Interview Time: Sean Paul

Sean Paul

Font size:

Share

"Ah dutty yeh! Dutty yo! That's right, one of Jamaica's most successful exports was in town recently, so Musicrooms.net caught up with Sean Paul to talk success, style and Beyonce...

How are you?

I’m good. I was a bit under the weather yesterday, but…

How are you enjoying London?

London is good. Cold, but it’s good.

What have you been up to?

Since I’ve been here, a lot of interviews, a couple radio, a couple TV. Also been to a couple of t’ings like Damian Marley’s after-party, and also a movie, which was very stupid – The Matador – oh my gosh…

Where are your favourite hangouts here?

You know the only place I really remember all the time is the 10 Room. But since I’ve been here I haven’t gone there.

Where are you usually based – Jamaica or the U.S?

In Jamaica, but I’m travelling a lot. I’m living out of three bags. But I don’t have a house anywhere else but Jamaica.

You’re really proud of JA – how do you give back?

I think in terms of me being a big artist and working with small artists on this album, and younger producers, was a way of me giving back. Day to day in JA if you’re from a certain bracket you find yourself helping out people. I have a lot of friends from different areas, so I help out when I can. After Hurricane Ivan I donated some money, so I do give back in that respect. The Hurricane Ivan thing wasn’t just friends and people in need around me, it was for schools and a couple hospitals that had been damaged and needed to be fixed.

How do you deal with haters?

Erm… just love ya know. Just love, because if people find it in themselves to hate me for whatever reason, I’ve never thought of it like I’m going to fight these people down to show that they’re wrong. I think time will tell. I think I’m a good person. I think I do my thing with my music, so with haters, basically I just show them love back.

How do you stay out of scandals?

There’s been a couple of crazy events that have happened in my life. Even before I was an artist I always managed to keep it outta people’s ears. I just don’t talk about it to people. Certain people know and they might tell stories, and I know they’re talking about it, ‘cos I hear it back and I’m like “I don’t know nuttin’ ‘bout dat.” I really try to be less sensational in that respect. I wanna be dazzling on the stage, crazy energy, I wan’ give people something to talk about there. Other than that… my personal life… I just play it low.

What keeps you grounded?

I still live with my moms and my grandmother, who put me in perspective all the time, and my brother, you know, ‘cos there’s times when I do wild out a lickle bit, and they see it and are like “Yo what you doing?” I’m close to my friends and family most definitely.

Your brother’s part of your crew, isn’t he?

Yeah, he produced for me on the album, and he’s also a back-up singer on the tour. He produced two tracks – one with Tami Chin and one featuring the Dutty Cup Crew. He’s been a big part of this career; a lot of people don’t know that he helped me write songs, like ‘Get Busy’, the song with Blu Cantrell (‘Breathe’), things like that.

Is commercial success important to you?

It is important for me to do that in terms of breaking my music. It makes the pie bigger. When Shaggy sold like 50 million worldwide, and Beenie Man start to break international and people know his name everywhere, I think it made the pie bigger for me to be able to be a small artist. There’s younger artists… I wouldn’t say that they’re small, but less people know about them, and they feature on my album, like Wayne Marshall and Tami Chin. I think it’s because I’m so successful in the international circle, I’m able to do that with no skin off my back.

What’s been the most surreal experience you’ve had travelling the world?

Erm… waking up and seeing a lady taking a picture of me in my towel, and the door was locked before she came in. Chicago has some crazy people. That was quite ridiculous and crazy. Being able to go to Africa – I’ve been to the pyramids, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda… not been to Ghana. Nigeria is crazy. We’re going to Angola soon, so that should be good.

So why is your album called ‘The Trinity?’

Three lickle reasons. First, it’s my third album. Second, it was produced in a period of three years. And thirdly, to me it represents a young Third World. The reason I did the whole album at home in Jamaica was because… I did have opportunities to record with hip-hop artists… I just didn’t feel right. I sold six million records. Everybody in Jamaica was sayingto me ‘Yo put me on, put me on,” and so I went back home and it inspired me and reminded me of myself 10 years ago when I first started in the biz, and I was going to every producer “Yo I like your stuff, check out my thing,” and I remember thinking that I gave my CD to the dude and he ain’t do nothing with it. So I just wanted to make these kids feel encouraged and let them know that they were inspiring me. So I think the album for that reason represents a young Third World for me, and it’s proving a point that great things can come from the Third World. And it ain’t no third world, it’s really one world, so I’m pushing it in the face of the first world. That’s the reason I called it that – see?

Do you plan to continue the Jamaican-only collaborations?

No, lately I’ve been doing different things. I did a song with Rihanna the other day. On the album I featured Nina Sky – they’re not from JA, but they’re more in the dancehall world. I’m doing a song with Akon soon – I’m presently writing the lyrics for that. I just did one with Carlos Santana that we’ve shot the video for and it features Joss Stone, so you can look out for that. But yeah, I’m starting to do different things like that again since ‘The Trinity.’

Did that whole Beyonce ‘Baby Boy’ thing put you off for a bit?

Yeah it did, but in terms of personally, a lot of people asking questions and speculating things, and when I was denying it, everybody was saying, “Oh no it’s true,” and so on and so on. I’d known Jay-Z from a long time before, and even Beyonce, and so he’d seen me since these rumours and he’s like, “Yo man, come on man,” and I’m like, “Dude it ain’t me,” so I think it kinda soured the relationship. Other than that though it was a number one song, nine weeks on the chart, and I can’t complain.

Where do you get the dancers for your videos?

I have a young lady called Tanisha Scott, who is my choreographer. She’s of Jamaican descent, but born in Canada I think, and she just loves dance, and she was kinda discovered in a club – a director was and saw her doing her thing and was like “Wow I’m gonna put you in a video.’ So she became a choreographer, and she put together a group of girls for me. One of them has Jamaican roots, but she was born and grew up in New York. The other one has Dominican roots, born and grew up in New York, and the last one is basically just American, but she understands the movement and she got it locked down. So those three ladies are the ones that you see in the ‘Temperature’ video, and also in the ‘We Be Burnin’ video, and they travel the world with me – on stage they’re the dancers, and Tanisha comes along when I have big events too.

How would you describe your clothing style?

I can remember as a teenager having one pair of slick jeans, and every time I went out I would be inna de jeans and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get no girl! So I think style is something you can utilise. At that time I didn’t have much to utilise with, but nowadays I have a lot more to utilise, and I just do. It’s not like I definitely like this or that style more, I think there’s different times for different looks. There’s a saying in Jamaica: ‘Style a style a style can’t spoil.’ It’s just something you utilise. Like new styles come in, like, say, big hats are in, and everybody says “Yo I’m on big hats,’ and I know kids run out and get it, and I’m like, ‘But you have such a small head, it doesn’t match you!” So I’m the type of person that wouldn’t buy the big hat. I go with the things that look good on me.

Would you ever cut your hair?

Erm… I used to, back in 2000 it was all bald – like every two days I’d take the shears to it. Right now I’m kinda liking the hair – I didn’t at first, it was a decision I made to try and get a different look, but now I’ve gotten used t o people being in my hair!

You hold the record for the most reggae sales in one week – is there pressure to out-do yourself?

Not really. I feel a sense of responsibility that I owe it to the fans; I owe it to the people who like my music; I owe it to myself; I owe it to Jamaica to produce good music. With the first album ‘Stage One,’ VP Records said to me, “Oh put an album together for us,” and I was like, “Alright,” but I ain’t gonna just put it together music-wise, I’m gonna do the pictures myself, spend my own money and that, I’m gonna make it look good, cos I remember as a kid growing up – the music sounded so big to me and so international – Shabba Ranks… Supercat… and I know people couldn’t understand everything they were saying, but I was like “Yo that could be marketed so big,” and when I see the album cover it was an old picture, and I’m like “That sucks!” and it would disappoint me. So from that time I had the idea that I wan’ put more and do more. And so up to this time I still want to do more just to keep that level up, and it reflects in the slaes that people appreciate that. I don’t really think that I do this because I wanna sell more records, it’s because of wanting to give to the people that I think would appreciate this. There are 18 tracks on my album – none of my albums has had under 17 tracks. People only put about 12 tracks on an album nowadays, because of money reasons, so it should show people that I really not watching numbers or money, I’m just trying to five to the fans, cos I’ma fan of people and if I get more – I like it.

Sean Paul’s album ‘The Trinity’ is out now.