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Clear Skies After Legal Snow Storm

Source: Jim Slotek, www.torontosun.com

A day in court proved to be an uncharacteristically positive experience for Toronto reggae-dancehall rapper Snow last week.

After four years, a New York State appeals court finally threw out a $1.5 million jury verdict against the kid from the Scarborough projects who had a multi-platinum hit five years ago with the hard-to-decipher Informer.

‘It’s great it’s over,’ says Snow, a.k.a. Darrin O’Brien. ‘I’ve been trying to put it out of my mind, but it kept haunting me.’

The suit was launched by a former friend Marvin Prince, who argued that he’d helped develop Snow’s career. A jury awarded Prince the $1.5 mil in mid-’97, but the award was reduced as ‘excessive’ a few months later. Last week, the court went one step further, dismissing all liability.

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Snow Vindicated

Source: Betsy Powell, www.thestar.com

COURT OVERTURNS $1.5 MILLION JUDGMENT

Juno-Award winner and rap/reggae singer Snow is off the hook after a court in New York overturned a jury’s order to pay $1.5 million (U.S.) to his former friend and associate.

In 1994, DJ Marvin Prince sued Snow, who was born Darrin O’Brien, for breach of agreement and damages claiming he was never fully compensated for his role in turning O’Brien into a star.

Snow’s 1993 debut, 12 Inches Of Snow, sold three million copies worldwide and his smash hit ”Informer” spent seven weeks at Number 1.

His troubled life inspired much of the album, which was released as he finished serving a year in jail for assault.

In 1997, an 11-member jury awarded Prince $2.1 million, an approximation of the value of his services. At the time, Snow’s managers and record label were based in New York.

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Canada’s Snow Storms Onto The Reggae Scene

Source: Jennie Punter, www.thestar.com

The idea of a white guy from Canada named Snow singing reggae raised plenty of eyebrows when “Informer” came out in 1993.

Especially since the rise and fall of rapper – some would say novelty act – Vanilla Ice was still fresh in people’s minds.

But once most ears heard the Toronto dancehall reggae artist’s rapid-fire delivery (the video for “Informer” had subtitles) and smooth singing, there was no denying the music came from a real place.

His brushes with the law and general tough times in the housing project where he used to live in Toronto added to his mystique.

Otherwise known as Darrin O’Brien, Snow, 27, has made plenty of trips to Jamaica since dropping his multi-platinum single, “Informer” and his triple platinum (300,000 copies) debut album, 12 Inches Of Snow.

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Snow In The Forecast

Source: Mike Ross, jam.canoe.ca/Music/

Despite being dissed into that special section of hell only white rap stars seem to occupy, Snow – aka Darrin O’Brien – is relatively happy with the way his life has been going lately.

“The key word here is positive,” he says during a recent phone interview, his two-year-old daughter burbling in the background. “Positive music is the music of the ’90s.”

Say what?

This can’t be the same guy who wrote Informer, a bitter rant disguised as a Jamaican dance-hall ditty, from a jail cell. Since that first huge hit, there have been more newspaper articles about Snow’s alleged crimes than his rhymes – assault, attempted murder, uttering death threats, and we haven’t even touched on the traffic tickets.

Insisting that it’s all behind him now, Snow named both his daughter and his latest album Justuss, because, as he explains, “I never had justice before, so this was the first justice I really had. Justice was never in my corner. All the time I got in trouble.”

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Snow Aiming To Fly Again

Source: Betsy Powell, www.thestar.com

Four years ago Snow took the world’s music charts by storm with his tongue-twisting, rapid-fire rap hit Informer from his debut album, 12 Inches of Snow.

Snow’s story — his real name is Darrin O’Brien — spread quickly. The young thug, who had grown up in a Toronto housing project, had written the ditty from behind bars about the informer who ratted him out for a crime he denied committing.

O’Brien beat the rap — attempted murder charges were dropped — and emerged an international star after recording the prison-penned hit. If it sounds right out of a movie, check local listings. Well, not quite yet. Author George Seminara, who directed the Informer video, has written a screenplay about O’Brien’s life and apparently there’s high-level interest at Miramax, a production and distribution company owned by Disney.

‘I want that guy from Romeo and Juliet,’ says O’Brien, naming the young actor Leonardo DiCaprio as his No. 1 pick to play himself. Seminara would appear the man for the job. He’s made a name for himself chronicling the criminal deeds of the rich and famous. His most recent book is called Celebrity Mug Shots: Celebrities Under Arrest. O’Brien says the script, at least at this stage, is based on his life on the streets in his pre-Snow days.

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