Snow

Darrin Kenneth O'Brien (born October 30, 1969), known by his stage name Snow, is a Canadian reggae musician, rapper, and singer. His 1992 single "Informer" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Snow was born and raised in North York, Ontario (now part of Toronto), one of four children born to an Irish-Canadian cabdriver and a homemaker.

Following his parents' divorce, he was raised by his mother in the Allenbury Gardens public housing project where, he says, he was fascinated with the gangster lifestyle, fell in with a tough Irish-Canadian group and became involved in a cycle of fighting, drinking and stealing. He never learned to read properly and dropped out of school while in the 9th grade.

Growing up he had a strong interest in rock music, but after there was an influx of Jamaican immigrants to the neighborhood in 1983, his interest turned to reggae music, and he became adept at the use of the Jamaican dialect, or Jamaican Patois. He developed his own style of music, by blending dancehall and reggae with rock and pop music. In 1987, Snow served eight months of a one-year sentence after pleading guilty to beating a person with a crowbar during a bar brawl.

Upon Snow's release in January 1988, the Jamaican-born DJ Marvin Prince saw O'Brien deejaying at a party and the two became friends. For the next few years, they practiced in Prince's basement, and played parties, with Snow providing vocals and Prince playing records. Prince, who would claim that he helped Snow refine his reggae singing and use of the Jamaican dialect, and that he came up with the name 'Snow', told the Los Angeles Times that they passed around a lot of tapes but could not get Snow signed because he was white.

In 1988, Snow was involved in an incident at a North York pub, in which two people were stabbed "in the lane"; he was accused, and was subsequently charged with two counts of attempted murder. Rather than tell authorities who the perpetrator was, Snow served eight months in jail before a jury acquitted him on both counts. While he was in jail, he went to school and wrote music, which he performed for fellow inmates.

One song was called "Informer". On a trip to New York, Prince was able to pitch Snow's music to rap star M.C. Shan. In 1991, Snow went to New York, where Shan introduced him to music producers David Eng and Steve Salem. Snow signed a contract to record on their Motorjam/Elektra record label, then they recorded his debut album 12 Inches of Snow. The album had to be recorded quickly, because Snow had to return to Canada and report to prison.

... Source: Article "Snow (musician)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.