work some-thing out and it sure sounds like a major push is being geared up for. The debut single, “Anything For You,” comes out in a couple of weeks, there’s a video, shot in Jamaica, being edited, and a Canadian tour is in the plotting stages.
“The biggest difference in the last couple of years is that I don’t have to steal any more. Before, if you put me up in a hotel for a couple of days, everything would be gone. Because I got into singing on the sly, I had to learn how to settle down and think long term. How to get used to the money; I came up hard and that has its effect. I bought my mom a house, real nice house. She said, ‘Darrin, if you fix up the garage, you could live in it.’
“I still live here because I’m close to my family and I can be in touch with the music from here. There’s a lot of talent right here in Toronto and once my own thing is a little more settled, I want to get into producing.
“A lot of kids come up and talk to me, maybe give me a tape. I try to be encouraging because I remember how it is when you’re trying to do something for yourself. If the people you look up to don’t even want to know, that can take it out of you. I know if MC Shan hadn’t taken an interest in me, I wouldn’t be here now. Also, I know those kids can be out there doing a lot worse things.”