In 1993, the hit song ‘Informer’ blasted across American and Canadian airwaves and video channels, introducing the phrase ‘licky bum bum down’ to the pop culture vernacular and guaranteeing one-hit wonder status for Darrin O’Brien, aka Snow.

But although Snow had marginal street cred — his mention of a sensi bust on ‘Informer’ was based on personal experience — bad memories of Vanilla Ice lingered. Snow had a minor hit in 1995 with ‘Anything For You’ (whose star-studded remix was popular with both Jamaican and American core reggae fans), but his sophomore effort didn’t come anywhere near the sales of his first LP. He soon disappeared into the dustbin of history, seemingly fated to be the answer to a trivia question: ‘Who was the early 90s chart-topping white reggae artist from Canada?’

‘Informer’s’ fate belies the fact that it came during an interesting time in reggae’s history. In the early ’90s, dancehall was not only the champion sound of Jamaica, but was also making steady inroads into the ever-widening American hip hop audience, through its solid East Coast connections. Boogie Down Productions, Special Ed, Heavy D, Masters of Ceremony, Poor Righteous Teachers, Jamalski and many others were injecting reggae phrases and choruses into their jeep beats. Meanwhile, reggae artists like Shinehead, Shabba Ranks and Cutty Ranks were getting steady rotation in rap clubs and on mix shows. The upshot of all this activity was a trend towards major labels jumping on the reggae-hip-hop bandwagon, which ultimately resulted in a flurry of signings, a few bonafide hits, and a lot of sub par albums.

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