FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
Snow - Informer
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THIS feature will focus on an artist…
and song that has divided people for years. Snow’s album, 12 Inches of Snow, was released in January 1993, and it was produced not long before Snow was imprisoned for a year for assault. The hit song, Informer, was released after his release – and it is has become one of the most-successful Reggae songs of all-time. Snow is a rapper from Canada, and many people were surprised when listening to Informer that it was performed by a white Canadian – not a big demographic that fitted seamlessly into Reggae! One reason why people were shock is because Snow is delivered in a Jamaican patois. When I was at school, many of my friends and I could not understand the words! Informer spent seven consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, and it reached number-two in the U.K. Informer is a song that splits people! VH1 ranked it as one of the best songs of the 1990s back in 2007, but many others have derided the song for its un unintelligible lyrics and inauthenticity. Snow became hooked on Reggae when Jamaicans moved into his Toronto neighbourhood – before then, Rock music was prevalent in his life. Whilst Informer has MC Shan (who co-produced 12 Inches for Snow) offering some great rapping, Snow’s contributions are hard to decipher! I love the song and I will explain more…
It is amazing to think that Informer was inspired by Snow being charged with two counts of attempted murder! Snow was eventually acquitted, but one can understand why he was angry and a lot of that energy went into the song. Whilst critics have lumped Informer in with other songs/artists who provided a more watered-down Reggae sound in the 1990s – including Shaggy, and Ini Kamoze -, I think the song is a lot more credible than many give it credit for. Informer does nothing to try and convince people it is genuine Reggae or that it can rank alongside the very best of the genre. Snow had his own style and slant and, even though the lyrics are hard to pick out, the song itself is catchy and stands up. Beyond being a one-hit wonder and an artist prime for parody, I think Informer is a great track that was among the best of the ‘90s. In future features, I am going to look at other songs from the 1990s, but I first came across the track on the radio - and it was very different to anything I had been listening to. I would not say Informer introduced me to Reggae, but it was one of the first times that I had heard a Reggae song chart so high and become so successful. I was listening to artists like Bob Marley as a child, and this was certainly a different take. I listen to Informer now and it is a shame that Snow did not have more success or was able to shake off that one-hit wonder tag! Informer is a terrific track from the, to be fair, 12 Inches of Snow, yet I am uplifted and transported when I hear the track. Like all the tracks in Too Good to Be Forgotten, I would encourage people to check out a song that is much more than a guilty pleasure. For me, Informer is one of the standout tracks from…
A great decade of music.