he was born in the cold raised in subsidized housing caught a case in his teens
and was even denied business opportunities because of his race
but none of that was going to keep darren kenneth o'brien later known to the world as snow
from achieving his dreams in the music industry canadian reggae fusion artist snow was born one
of four children to irish canadian parents in toronto ontario following his parents divorce
he was raised by his mother in the allenberry gardens public housing projects in the northeast
section of the city snow says it was there that he became involved in a cycle of fighting drinking
stealing and getting caught on the wrong side of the law he never put much effort into school
and even had a lot of trouble reading so when he dropped out in the ninth grade it was no surprise
as he was growing up snow had a strong interest in rock music but by the early 80s when he
entered his early teens there was an influx of jamaican immigrants to his neighborhood due to a
change in the country's immigration policies his musical interests then shifted to what
his new neighbors were listening to reggae snow became skilled at the use of the jamaican dialect
or patois and developed his own style of music by blending dancehall and reggae with rock and pop
the catalyst to really blowing up snow's career would be the last thing anyone would think
could have such a positive result two people would be stabbed during an incident at a hotel
party he attended instigated by snow singing for the crowd that gathered outside in the parking lot
after a fire broke out the girls loved the impromptu performance the guys did not some
of the people pointed the finger at snow and he was charged with two counts of attempted murder
rather than tell authorities who the real perpetrator was snow chose to keep his mouth shut
and ended up serving eight months in jail awaiting trial while he was locked up he focused his energy
into writing music one song in particular would take him to the top of the charts and make him
internationally known snow's debut album 12 inches of snow was produced at lightning speed in the us
and released in january 1993 the process needed to move quickly because snow had to return to
canada in a timely fashion to report to prison to pay another debt to society
after getting into an argument with a man and beating him up he later pled guilty to assault
causing bodily harm and served eight months of his one year sentence up to this point snow had
been charged with various offenses over two dozen times and when it was all said and done
he would end up serving a total of three and a half years behind bars all together in fact
his album launched while he was locked up by the time snow was released his debut single informer
inspired by the party fight and following stint in jail was a chart topping head
the album captured the number five spot on the billboard albums chart
and informer remain number one on the hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks informer has also ended up
in the guinness book of world records twice as the best-selling reggae single
in us history as well as the highest charting reggae single ever
a second single girl i've been hurt also became a top 20 head many reggae purists
though viewed snow along with other artists such as anika mozi diana king ub40 and shaggy
as another example of watered-down commercial reggae that rose to international popularity
in the 90s the sketch comedy show in living color even parodied snow's number one hit by featuring
fellow canadian jim carrey as snow in a sketch titled imposter snow no doubt was pleased to
have achieved such tremendous success straight out of the gate but one person in particular who felt
he played an integral role on snow's journey was not happy about how his contribution was ignored
and disrespected upon snow's release from jail in the late 80s a jamaican-born dj by the name
of marvin prince would see him perform at a party and the two became fast friends marvin claims to
have helped snow refine his reggae singing ability and knowledge of jamaican dialect they even used
marvin's basement as their regular practice location he also made a claim confirmed by snow
that he was the one to give snow his famous stage name i got my name five years ago from
dj prince he gave me the name snow i met him during you know when we were outside of party
and stuff and then he named me snow snow king got two ways the american way can be
cause a white boy doing jamaican music right and jamaican way which my culture is uh
break it down for superb notorious outrageous white boy my real name's darren o'brien
proud irish drink a beer and punching him off if this interview don't come out right
marvin revealed to the los angeles times that they passed around a lot of tapes
and got a lot of positive feedback that is until he revealed that snow was white
on a trip to new york city marvin was able to pitch snow's music to hip-hop artist m.c
shan and in 1991 snow traveled there to meet him it would be one of the last times snow
would be allowed over the border since just two years later he would be banned for life
from ever setting foot on u.s soil again japan would also follow suit and ban the artist from the
country due to his criminal record shan introduced snow to music producers david eng and steve
salem who ultimately decided to sign him to their record label a few years later while on tour as
snow's dj in late 1994 marvin abruptly left after discovering that snow was receiving more money
from management than he was after they're falling out marvin sued snow for compensation while
listed as a writer on only one song on snow's album marvin claimed to have co-written five
including informer he also claimed to be a co-producer along with shan david and steed marvin
insisted that he and snow had an oral agreement that the two would split the profits from the
album 50 50. he also admitted though that these discussions weren't concrete and that they never
organized a formal business plan shan david and steve testified in court that they were unaware of
a partnership between snow and marvin and shan denied that marvin co-produced the album and
co-wrote the songs in question in the end marvin did win a 1.5 million dollar settlement by jury
three times the amount he requested however it would later be overturned by a judge
and the suit dismissed on the grounds that marvin had no viable claims to a
partnership with snow when it was time to get back in the studio to work on his next project
snow knew it was time to go to jamaica he made his way there and partially recorded his second album
on the island titled murder love it didn't turn out to be a commercial success in north america
but the experience allowed him to work with many reggae and dance hall musicians such as ninja
man beanie man junior reed and boo jubanten the lead single siwi dem nanowi reached the number
one spot in the country as did the second single a remix version of anything for you 1997 was another
successful year for snow his third album justice named after his daughter was released in january
the first single boom boom boogie took asia by storm achieving gold status later on in the year
his greatest hits compilation dropped he also got into more trouble with the law and ended up with
another assault charge but after listening to the judge praise him for all his good deeds while also
pointing out that a lot of his issues stemmed from drinking snow decided to stop and hasn't
touched alcohol since over the next five years snow released another three albums and achieved
chart topping success in his native land again with two thousands everybody wants to be like
you and 2002's legal in 2009 snow would suffer a major personal loss when his longtime girlfriend
turned common-law wife the mother of his daughter justice and the subject of many of his songs
tammy edberg passed away from uterine cancer after being diagnosed just three weeks prior
snow also started his own non-governmental organization called pure snow ngo which assists
tenants living in non-profit housing he holds benefit concerts and makes charitable appearances
to hand out goods like backpacks full of school supplies to children living in public housing in
2013 after yahoo ceo marissa mayer complained about the company's hold music during a fourth
quarter earnings call snow recorded a much publicized jingle for the web service provider
give me a second while i pat you through the ceo didn't like the whole music
so daddy so i wrote this
after a long break from the music scene which snow says was due to him just not
feeling the business part of the music business and not wanting to participate it anymore
he popped up again in 2014 with a new outlook a new deal and began recording again he was also
finally able to get his band from traveling to the us lifted his first stop was miami florida to meet
up and work with famed grammy-winning producers coulen dre in october of that year his new single
shame was released featuring michael rose of jamaican reggae group black uhuru the song
details his departure and return to music as well as the pride he possesses for the multi-ethnic
influences that have shaped his career snow also announced that all proceeds from the song would be
donated to the fight against cancer a tribute to his late wife who passed five years prior
snow did find love again and in 2016 married model and actress tara elizabeth sang also
around this time snow established dko music group an independent record label specializing in a
number of different music genres like urban dance hall reggae reggaeton hip hop and r b the company
also offers an abundance of other services such as management production and distribution just
to name a few in january 2019 puerto rican rapper daddy yankee released the reggaeton dancehall song
konkalma featuring snow the single peaked at number six on the canadian hot 100 and number 22
on billboard hot 100 becoming snow's first entry on the chart since 1993 and reached number one on
the u.s hot latin songs list as well as over a dozen spanish-speaking countries snow and daddy
yankee won the top latin song of the year at the u.s billboard music awards as well as half a dozen
latin billboard music awards snow kept the latin plus dance hall theme going by dropping the single
together in 2020 and reason to love in 2021 in february 2022 snow surprised everyone with an
appearance on dj cassidy's pass the mic reggae edition naturally he blessed everyone with a
performance of the song that put him on the map and solidified his place in music history
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