Songoftheday 9/18/23 - Could I be your protector? You're buff in every sector, every man around dem waan turn you inspector...

 

 

"Gimme The Light" - Sean Paul

from the album Dutty Rock (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

 

Today's song comes from Sean Paul (Henriques), who grew up in the Jamaican capital of Kingston from a family with heritage from around the world. Sean's parents, who were sports competitors for the country, were disrupted when his father went to prison for manslaughter during Paul's crucial teenage years. Nevertheless, he completed school and college and was working a regular job when he was discovered, and eventually signed to the keystone reggae label VP, where he released his debut album Stage One in 2000. His first single to make the R&B Singles chart in Billboard magazine, "Hot Gal Today (Haffi Get Da Gal Yah)" with dancehall toaster Mr. Vegas went to #66 in 2000. as well as #5 on Billboard's Rap Songs list. That was followed only weeks later with the song "Deport Them", a wholly misogynistic affair bordering on the blantantly homophobic, got a feature in he movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, and placed at #80 on the R&B singles chart. The Stage One album went to #2 on Billboard's Reggae Albums chart, and spent a week at #98 on the R&B Albums list, but got him enough attention to get Atlantic on board to cooperate with VP Records to distribute Sean's next album.

That next set, Dutty Rock, came out in the late fall of 2002, preceded by the single "Gimme The Light". Written by Sean with producer Troy Rami, the lyrics, done in Jamaican slang, tones down (somewhat) the misogyny to have him scope out a conquest for a night, while asking for some weed which is what the "gimme the light" originally stood for. For the radio, that was scrubbed to "start the show" instead of a marijuana reference in the original version, but it was barely noticeable with trying to discern the lyrics as they are. The production  rides on one of the prominent beats used in the genre, "The Buzz", which was set at a high-tempo pace which sets it apart from the usual dancehall fare. Combine that with his multiethnic good looks which for better or worse made him more palatable for "mainstream radio" in America, which is not to discount Sean's talent in his flow on the beat which makes for an undeniable club banger. As long as you forget the lyrics, you can just groove to the beat, which is what Paul did all the way to the top tier of the pop charts...

 

 "Gimme The Light" became Sean Paul's first single to make the Billboard Hot 100, and going all the way to the top ten in December of 2002, while spending 47 weeks on their R&B Singles chart with a week of that at #3, the same rank it reached on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the song went to #26 on the Mainstream Top-40 Airplay chart, and #4 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single peaked at #5 in the United Kingdom, and reached the top-40 in Canada (#11 Sales), the Netherlands (#16), Switzerland (#19), and Sweden (#34), and Germany (#35). The Dutty Rock album, released in November of that year, went to #9 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #4 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over three million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, Dutty Rock won for Best Reggae Album, while he was also up for Best New Artist, losing to goth rock band Evanescence. 

Both Sean and the album will be back to the series.

(6/10)

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There was a remix of "Gimme The Light" with rapper Busta Rhymes...

Here's Sean performing the song on BET...

and lastly live in 2009...

Up tomorrow: A classic rock band collabs with singer/songwriter in a romantically playful way.