Life and career
1973-1995: Early life
Sean Paul was born in Kingston, Jamaica and spent his early years in Upper Saint Andrew Parish, a few miles north of his birthplace. His parents, Garth and Frances, were both talented athletes, and his mother is a well-known painter. His paternal grandfather was a Sephardic Jew whose family immigrated from Portugal, and his paternal grandmother was Afro-Caribbean; his mother is of English and Chinese Jamaican descent. Sean Paul was raised a Catholic. Many members of his family are swimmers. His grandfather was on the first Jamaican men's national water polo team. His father also played water polo for the team in the 1960s, and competed in long-distance swimming, while Sean Paul's mother was a backstroke swimmer. Sean Paul played for the national water polo team from the age of thirteen to twenty-one. However, he gave up the sport in order to launch his musical career. He attended the Wolmers High School for Boys, Belair High School and the College of Arts, Science, and Technology (CAST) which is now known as the University of Technology (UTech) where he was trained in commerce with a view to pursuing an occupation in hotel management.
1996-2004: Stage One and Dutty Rock
He made a quick cameo appearance in the 1998 film Belly on stage performing. In 2000, Sean Paul released his debut album, Stage One with VP Records. In 2002, he began working extensively with a team of producers and choreographers from Toronto, namely Jae Blaze and Blaze Entertainment and announced the release of his second album, Dutty Rock. Pushed by the success of the singles "Gimme the Light" and the Billboard Hot 100 topper, "Get Busy", the album was a worldwide success, eventually selling over six million copies. Simultaneously, Sean Paul was heard on Beyoncé's U.S. #1 single "Baby Boy" and Blu Cantrell's "Breathe", a chart hit in Europe. Both helped to push his reputation further still in the United States.
During this period, he appeared on Punk'd, 106 & Park, Sean Paul Respect, Making the Video ("Get Busy", "Gimme the Light", and "Like Glue") and his music videos have been broadcast on MTV and BET. Paul's biggest hits included "Get Busy", "Like Glue", "Gimme the Light", "Baby Boy", and "I'm Still in Love with You".
2005-2008: The Trinity
Sean Paul's third album The Trinity was released in on September 27, 2005. The album produced five big hits, "We Be Burnin'", "Ever Blazin'", "Give It Up to Me","Never Gonna Be The Same" and the U.S. chart-topping smash hit "Temperature" .
The video of "(When You Gonna) Give It up to Me" (featuring Keyshia Cole) was also featured in the movie "Step Up" in 2006.
He was nominated for four awards at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards, including male artist of the year, rap artist of the year, hot 100 single of the year, and pop single of the year for his hit "Temperature". He also won an American Music Award for "(When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me" beating Kanye West and Nick Lachey who were also nominated for the award.
His song "Send It On" from "The Trinity" featured on the 2005 Vauxhall Corsa advert. Sean Paul often contributes his songs to various Riddim Driven albums (by VP Records). In March 2007, he returned to his native Jamaica to perform at the Cricket World Cup 2007 opening ceremony.
Sean Paul appears on the game Def Jam Fight for NY as part of Snoop Dogg's crew and again in the game's sequel, Def Jam: Icon.
2009-present: Imperial Blaze
The newest Sean Paul album entitled "Imperial Blaze" was released on August 18, 2009. The lead single, “So Fine”, which was produced by Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor, premiered on Sean Paul's official website on April 25, 2009.
Speaking to Pete Lewis of 'Blues & Soul' magazine in August 2009, Sean Paul stated that 'Imperial Blaze' "Actually signifies 'The King's Fire'. It's that thing inside of you that gives you the desire to do whatever you do, and be the best in the world at it."
The new album consists of 20 tracks including "So Fine", "Press it Up", "She want me", "Private Party" which are party tracks and also love songs such as "Hold my hand" (feat Keri Hilson), "Lately", "Now that I've got your love" among others. Producers on the album include Don Corleone, Jeremy Harding, and Sean's brother Jason 'Jigzagula' Henriques. All the full songs of the album have been added to Sean Paul's Myspace page on the day of release of the album.
Up until now there have been eight music videos: "Always On My Mind (with Da'Ville)", "Give It To You (with Eve)", "Watch Them Roll", "Back It Up" (with Left Side/Mr. Evil), "(I Wanna See You) Push It Baby" (with Pretty Ricky), "Hit 'Em" (with Fahrenheit and his brother Jason "Jigzagula" Henriques), "Come Over" with Estelle and also the video of his first single, "So Fine" from the new album.
He has recently been featured in Shaggy's video, "Save A Life", which also includes appearances from Elephant Man and Da'Ville, among others. In an effort to raise money for a children's hospital, Shaggy, Sean and the others will be having a benefit concert. All proceeds raised will go towards getting new equipment and technology 'For Aid to the Bustamante Hospital for Children'. Also Has Performed a Remix of Dangerous with Kardinal Offishall and Akon.
