Snow spent much of his childhood living in the Allenbury Gardens public housing project, and at the age of 17, moved to Ajax, Ontario. Growing up in a non-caucasian neighbourhood, O’Brien blended dancehall and reggae with rock and popular music to create his own unique style of hip hop music. In 1988, Jamaican-born DJ Marvin Prince witnessed O’Brien dj’ing at a party and the two became friends. They joined forces musically for the next few years practicing in Prince’s basement with Snow providing vocals and Prince playing records. While on a trip to New York City, Prince mentioned Snow to rap star M.C. Shan, who then invited Snow to New York and introduced him to music producers, David Eng and Steve Salem. Snow eventually signed a contract to record on their Motorjam/Elektra record label and in 1993 released his debut album 12 Inches of Snow.
While Snow served prison time for an attempted murder charge, M.C. Shan, David Eng, Steve Salem, and Marvin Prince promoted the recordings. Upon his release from prison, Snow’s first single “Informer”, written by Snow, M.C. Shan, and Edmond Leary, became a global hit. The album sold over 8 million records worldwide, with the “Informer” single remaining number 1 on the American Billboard charts for seven consecutive weeks. “Informer” has been recorded twice in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best selling reggae single in US history, as well as the highest charting reggae single in history.
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