Sean Paul To Release Two Albums In 2021 “Live N Livin” And “Scorcher”
Dancehall superstar Sean Paul has revealed the names of his two upcoming albums which he spent the better part of last year arranging and compiling during the international lockdown.
The Kingston native will be releasing the two new albums, Live N Livin and Scorcher, within a matter of months, one of which he says is partially aimed at increasing Dancehall’s international streaming numbers.
Paul made the revelation during an interview on Radio Jamaica with Wesley Burger, co-host of the radio station’s Two Live Crew, on Thursday afternoon. He said the first album, Live N Livin, is produced under the auspices of his Dutty Rock Productions.
He said all the songs are collaborations with Jamaican Dancehall/Reggae artistes, among them Buju Banton, Busy Signal, Serani, Masicka, Bugle, Intence, Squash, Mavado, and Chi Ching Ching. Jesse Royal and Mutabruka are also a part of the album having featured on the already-released Guns of Navarone, a song Paul says speaks about “violence and how we still perpetrate it on each other”.
“Me being the person who wanted to be the conscious artiste back in the days, I coming full circle again,” Paul told the host.
“You know my yute dem, I want to be teaching dem di right ting. So it was always popping up in mi brain. So it was like mi waa meck a statement. Mi waa seh certain tings. And there is a few songs on this album which are like that,” the Wolmer’s High School old boy added.
The second album he said, is titled Scorcher, which is under the auspices of Island Records and for which the lead-out single produced by Chimney Records, is also titled Scorcher. His album, from all indications, is targeted at the ladies and features American singer Gwen Stefani, Australian singer-songwriter Sia, Shenseea, and Jada Kingdom. There is also a track that features Dumpling artist Stylo G, he said.
“Not every tune is a collab on dis album. This album has certain tunes by myself,” he explained.
The Grammy-winning artiste, who celebrated his 48th birthday last week, was particularly excited about a Rocksteady tune on the Scorcher album, which he said is titled Light My Fire.
When asked why he had worked on two albums in just one year, the Baby Boy artiste attributed his quest to the COVID-19 lockdown, which had brought tours and other international appearances to a standstill. He also said the work is stopping no time soon as he also has a song with Spice, to be released on another project.
“The touring stop and di work a pop. You haffi make use a di time inna life because if yuh nuh have no salt, you a jut dirt enuh. Memba dat,” Sean Paul said.
Sean Paul who emerged on the Dancehall music scene in the early 1990s has so far released a total of six studio albums. He is also the recipient of a Best Reggae Album Grammy award and five other Grammy nominations, one of which was for Best New Artiste in 2003 and the other for Best Pop Duo for the Cheap Thrills track, a collab with Sia.
He also has five Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBO) awards under his belt, an American Music Award, several American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Awards and an MTV Europe Award.
A total of 19 of his songs have been certified gold and several which have sold platinum, among them his 2003 chart-topping single Get Busy, his 2005 hit single We Be Burning, Cheap Thrills, Rockabye, Baby Boy, Bailando and Do You Remember. His Trinity and Dutty Rock albums have also been certified platinum, while his 2005 chart-topping single Temperature has also been certified triple-platinum.
In 2017, Sean Paul was presented with a plaque by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling more than 26 million records.
Sean Paul’s debut album was Stage One, which was released in March 2000. It was followed by Dutty Rock two years later. Dutty Rock was his commercial breakthrough and featured two US number-one singles, Get Busy, Baby Boy with Beyonce, Gimme the Light, Like Glue and I’m Still in Love with You, which all charted in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. Dutty Rock reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, and number 9 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart.
His third album The Trinity, was released in the United States by Atlantic Records in September 2005 and featured the hit We Be Burnin.
Imperial Blaze, which was his fourth album, was released in August 2009. It was followed by Tomahawk Technique and his sixth album Full Frequency in 2014.
Sean Paul rose to prominence in Dancehall circles with his Jeremy Harding-produced track Baby Girl in 1996, and followed up with hits such as Nah Get No Bly (One More Try), Deport Them, Excite Me, and Infiltrate.
Paul started to make inroads to American audiences in 1999. According to VP Records, “he was first commissioned to collaborate with fellow Dancehall hitmaker Mr. Vegas on a production for rapper DMX; titled Here Comes the Boom which 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. Unfortunately, Paul had a very public falling out with Mr. Vegas over the packaging of the latter’s remix of “Hot Gal Today…” VP added.