Snow

Darrin Kenneth OBrien 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 IrishCanadian 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 IrishCanadian 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 oneyear sentence after pleading guilty to beating a person with a crowbar during a bar brawl Upon Snows release in January 1988 the Jamaicanborn DJ Marvin Prince saw OBrien deejaying at a party and the two became friends For the next few years they practiced in Princes 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 Snows music to rap star MC 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 MotorjamElektra 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 CCBYSA 30