Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican rapper, singer, and songwriter. His first album, Stage One, was released in 2000. He gained international fame with his second album, Dutty Rock, in 2002. Its single "Get Busy" topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, as did "Temperature", off his third album, The Trinity (2005).
Paul frequently invokes the nickname "Chanderpaul", originating from the similarity between his first two names and cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In the Vice documentary The Story of 'Get Busy' by Sean Paul, when asked "How did you become 'Sean Da Paul'", Paul recalls how others would call him Chan-der-paul, and the name stuck. He then started saying it in shows and recordings.
Most of his albums have been nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album, with Dutty Rock winning the award. Paul has been featured in many other singles, including chart-toppers "Baby Boy" by Beyoncé, "Breathe" by Blu Cantrell, "What About Us" by The Saturdays, "Rockabye" by Clean Bandit, "Cheap Thrills" by Sia, and "Fuego" by DJ Snake. "Cheap Thrills" and "Rockabye", along with Paul's own "No Lie" (2016), each have over 1 billion views on YouTube, with "Rockabye" having reached over 2.7 billion views.
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques was born in Kingston on 9 January 1973. His mother Frances, a painter, is of English and Chinese Jamaican descent. His paternal great-grandfather's family, Sephardic Jews from Portugal, emigrated to Jamaica in the 17th century. Paul's father also has Afro-Jamaican ancestry. Paul's father, Garth Henriques, was believed to be descended from Portuguese horse thieves who were fleeing from bounty hunters in a ship that sank in Jamaica.
Paul was raised as a Catholic, although he also attended the Jewish private school Hillel Academy in Jamaica. Several 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 Paul's mother was a butterfly swimmer. When Paul was 15, his father was arrested on charges of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison; he was released for good behaviour when Paul was 19.
Paul played for the national water polo team from the age of 13 to 21, when he gave up the sport in order to launch his musical career. He attended Wolmer's Boys' School and the College of Arts, Science, and Technology, now known as the University of Technology, where he was trained in commerce with an aim of pursuing an occupation in swimming. In 1992, Paul worked as a bank teller and enrolled in a hotel-management program, learning the basics of French cuisine.
1994–2000: Early beginnings and rise to fame
In 1994, Paul appeared in Carrot Jetter's music video "Nice Time".
Zachary Harding told his brother, Jeremy, about a singer that he had heard perform live at a small open mic event in Kingston, who sounded a lot like dancehall deejay and toaster Super Cat. Jeremy eventually met the singer when Paul came by his studio to ask for some advice. During the meeting, Paul recorded a vocal over Harding's rhythm track and in the process created the song "Baby Girl". Jeremy subsequently became Paul's manager and producer.
Paul began hanging out at the studio every day, and the pair collaborated on several more tracks. When they recorded "Infiltrate" they decided they had something good enough to get on the radio. As Paul started to attract local attention, Harding began looking after his affairs. He later told HitQuarters that his support of Paul's fledgling career initially led him assuming the roles of "DJ, manager, road manager, and security-guard".
Paul made a cameo appearance in the 1998 film Belly on stage performing. He made a successful collaboration with DMX and Mr. Vegas, "Top Shotter", to the soundtrack of the film.
In 2000, Paul released his debut album, Stage One with VP Records. In the same year, Paul collaborated with Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall and singer July Black on the song "Money Jane" from Offishall's album Quest for Fire: Firestater, Vol. 1.
2001–2015: Atlantic Records deal and international success
In 2001, Paul continued his work with manager and producer Jeremy Harding, Paul released a single "Gimme the Light" after writing and recording his lyrics to the "Buzz" riddim, the single turned out to be a nationwide success in Jamaica and eventually became a worldwide smash hit in 2002, ultimately reaching number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, the early crossover momentum of the single would help Paul secure a record deal with Atlantic Records in a joint venture deal with his label VP Records, the single would then appear on his second studio album, Dutty Rock which was released in November 2002. All of its latter hit singles would also receive airplay and rotation on MTV and BET.
In early 2003, the second single "Get Busy" was released and would end up topping the Billboard Hot 100 months later, making it Paul's first number-one hit, it was also the first ever dancehall song to top the chart. Dutty Rock became a worldwide commercial success, peaking in the top ten on the Billboard 200, was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and eventually selling over six million copies worldwide. Dutty Rock won the Best Reggae Album at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in 2004. "Get Busy" was also nominated for Best Male Rap Solo Performance in that year. Simultaneously, Paul was featured on Beyoncé's U.S. number-one hit song "Baby Boy", and also Blu Cantrell's "Breathe" which did not perform well in the United States but was a massive hit in Europe. This album not only further popularized dancehall music in the 2000s, but also helped developed and popularized the genre of dancehall pop.
Paul's third album The Trinity was released on 27 September 2005. The album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, breaking records with its first-week sales for a reggae/dancehall artist, eventually going Platinum in the United States and selling 4 million copies worldwide. The album produced five big hits, "We Be Burnin'", Ever Blazin'", "(When You Gonna) Give It Up to Me" (featuring Keyshia Cole), "Never Gonna Be the Same", and the U.S. chart-topping smash hit "Temperature", making it his third number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Temperature" becoming one of his signature hits. The video of "(When You Gonna) Give It Up to Me" was featured in the film 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 100 Single of the Year for "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. "Send It On" from The Trinity featured on the 2005 Vauxhall Corsa advert. Paul often contributes his songs to various Riddim Driven albums by VP Records. In March 2007, he returned to Jamaica to perform at the 2007 Cricket World Cup opening ceremony.
Paul appears in the video game Def Jam: Fight for NY as part of Snoop Dogg's crew and again in the game's sequel, Def Jam: Icon.
Paul's fourth album Imperial Blaze was released on 18 August 2009. The lead single, "So Fine", which was produced by Stephen "Di Genius" McGregor, premiered on Paul's website on 25 April 2009.