Sean Paul is being hailed by none other than Forbes Magazine as “one of the most surprising stories of 2016 in the music world”. The respected business magazine noted that the 44-year-old artiste owes his resurgence either to “an expertly curated strategy on the part of his management, his record label, and him, or if he just happened to work with the right artistes at the right time”.
The Grammy-winning deejay has had a golden run this year. He is a guest on British singer Sia’s Cheap Thrills which went to number one in the United States, 10 years after Sean Paul entered the Billboard Top 10 on his own with Temperature and (When You Gonna) Give It Up To Me.
He is also on British group Clean Bandit’s hit song Rockabye, which is number one in the United Kingdom.
According to Forbes, “While the dance track (Rockabye) hasn’t yet made much of a charting impact in America, there is precedent for such a thing happening, and there is no telling if it is meant to be. While these songs aren’t making Sean Paul’s name, they are helping to resuscitate his career, as well as to introduce him to a new, younger generation that might not know his own works very well.”
Teaming with hot new acts has worked for the 44-year-old Sean Paul. He signed a recording deal with Island Records UK in August and has just released two new songs, No Lie (with Dua Lipa) and Tek Weh Yuh Heart, which features Tory Lanez.
“He’s one of the very few reggae greats to have gone global. What Sean has done for Jamaica and helping reggae music cross over makes him nothing short of a cultural icon,” Darcus Beese, president of Island Records UK told Billboard.
Sean Paul first made his mark internationally with the 2002 album Dutty Rock which produced a number of hit songs such as Gimmie The Light, Like Gule and Get Busy.