![\"Snow\"](\"http:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/post-shame-for-cancer_250x375.jpg\" "\\"Snow\\"")
\u201cI\u2019m going to entertain for two more years. After that, I\u2019m going to start doing some real goodness, real charity, real helping,\u201d rapper Snow tells Samaritanmag.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m going to entertain for two more years. After that, I\u2019m going to start doing some real goodness, real charity, real helping,\u201d rapper Snow tells Samaritanmag.<\/p>\n
Having grown up in Toronto\u2019s Allenbury Gardens housing projects, the 45-year-old always has charity at the back of his mind from helping disadvantaged kids in his old \u2018hood to nurturing the artistic potential of inmates, something he wants to do next.<\/p>\n
But now he is doing something else that hits close to home.<\/p>\n
All of the proceeds from his long-awaited new single \u201cShame\u201d \u2014 featuring reggae legend Mykal Rose (Black Uhuru) and produced by Kent Jones and Cool & Dre \u2014 goes to the U.S.-based Karen E. Mumford Cancer Foundation (KEM) in honour of his late wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cTamei passed away five years ago. It just came out of nowhere. We knew for like two weeks,\u201d says Snow, whose real name is Darrin O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
Tamei Edberg died of uterine cancer just after receiving the terrible news. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, it is the most common cancer of the female reproductive organs but unfortunately in Tamei\u2019s case was diagnosed too late and wasn’t able to be treated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Founded in 2007, KEM not only educates people about preventative practices “that can sharply eliminate chances of acquiring cancer,” it states on its web site, but “will donate funds to cancer research while financially assisting sufferers of cancer and those undergoing treatment.”<\/p>\n
Snow didn\u2019t write \u201cShame\u201d about cancer or his wife but as an explanation to his U.S. fans about why he disappeared off the radar following the release of his 1993 hit, \u201cInformer,\u201d which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo after the song was done, we were thinking, \u2018Let\u2019s do something for cancer,\u2019 so we got hold of the KEM Foundation. They help people with cancer. They don\u2019t just take the money and do research; they help. So let\u2019s do that that in her honour,” says Snow.<\/p>\n
In Canada, Snow has had hit singles since \u201cInformer,\u201d including 1999\u2019s \u201cEverybody Wants To Be Like You,\u201d which reached No. 2, and 2002\u2019s \u201cLegal,\u201d which peaked at No. 13, but he hasn\u2019t dropped an album in 12 years.<\/p>\n
He has always worked at his own pace, releasing albums when he meets a group of people (producers, co-writers, managers etc\u2026) that are committed and fun. After all, he never set out to be an entertainer, he says. It just happened when he landed in jail on two attempted murder charges, then for assault causing bodily harm and came up with \u201cInformer” (listen to the lyrics for the story).<\/p>\n
A jury found him not guilty but he had other charges on his criminal record that prevented him from entering (thus touring) the U.S. The matter that has finally been resolved (\u201cno guns, no drugs, no violence towards women, just stupidity,\u201d Snow says), allowing him to work in America now, which he is doing with Kent Jones, Scott Storch, Fat Joe, and others.<\/p>\n
His next single is \u201cOhh Baby,\u201d featuring Fat Joe and a sample of Peter Frampton\u2019s \u201cBaby I Love Your Way.\u201d It is due out in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll probably give all that money away to some people in Ireland or Jamaica or something,\u201d Snow laughs.<\/p>\n
When he mentions he\u2019d like to continue entertaining for two more years then dive into charity work, Samaritanmag asks him what he\u2019d like to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to\u2026I don\u2019t know. See, what makes me mad is jail, how they treat the inmates in jail. I don\u2019t care what you do, whatever whatever whatever but they\u2019re not dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In August, Samaritanmag covered something that might be right up Snow\u2019s alley. Musician\/producer Chris Brown (Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Barenaked Ladies, Chris Brown and Kate Fenner) runs the Pros and Cons program, which strives to assist prisoners through mentorship and constructive hands-on work. Postcards from the County is an album recorded behind bars with inmates and Canadian artists, such as Sarah Harmer and Luther Wright.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanna do it. Tell them to get a hold of me. I\u2019ll do it. I know them all in jail,\u201d enthuses Snow. \u201cI wanna do two songs with the inmates. Everybody knows my family down there; when I go down there, everybody, big dogs down there. There\u2019s so much talent there. And it\u2019s a shame that if you\u2019re walking down the street and you get caught with a bag of heroin or a bag a crack, you\u2019re a crack user or a heroin user; you\u2019re not a criminal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney will go to something to do with the jail \u2013 more instruments, more this, more that,” he adds. “The talent is crazy. It\u2019s not just music. It\u2019s lost talent and they could be doing artwork for record companies or something, while they\u2019re in there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m going to entertain for two more years. After that, I\u2019m going to start doing some real goodness, real charity, real helping,\u201d rapper Snow tells Samaritanmag. Having grown up in Toronto\u2019s Allenbury Gardens housing projects, the 45-year-old always has charity at the back of his mind from helping disadvantaged kids in his old \u2018hood to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65,169,7,178,168,177,176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dsnow.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}