In 1993 Jurassic Park was a monster movie and the Chicago Bulls NBA champions. Grunge rock was in fine form and airbags were the newest car safety devices since front-wheel drive. 1993 was also enthralled with the relatively new sound of rap and that year\u2019s biggest rap song was undoubtedly Informer, a worldwide number one hit by Snow.<\/p>\n
Snow recorded Informer as a troubled youth and his life instantly transformed from troublemaker into pop star. Fame and money followed in the wake of the single, taking Snow around the world to promote and perform his debut album ’12 Inches of Snow.’<\/p>\n
Born Darrin O’Brien, Snow grew up in the Allenbury projects in North York, a subsidized neighborhood of the Greater Toronto Area. A school dropout in grade eight, Snow immersed himself in Toronto\u2019s street culture, acquiring a criminal record and an interest in music. Reggae and hip-hop were particular favorites and Snow developed a unique rapping sound that became known in the East Coast music scene. While on vacation in New York Snow began recording ’12 Inches of Snow’ with producer MC Shan.<\/p>\n
The album was released and the first single, Informer, found heavy rotation on radio and TV. ‘Informer’ sat at #1 on the Billboard Singles Chart for seven weeks straight in 1993 and is entered into the Guinness Book of World Records twice – as the Biggest Selling Reggae Single in U.S. History and Highest Charting Reggae Single in history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two other albums followed ’12 Inches of Snow,’ Murder Love in 1995 and Justuss in 1997 but Snow wasn\u2019t producing hits like he did in \u201993. His decision-take time off, get a new manager and a new record company, record a new album and claim 2000 as his own.<\/p>\n
Read below for an exclusive interview with Snow as he talks about his new album ‘Mind on the Moon’ featuring the single ‘Everybody Wants to be Like You’ and his new life as a father.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: Snow, what have you been doing since your last album in 1997? We haven\u2019t heard much from you.<\/p>\n
Snow: I just took time off with my daughter, spent time with her, then I said, ok, and I got rid of my old managers, got out of my contract, got a new deal with Virgin, picked up new management and started writing a new album.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: So you\u2019re happy with the new direction you\u2019re going in?<\/p>\n
Snow: I\u2019m happy with the new direction my life is going in. The single is doing really good and I\u2019m proud of that but I\u2019m just happy in myself. I\u2019ve changed to become a better father. Someone she can look up to. I\u2019m doing good. I\u2019m more focused, more positive.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: You\u2019ve termed your new sound ‘soda,’ why?<\/p>\n
Snow: Well, I hate that word ‘pop.’ When I did Informer I had no idea that anyone would even like it and then all of a sudden I\u2019m a pop star. But I don\u2019t write pop music. There\u2019s a little R&B, a little reggae, everything in a mix because that\u2019s how I grew up. I was brought up on rock n\u2019 roll and hip-hop. My mother, she got me into the reggae and I guess it shows in my music. I just add it all in.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: To get into your album more, ‘Mind on the Moon,’ where did this title come from?<\/p>\n
Snow: I got into astronomy about a year and a half ago. I bought a big telescope and I was looking at the moon while a friend of mine took my picture. Usually I\u2019m posing for a picture and I didn\u2019t know he was taking the picture–my mind was on the moon. We thought that was a good title for a song and then I thought, ‘I\u2019m going to name my album that.’ It explains where my head is at, where my mind is at.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: Looking at the lyrics to ‘Mind on the Moon,’ you still seem to be talking about your youth. Are you still inspired by street culture?<\/p>\n
Snow: Well, this album was made with a guy who grew up three doors down from me all my life, so we\u2019d just sit there and come up with stories.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: But The Plumb Song is very different. It\u2019s very philosophical. How did you come up with these lyrics?<\/p>\n
Snow: XXX wrote that. He\u2019s a rapper from Queens, New York City. He\u2019s in the same state of mind that I\u2019m in right now, so \u2026 I can remember growing up with my dad (my mom and dad are separated) and he\u2019s say, ‘Come on, let\u2019s go up to the country,’ and I be ‘Noooo,’ I despised the country, I\u2019m a city guy. But now that I\u2019m older, that\u2019s where you\u2019ll find me all the time, walking through the woods. That\u2019s what my friends and I do all the time, walk through the woods. So, you know, I\u2019m a city man but my heart keeps taking me to the secluded countryside.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: What do you find in the country that isn\u2019t in the city?<\/p>\n
Snow: No people. Like in Jamaica, the people who live in Kingston will go and hide themselves away in the mountains to become more spiritual and concentrate on that. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing. It feels good, no one\u2019s around and in the nighttime the stars are out. Especially on a holiday like October 4th — it\u2019s my own holiday.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: You\u2019ve made your own holiday?<\/p>\n
Snow: Yeah, think about it though, when\u2019s the last time anyone made up a new holiday? So I\u2019ve got October 4th and it comes out just before Thanksgiving. There\u2019s a little bit of competition with Thanksgiving but I think I can outdo it.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: What\u2019s your holiday called?<\/p>\n
Snow: Natural Light Day. Me and my friend and my dad were up just north of Toronto. My dad took us on this walk and ‘schooo’ the Northern Lights came up and it was amazing. Jupiter was up, Saturn was up and Polaris. There was a shooting star that came ‘schoom’ like this (demonstrates with his hand) over the Milky Way and the moon was over here. So it just seemed like a natural decision to make it into a holiday with all these fireworks.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: That\u2019s pretty cool. Now, I want to talk to you about your past as a troubled youth and into 1993, when you had a number one song with Informer. How did that affect you?<\/p>\n
Snow: It just gave me more money to drink alcohol.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: Really?<\/p>\n
Snow: Yeah. But it\u2019s not like I wish I never had that hit. I\u2019m glad that I did because it opened the door for me. This is the only thing I can do with my life. Informer came out and I was able to buy a house and give some money to my family and stuff. But there were a lot of problems. I was hotheaded, just came out of jail, and then had a number one hit. I didn\u2019t know how to react to it. So I\u2019m going to Germany, here and there, everywhere, and it\u2019s like, I don\u2019t know how to deal with this. It wasn\u2019t like I had a song that did ok on the charts, do a few interviews to get warmed up, this was a big hit and I wasn\u2019t too good with talking to people. I\u2019d just gotten out of jail. So I was hotheaded, drinking on the road \u2026<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: I\u2019m sure just being on the road leads to that lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Snow: Yeah. So now I can\u2019t wait to get on the road, I don\u2019t drink and it\u2019s going to be full-form.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: It seems that your life is taking a new direction and I\u2019m assuming that this could be because of your daughter.<\/p>\n
Snow: I\u2019m enjoying it so much. We\u2019re best friends. We\u2019re singing music and she\u2019s into astronomy like me, and it\u2019s not like I push her into it saying, ‘Come on, you gotta do this,’ she wanted to know about it. Me and her, I\u2019m just really happy. And that difference is in my music, you can tell the change through the album.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: I\u2019m sure being a father encourages settling down, how does this affect you as an artist who sings and raps about street culture?<\/p>\n
Snow: I still have the roughness. I still know a lot of rough people; you know what I\u2019m saying? So I\u2019m still connected to the streets but I\u2019m not connected in a way that\u2019s going to get me into trouble.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: What\u2019s your favorite song on your new album?<\/p>\n
Snow: It varies. I\u2019ll like this song one day, then I\u2019ll like this song and then this song. Right now it\u2019s probably ‘Nothin\u2019 on Me.’ Where I recorded the album, it was an hour outside of Boston. It was a thousand acres; you couldn\u2019t see another place, just rolling hills and stars. Aerosmith was in the next studio playing and we\u2019d ride horses. I went horseback riding everyday. It put my mind at ease. I went fishing and I hate fishing too! But I was fishing and I was thinking, ‘I feel sorry for these fishes\u2026then I thought, I know what I can do, these fishes are trying to kill my worm so they\u2019re just as bad as me. So it helped me catch them.’<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: Your also an actor and have actually scored a good role next to Robert DeNiro. Tell me about your role and your new movie, ‘Prison Song.’<\/p>\n
Snow: It\u2019s a ghetto concept. I know a rap group who knew the casting director and he said, ‘Yeah, I\u2019m looking for some white guy who knows music,’ and they said, ‘Why don\u2019t you get Snow?’ And I had been kicked out of America and had just been allowed back in and they said, ‘Alright.’ They phoned me up and wanted me to audition for this movie, sent me the script and I saw it was produced by Robert DeNiro. It was a co-starring role and I auditioned and got the part. I was down there with Mary J. Blige and Elvis Costello who also star in the movie. It comes out in April or March 2001.<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: So do you want a serious acting career?<\/p>\n
Snow: I don\u2019t know. If I can convince myself that I did a good job, see myself and say, ‘Yeah, I\u2019m good enough to learn,’ then I\u2019ll maybe get into it. But it\u2019s hard work, getting up at five-thirty in the morning. I\u2019m used to getting up at five or six o\u2019clock in the afternoon and now it\u2019s like, five-thirty. So, maybe \u2026<\/p>\n
Chris Lamb: Snow, what do you have to prove over the next two years?<\/p>\n
Snow: I\u2019ve got to prove to me that I\u2019m a good dad. That\u2019s the only thing I\u2019m trying to prove.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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