Snow Working with Shaggy Producers
By: Paul Cantin
Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz
Snow is collaborating on a new album with part of the
production team behind Shaggy's mega-platinum disc "Hotshot."
The Toronto-based urban-music star told JAM! Music that he is currently
recording the new record in Miami with Tony and Dave Kelly, who were among
the producers and engineers credited on Shaggy's "Hotshot," one
of the biggest-selling albums of the last year.
Those sessions -- along with tracks cut with Blu Cantrell producer
Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and "another guy from New
Jersey who is just coming out" -- should surface in August on Snow's
follow-up to 2000's "Mind On The Moon".
"It's going to be hot," Snow said as he circulated through the
Juno nominations press conference in Toronto Monday (he was nominated for
best video for "The Plum Song," and for his collaboration with
Ghetto Concept).
Whereas "Mind On The Moon" saw Snow moving in a more
pop-oriented direction, the new disc will see the rapper and singer
returning to his reggae roots. It's a sound he first explored on his
breakthrough 1993 release "12 Inches Of Snow," which produced
the giant hit "Informer."
"It's more reggae. More reggae. This last album, I had a lot more
guitars in my studio. I was clinging to more of a guitar style, which I
loved on my last album," he said.
"But now, the crowd, the kids, when I sing 'Informer,' they love it.
They weren't around when I was doing it (the first time). So I gotta do
some more reggae.
"It was the kids. When I seen the kids, when I sing 'Informer,' I
seen how much they love it. It's not all reggae. There's more singing.
Everything is mixed. Whatever I feel, I do. I want to do a country song.
If I feel it in my heart, I will do it."
When asked if he was encouraged by the crossover success of Shaggy's
similar dancehall/hip-hop style, Snow was adamant that he took nothing
from Shaggy's work.
"No, he never encouraged me. He never encouraged me. He don't have no
influence on my life whatsoever," he said.
When asked if the new album had a title, Snow replied: "Maybe I
should title it 'Shaggy Doesn't Influence Me'."