Sean Paul Biography
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Dancehall DJ Sean Paul began scoring hit singles in Jamaica starting in 1996, and has since attracted American attention with his appearance on the soundtrack of Hype Williams’ Belly (with Mr. Vegas and DMX) and his 1999 hit “Hot Gal Today.”
Born Sean Paul Henriques on January 8, 1973, the multi-ethnic Paul (his parents had Portuguese, Chinese, and Jamaican blood) grew up comfortably in St. Andrew, Jamaica, his mother a renowned painter.
He was a skilled athlete, excelling in swimming and especially water polo, playing for the Jamaican national team in the latter. Although his education was enough to land a prosperous career, dancehall music remained Paul’s first love, particularly crafting rhythm tracks.
He became a DJ after he began writing his own songs, patterning his style largely after Super Cat and finding a mentor in Don Yute; he also found contacts in several members of the reggae-pop band Third World in 1993, which helped open up business connections.
Sean Paul released his debut single, “Baby Girl,” with producer Jeremy Harding in 1996; it proved a significant success, leading to further Jamaican hits like “Nah Get No Bly (One More Try),” “Deport Them,” “Excite Me,” “Infiltrate,” and “Hackle Mi.” In 1999, Sean Paul started to make inroads to American audiences; he was first commissioned to collaborate with fellow dancehall hitmaker Mr. Vegas on a production for rapper DMX; titled “Here Comes the Boom,” the song was included in director Hype Williams’ film Belly.
Also that year, Paul scored a Top Ten hit on the Billboard rap charts with “Hot Gal Today,” which quickly became his signature tune. Unfortunately, Paul had a very public falling out with Mr. Vegas over the packaging of the latter’s remix of “Hot Gal Today”; still, it didn’t slow Paul’s career momentum, as he played the Summer Jam 2000 in New York City, the center of his American popularity. That fall, Paul released his first album on VP Records; the sprawling Stage One collected many of Paul’s previous hit singles and compilation cuts, plus a few brand-new tracks.
Sean Paul’s third album The Trinity was released in on September 27, 2005. The album produced five big hits, “We Be Burnin’”, “Ever Blazin’”, “Give It Up to Me”,”Never Gonna Be The Same” and the U.S. chart-topping smash hit “Temperature” .The video of “(When You Gonna) Give It up to Me” (featuring Keyshia Cole) was also featured in the movie “Step Up” in 2006.
He was nominated for four awards at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards, including male artist of the year, rap artist of the year, hot 100 single of the year, and pop single of the year for his hit “Temperature”. He also won an American Music Award for “(When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me” beating Kanye West and Nick Lachey who were also nominated for the award.
His song “Send It On” from “The Trinity” featured on the 2005 Vauxhall Corsa advert. Sean Paul often contributes his songs to various Riddim Driven albums (by VP Records). In March 2007, he returned to his native Jamaica to perform at the Cricket World Cup 2007 opening ceremony. Sean Paul appears on the game Def Jam Fight for NY as part of Snoop Dogg’s crew and again in the game’s sequel, Def Jam: Icon.
The newest Sean Paul album entitled “Imperial Blaze” was released on August 18, 2009. The lead single, “So Fine”, which was produced by Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor, premiered on Sean Paul’s official website on April 26, 2009.
The new album consists of 20 tracks including “So Fine”, “Press it Up”, “She Want Me”, “Private Party” which are party tracks and also love songs such as “Hold My Hand” (feat Keri Hilson), “Lately”, “Now That I’ve Got Your Love” among others. Producers on the album include Don Corleone, Jeremy Harding, and Sean’s brother Jason ‘Jigzagula’ Henriques. All the full songs of the album have been added to Sean Paul’s Myspace page on the day of release of the album.
Up until now there have been eight music videos: “Always On My Mind (with Da’Ville)”, “Give It To You (with Eve)”, “Watch Them Roll”, “Back It Up” (with Left Side/Mr. Evil), “(I Wanna See You) Push It Baby” (with Pretty Ricky), “Hit ‘Em” (with Fahrenheit and his brother Jason “Jigzagula” Henriques), “Come Over” with Estelle. and also the video of his first single, “So Fine” from the new album.
He has recently been featured in Shaggy’s video, “Save A Life”, which also includes appearances from Elephant Man and Da’Ville, among others. In an effort to raise money for a children’s hospital, Shaggy, Sean and the others will be having a benefit concert. All proceeds raised will go towards getting new equipment and technology ‘For Aid to the Bustamante Hospital for Children’. Also Has Performed a Remix of Dangerous with Kardinal Offishall and Akon.
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