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Sean Paul Interview
Reggae | Wednesday 8th February 2012 | Osh
Right here on Guestlist, a Reggae icon representing Kingston, Jamaica. He's got the new album coming out later this year and obviously the hot single
On the last album I felt like keeping it solo. I felt like I’d reached a point where I was the fire that brought people to us, kneeling down to this king reggae music. That’s why I called it imperial blaze. On that album I had a lot of people complain that I didn’t have no features on it. At the time I didn’t feel like doing a feature. It was just about how I feel. Like if you’re Van Gogh and you feel like painting a whole series of work, you just blow paint along. Me as an artist, I feel like I can express myself and just write all kind of songs about relationships by myself. That was that album. On this album I feel like working with other people, but not these great stars. I’m not saying I wouldn’t want to work with Shakira and people like that. I’ve been saying that in interviews for years, you know what I mean (looks to camera and pleads with Shakira)? But this time I wanted to use some fresh people. Alexis Jordan was perfect. She’s known in Europe. She’s known in Australia. I’m digging those places, but she’s from America and not that much of her home population know her or her music. I figured it would be a great way of breaking her to the masses in America, and the rest of the world too, whilst helping me to sound fresh. It’s a symbiotic ting. Sometimes you work with an artist and people are like ‘the two of them need some new energy, them sound old!’ So I figured this time around we needed a fresh approach, some fresher people. Alexis Jordan dropped in on tha ting very good. I’ve worked with dancehall producers—Don Corleone, Washroom Entertainment, my brother Jigzagula. I’ve been doing some production myself. I’ve got a riddim out now called Blaze Fire, featuring people like Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and Assasin. Producing was a natural ting for me to expand into. I’ve done two tracks with Stargate. I think that the Jamaican production is going to be the meat of the album.
So what was the concept behind the tour? What did you envisage in your mind with tunes like ‘Get Busy’ and ‘Gimme the Light’? It was commercial Dancehall that you took international. Did you ever envisage it being as big as it was?
No, I never thought it would be that big. And the ting was I felt huge already because of the success of my first album. I never thought I’d even reach that level. That first album sold 75,000. When I was doing it, I was taking a lot more shows. I went a lot to New York and Miami and London. People would come up to me in regular clubs in New York being like ‘Yo, you want another bottle of Moet?’ That’s where the whole vibe came from—me touring. So you talk about touring and parties and having fun and these types of tings. Mainly with those songs—Get Busy, Gimmie the Light, sounds like Shake That Ting—all of those come from grinding, going out, being in strip clubs. Boom boom bam bam.
And then what? 6 million records worldwide and counting.
I’m trying to expand the sounds. It’s the same thing but on a different level. Since then it’s been that, trying to grow. That’s what all vibes are from stage 1 to 2, just trying to grow. That’s the vibe, just trying to grow.
Out of all of those collaborations, which ones are the most memorable and why?
Beyonce was the most memorable because of all that controversy when the song came out. It was my first number one. But also working with Rihanna was great because she’s from the Carribean. She gets the sense of humour. She loved Jamaica as a younger girl ‘cos all of the music came out of there. So there was just a connection there and a good vibe. Keisha Cole was really easy to work with also. I think all those artists that we mentioned including Busta Rhymes are all great vibes to me. I loved the experience of being able to work with them.
Fire Blaze again, imperial blaze 2009… and trust me the tune is so fine, you na understand. I hear you took some genius that from that young yout Freddie McGreggor’s son. What was the whole idea behind that one?
At that time I kinda wanted some new harmonies. I was doing melodies myself. The harmonies I was finding were kinda limited. You grow as an artist, so you need someone to help that vibe and show you that vibe. To me the stuff he was doing that I heard on the radio and at dances was amazing. I was like ‘yo, me love dat’, so I gravitated towards him in the studio and run the vibe. I said ‘Boom boom boom, let’s work.’ I said ‘I need some different elements on this album, Stephen.’ He said yea. That whole album felt like more of a change for me. I love his style of production. It seemed more like my style gone global, using different types of instruments. It felt good.
I like the feel of that one. Old school but still a but modern feel to it. It showed me that, boy, Sean Paul is not just doing dancehall. It’s looking like he’s trying to capture that reggae vibe and bring that back to the dance hall.
Yeah, I took a chance with ‘I’m still in love’. The first album showed me that I really had a window to expose a lot of what’s happening in Jamaica, not just this little dancehall part of it. Music is wide, just like in the States. They have country and western, rock, jazz and blues. We’re the same. We have skank, rock steady. We have rockers, we have reggae, we have dancehall...different names you call it. It’s the heartbeat of our people. Young generations start and emotions are put into motion.
