Sean Paul On How He Became A “Girls’ Artist”

Sean Paul says he was compelled to start recording songs about ‘sexy girls’ when his Dancehall career was in its infancy, as music producers insisted that he take that route and were reluctant to voice his “conscious songs”.

“At first I was only doing conscious music. Everybody who heard me do it was like: ‘it’s dope, you sound like Super Cat, but bro — that’s not you. Why are you singing this conscious stuff? And I was like, “Because I am a conscious person, that’s what I want to put out,” Sean Paul explained in a recent interview with AskMen.

One of Sean Paul’s first conscious tunes was recorded in 1994.  The song Nice Time, was a remake of The Wailers 1967 classic and was a collaboration with the late Former Third World percussionist Irvin ‘Carrot’ Jarrett.  In the track, Sean deejayed two verses appealing to young men to stop violence and dispense with the guns and instead, respect each other, party, and enjoy themselves.

However, subsequent to that, other producers felt that Sean Paul’s good looks and the fact that women found him appealing, made him better suited for songs that appealed to the fairer sex.

“But a lot of the producers didn’t see me that way. They were like, ‘you’re the dude who takes dudes’ girls away and you end up in a fight with them at parties’. That’s when I was an adolescent. The producers were like, “Sing about the ladies, sing about girls. Ladies love you, sing that”,” he said.

Sean Paul’s first girl-oriented song was Baby Girl, which was recorded in 1996 and was produced by Jeremy Harding and his brother Zachary Harding on the Fearless riddim.

Fearless was a juggling riddim, which also featured songs such as Round Head’s Hot From Long Time; Gal It Wouldn’t Easy by Don Yute; General B’s Yu Own Man; Let’s Talk About It by Swade, Future Troubles’ Fearless and Scare Dem Crew’s Girls Segment featuring Elephant Man and Harry Toddler.

“The first song where I did sing like that blew me up in ‘96. From there I just decided I was going to talk about the ladies and relationships and everything that comes with it, from wilin’ out to sex to meaningful conversation,’ the St. Andrew native stated in explaining his success with Baby Girl.

From then, the Temperature artist took his songwriting on a different trajectory, and as he did so, he took Dancehall music by storm and became a major feature on juggling riddims with the top Dancehall acts.

“I started zoning in on the fact that these producers weren’t really going to record me trying to sound more conscious. I switched up my flow, and from there, it just took off,” he explained.

“I decided to make a lot more songs about ladies and relationships and partying with friends. And honestly, it helped me. Every time I’ve had a problem in my life, music has been the thing I could lean up on. Maybe my girl left me. Maybe I bumped my toe or broke my knee. There’s always been a song that’s been like, ‘This is your song today, bro. Play this song and you’ll feel better’,” he added.

Sean Paul had a string of classic authentic Dancehall ‘gyal songs’ in the 1990s.

In 1997, he scored massively with Infiltrate on the Playground riddim, which was also produced by Jeremy Harding on his 2Hard label.  Playground riddim had a slew of other hits including Beenie Man’s Who Am I (Sim Simma), Hands in the Air (Nike Air) by Mr Vegas, Pet and Pamper by Mad Cobra, Strong Performer by Spragga Benz and Work Dem by Merciless.

In 1998, he cemented himself as a force in Dancehall with songs such as the Tony Kelly-produced Deport Dem on the Bookshelf riddim and Its over mi lover on the Graveyard riddim.

Draw Card featuring Mr. Chicken on the Earthquake riddim was also released that year and was produced by Robert Livingston and Shaun ‘Sting International’ Pizzonia; Dream, Dream, Dream on the Dutty Boot riddim produced by Computer Paul; Excite Me on the Unda Water riddim in 1998 and Report to We on the Now Thing riddim.

He also recorded Look So Appealing on the Paid in Full riddim and Model on the Broadway riddim.

The year 1999, saw Sean Paul continuing on his pro-hot girls path, with a slew of releases including Hot Already on the Get Mad Now riddim and Sexy Punky on the Sweet Lady riddim.

His mega-hit collab Hot Gyal Today with Mr. Vegas which was produced by Steelie and Clevie on their Streetsweeper riddim, came in 1999, as did Nah Go Happen on the Headache riddim; Safe Sex on the Godfather riddim and the Tiger Bone collab on the Intercourse riddim with Mr. Vegas.