Entertainment Now Interview
This interview was from a show called Entertainment Now. This was done in
1997. Interviewer's name is Liz Smith.
ENW: With the release of his third recording "Justuss"
Darrin O'Brien's music is standing on its own. Proving he's got more than
novelty appeal. He's talking about movie deals with Miramax, he's selling
out stadiums in Japan, but here in Canada he's as sensational as well....
Snow.
(Short clip of Boom Boom Boogie)
ENW: Snow's story reads like a movie script and it just
might end up becoming one. He's a white kid of Irish decent, who grew up
in an Ontario housing project, that was predominantly black Jamaican. In
order to survive Darrin O'Brien, not only learned to walk the walk but
also talk the talk.
ENW: Could you teach me how to toast? Is that something you
can teach someone to do?
Snow: Yeah, I'd just teach you by giving you a tape and tell
you to go home and listen to that for about 8 years.
Snow: Are you the deuce(I think that's what he says)
ENW: (trys to say it)
Snow: I use to play my yellow banjo, and rest it on my knee,
but now the strings are broken down, and now it's no use to me.
Snow: (says the above about 100 times faster, sounds really
cool)
ENW: While his reggae rap got him in tight with his
community, his passion for drinking and fighting got him in tight with the
law. And landed him in prison on an attempted murder charge.
ENW: How was it that you were accused of murder?
Snow: Two attempt murders, but I didn't do it
ENW: Yes, which is why you are here.
Snow: (laughing)You're just waiting for me to cry "I
didn't do it" but um...
ENW: This isn't America's Most Wanted, don't worry.
Snow: No, I didn't do that, something happened and they got
the wrong guy and they charged me for it. I spent a year in jail and
that's when I wrote...
(They play informer clip)
ENW: So the movie script reads like this, in 1989 a white
Irish reggae rapper from the hood, is wrongly accused of attempted murder.
In prison he writes a song about being ratted on and when he's released he
records it. Smash cut to a year later, Snow's back in prison, this time
for assault causing bodily harm and actually listens on the radio with
fellow inmates, as his song hits number 1 on the North American charts.
Hollywood couldn't ask for a better hook, and neither could Snow's record
label who immediately began cashing in when Snow was finally acquitted and
released from his charge.
(They play Girl I've Been Hurt clip)
ENW: But as a successful rap reggae singer Snow unavoidably
falls victim to the Vanilla Ice syndrome, as a white artist fronting what
is principally black music.
Clifton Joseph(Dubz Poet at Large): What we have is a
white...what Colonel Parker had said Elvis's manager, he could make
millions if he could get a white boy to sing colour and he did. So the
Snow phenomenon is exactly that.
Denise Jones(Artist Manager): Not only is he white, he's a
white DJ and he's got this Jamaican thing happening, oh man, of course a
marketing person's dream, it's something to go on.
CJ: It's the industry and the media that pushes him to be a
phenomenon and at the same time don't deal with the culture and the people
and the community that spawns the art form that was able to help him
propel into media and music spotlight. I find that absolutely
reprehensibly, nasty, diabolical and downright racist to tell you the
truth.
Kevin Wade(of Majestic Warriors): To me he paid his dues, he
has a talent within himself and he's trying to generate out towards people
and I respect that.
DJ: Reggae music is truly a vibe and you have it or you
don't. His reggae vibe is created, built mostly out of his Canadian
experience, he can't be anything else.
(Snow driving with Boom Boom Boogie in the background)
Snow: This is the neighbourhood here, we use to look at
these buildings over here and think wouldn't it be great to live in them.
(walking around Allenbury)
Snow: They'd fill up the pool in the night time, and
everyone would be drinkin and getting in trouble. People from the mall
(for people who now the area, Fairview Mall) would walk through here to
get to their houses, but everyone would beat them.
KW: They do tend to talk about Snow's personal life, but
that is good in a way, it shows kids who have been struggling like the
ghetto's, sayin that this guy's come from no where and look at where he's
now.
Snow: This whole interview here is not saying, if you grow
up in this neighbourhood, and you drink and you fight you're going to end
up like me cause it's not like that, I was lucky.
ENW: Do you look back now and feel really grateful that you
grew up in this type of environment?
Snow: I like the people, but when it comes down to the
trouble like the real jail time, I wish I'd gone another route, step aside
from that. That's the only bad thing, but other than that, swimming in the
pool, hangin out with friends I wouldn't trade that for nothing in the
world.
ENW: Even though his record label East West Records is based
in New York City the United States has deemed Snow as a menace to their
society and will not allow him into the country, true story.