Born
Darrin O'Brien, Snow grew up in the Allenbury
projects in North York, a subsidized neighbourhood
of Greater Toronto Area. He dropped out of
school in grade 8 and got mixed up with a
bad crowd. SNOW owes a lot to those friends,
both as a negative and positive influence.
As the fanaticism he had at age 12 for the
glam rock band Kiss waned, he would, at age
15, begin another obsession, this time for
reggae music. "I used to get tapes that
were dubbed over like 50 times before they
came to me. I"d listen and I'd hear a
word and rewind it and that's all I'd do",
he remembers.
Soon,
he had mastered the Jamaican patois and the
rapid-fire skill of toasting (aka Djing, dancehall
or ragamuffin). He also mastered being an
inebriated menace to society, and ended up
with two bum charges for attempted murder
which landed him in the Metro East Detention
Centre while awaiting trial. He was later
acquitted.
That
didn't last long. He went up on charges of
assault causing bodily harm for another incident
and pleaded guilty. While vacationing in New
York City, hanging out with "the dreads"
on the street, word got out to MC Shan that
this young white suburbanite could rap and
sing. He was hauled into the producer's recording
studio. "I had never been in a studio
before. I didn't know what harmonies were",
SNOW muses.
While on bail, SNOW finished the album, got
a record deal with East/West/Warner Bros.,
made a video for the single "Informer",
then returned to Canada to serve at the Maplehurst
Correctional Centre. By the time he was released,
so was his album, 12 Inches of Snow.
"Informer"
sat at #1 on the Billboard Singles Chart for
7 weeks straight in 1993 and is entered into
the Guinness Book of World Records twice -
as the Biggest Selling Raggae Single in U.S.
History and Highest Charting Reggae Single
in history. Snow's second cousin, Steven Page,
used to cover the classic in the Barenaked
Ladies shows. "If it wasn't for Informer,
One Week would have never been a hit",
Steven says.
His
accomplishments didn't end there.
"Girl I've Been Hurt" (also
from 12 Inches Of Snow) peaked at
#20 on the Billboard charts. The album
went triple-platinum in both Canada
and the United States. "Sexy
Girl", from SNOW's 1995 sophomore
album, Murder Love, charted at #1
in fifteen countries and "Anything
For You" became a massive hit
in Jamaica where the record was made.
His third album, Justuss, 1997, was
named after his daughter.
He
continued to write and record at his
own Deep Sound Studio, located next
to the house he bought for his mother.
Collaborating with a variety of songwriters
including treble charger's Greig Nori
(who produced "Everything's Fine"
and who guests on "Little Did
They Know"), Mark Jackson (ex-B.T.K.),
and writer/mixer/producer Mike Tucker
(NSync, Backstreet Boys), he created
his new sound which he laughingly
refers to as "soda". He
also co-starred in the Robert DeNiro
produced feature film "Prison
Song", starring Q-tip, Mary J.
Blige and Elvis Costello. The film
is scheduled for release in Spring
2001.
SNOW
remains an internationally recognized recording
star and is often asked for his autograph;
a gesture which makes the shy singer a little
embarrassed. "I like that I touch people
with my music" he says, "but why
would they want my autograph? I should ask
for their autograph as much as they ask for
mine because they're just as big a part in
the success. I'm making it but they're buying
it."
Information
courtesy of the official SNOW web site.
