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The lip-licking, bicep flexing of LL Cool J are nothing compared to the innate charm of Dancehall superstud Sean “dutty eh” Paul. The Ladies love Sean Paul, or at least he loves himself a whole heap of women, and offers no apologies for this. Bursting into the dancehall scene in 1996 Sean Paul’s single “Baby Girl” was dedicated to…Yep, the ladies, a crooning, melodic, reggae ballad, advising women to step out of abuse relationships, [insert Ch-Rihanna reference gag here], from day one Sean’s music always struck a chord with the ‘gyal dem’. Sean affirms, “Some people DJ and talk about money ‘I’m he richest motherf***er’, some people talk about how they got all the guns. For me, it’s all the girls. Girls in my country choose my music, because they realise that the first thing I said to them was not “girl cock up your batty and ride…”.

And so began PinBoard’s chat with Mr Sean Paul on a sunny Wednesday in a swanky London hotel. Prior to meeting Sean-a-Paul one of his larger-than-life (literally) workers informed me that Sean was in particularly good spirits that day, attributable to ‘popcorn’. Whether that was literally or figuratively speaking remains to be confirmed. Either way, that fine day Mr. Paul was feeling particularly expressive, rather cheery, occasionally abrasive and ever charming.

Sean Paul’s career has spanned over 12 years and counting, with each of his albums propelling his popularity with his worldwide audience. With over 10 million albums sold off three alums: Stage One, Dutty Rock and The Trinity including a collaborative catalogue the size of a phone book, Sean Paul is one of the fair few dancehall artists that can boast international stardom.

International recognition, yes. Love from his wider Dancehall community in Jamaica? At first- not really. I recall a conversation I had with a tourism worker during a recent trip to Kingston, Jamaica in which I was told about the initial Sean Paul backlash. He was accused of not being Jamaican enough (his heritage of Jamaican, Chinese, Portuguese & Sephardic Jewish) not being ‘real’ enough (coming from privileged background young Sean played Water Polo for the Jamaica National team, not quite the rags to riches/ Rose out of concrete story that is often championed in the Dancehall circuit). And his music supposedly too commercial sounding to be appreciated by the underground Dancehall DJs.

It’s a bit of a sore subject, but one that Sean is anxious to get clear, I ask how he feels about often not being recognised by Jamaicans as one of the best Dancehall artists, to which he sharply responds, “Oh no for sure, neither was Bob Marley at the time, Shaggy, at certain times neither is Beenie Man even. In 1996 I was the latest artist and by 1999 I was old and Lexus was the new artist, so we have 10 times the number of artists that you do per land mass ‘pon here so. With the amount of artists you have there, there’s definitely a power battle. My step-up in the business has been exemplary to show people that competition sparks greatness. I know there’s no way everybody in the world would like me, but I know that everybody in my country respects me for what I’ve done and everybody feels good about where I’ve taken the music.”

Then, in a strange sequence, Sean Paul’s Press Officer, signals that there’s five minutes left of the interview. Clocking this, Sean playfully belts “Don’t ramp with me. I’m controlling this mate, got to get this out ‘cause she’s pissing me off with these questions. Facing me, he says calmly, “I have to get my story out to you tall girl, y’hear?”

…Stunned, I ask, ‘Am I really pissing you off?’

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