Sean Paul Henriques’ Grammy-winning second album, 2002’s Dutty Rock, was his first for a major record label. Part of the Jamaican Dutty Cup dancehall reggae crew, and with seven years of homeland single releases behind him, the keen swimmer and Kingston-born deejay (Jamaican MC) had already hit locally with cuts such as 1997’s Infiltrate. Though the key track on the Playground riddim (the rhythm tracks dancehall music thrives upon) was Beenie Man’s Who Am I, Playground’s producer, Jeremy Harding, saw something of Jamaican legend Super Cat in the young Sean Paul, and so began a long and fruitful relationship. Harding went on to manage Paul, and subsequent efforts such as Report To We (1998), plus Hot Gal Today, Tiger Bone (both with Mr Vegas), Faded and Check It Deeply (all 1999) built on these beginnings, and most of them made up a chunk of Paul’s 2000 debut album, Stage One.
Listen to the ‘Dutty Rock’ album here.