Sean Paul Vows To Never Retire From Music

Dancehall superstar Sean Paul has made it clear that he has no plans to retire from music and will keep performing until his last breath.

“Naa, man, mi naw retire till mi dead like a tyre, trus mi nuh man” the 51-year-old quipped in a recent NME interview after the question of retirement was posed.

The Temperature artist also pointed out that performing onstage helps him maintain his youthful energy, even as he acknowledged the challenges that come with age and the physical demands of performing.

“Suh it gets harder.  It do get harder as someone who’s growing older, like, to be jumping up and doing that, you know what I mean? It’s a thing. But it keep mi youthful,” he explained.

The St. Andrew native also shared an interesting piece of trivia he came across, highlighting the benefits of regular concert attendance: “And I read a little ting yesterday that said if you attend two concerts or two festivals every month, you goin gain nine years on your life.  So I’m going to live forever!” he declared playfully.

“What I’m saying is that this is a synergy and a gathering of people of a like mind, people who want to see, have, just party and have fun. Big up to everybody who attends the festivals with vigor every year.   And big up to everybody who puts on these festivals.   It’s awesome. To me, music is a thing that helps you to evolve and helps to keep you young at the same time. So that’s omnipotent. That’s like God. So big up, God. Thank you. And big up, music,” he added.

Sean Paul’s music career began in the 1990s, when he branded himself a “conscious artist.” One of his first conscious tunes was a remake of The Wailers’ 1967 classic Nice Time, which he recorded in 1994 in collaboration with the late Former Third World percussionist Irvin ‘Carrot’ Jarrett. 

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

The idea was 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.

The St. Andrew native’s first girl-oriented song was Baby Girl, which was recorded in 1996 and was produced by 2 Hard Record’s Jeremy Harding and his brother Zachary Harding on the Fearless juggling riddim.

Fearless 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.

His success with Baby Girl resulted in him taking  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 genre’s top artists.

“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,” Sean had explained in a past interview.

Sean Paul went on a roll in the 1990s with a string of classic authentic Dancehall ‘gyal songs’.

In 1997 he achieved major success with his track Infiltrate on the Playground riddim, which was also produced by Jeremy Harding.  The Playground riddim also featured several other hit songs, including Beenie Man’s Who Am I (Sim Simma), Mr. Vegas’s Hands in the Air (Nike Air), Mad Cobra’s Pet and Pamper, Spragga Benz’s Strong Performer, and Merciless’s Work Dem.

In 1998, Sean Paul established himself as a pillar on the Dancehall scene with tracks such as Deport Dem, produced by Tony Kelly on the Bookshelf riddim, and It’s Over Mi Lover on the Graveyard riddim.

Draw Card featuring Mr. Chicken on the Earthquake riddim was also released that year.  It 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.

The Wolmer’s High School old boy, also recorded Look So Appealing on the Paid in Full riddim and Model on the Broadway riddim.

In 1999 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.

A total of 19 of Sean Paul’s songs have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, among them Get Busy, Like Glue, We Be Burnin, Temperature and Baby Boy with Beyonce. 

However,  it is the hit track Money Jane a collab with Kardinal Offishal, Canadian DJ group Baby Blue Soundcrew, and Canadian singer-songwriter Jully Black which was recorded more than two decades ago, which is credited with launching Sean’s international music career. 

Money Jane which was released by Universal Music Canada in 2002, was a big hit in that country, and was Sean Paul’s first music video.   It went on to cop the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Hip Hop Video, Video of the Year, and Video Award for Peoples Chic.   It was also nominated for the Juno Award’s for Rap Recording of the Year.

Money Jane resulted in Canada being the first place, internationally, to endorse Sean Paul creating for him a fan base so massive, that it resulted in US-based radio stations such as Hot 97 taking notice of his music, according to Kardinal Offishal.