Snow – "12 Inches of Snow" Review: He Was in Prison When Informer Hit Number One
- Jay Jewels
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Quick Verdict
12 Inches of Snow is the debut album by Snow — a white Canadian rapper from a Toronto housing project who rapped in Jamaican patois, spent eight months in prison for assault, watched his song Informer become number one in the US while he was behind bars, was denied entry to America because of his criminal record, and still somehow ended up with a platinum album and one of 1993's biggest hits. The story of Snow is extraordinary. The album around Informer is considerably less so. The product is 52 minutes of pop-dancehall-rap that had moments of genuine charm in 1993 and has aged into something that Rate Your Music generously calls surprising consistency while less charitable reviewers have called watered-down pop reggae. It is not a terrible album — it is a one-hit-wonder album built around a hit that the artist himself couldn't promote because he wasn't allowed in the country where it was number one. Rating: 3/10.
At a Glance
Context: The Most Extraordinary Story on This Entire List
Darrin O'Brien, known as Snow, grew up in a housing project in Scarborough, Toronto, surrounded by Jamaican neighbours whose dancehall music became the defining influence of his life despite his Irish-Canadian background. He was introduced to MC Shan — of the South Bronx-versus-Queensbridge rap battle fame — through a friend in Queens. They produced a demo. Snow then went back to Toronto and was arrested for assault and served eight months. Informer was released while he was incarcerated. The song went to number one on the Hot 100 and stayed there for seven weeks. Snow watched the music video for his own hit while in prison. Upon release, a limousine picked him up — he left jail as a recording star. He was then denied entry to the United States because of his criminal record, meaning he could not tour the country where his song was number one. 12 Inches of Snow went platinum in the US and triple-platinum in Canada. Snow never had another US Hot 100 hit.
The Music: Beyond Informer
Informer is the elephant in the room — a song that Pitchfork named one of the seven worst US number one singles in 2010, that VH1 ranked among the 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s in 2007, and that became famous partly because virtually nobody could understand the lyrics. The album around it is a mix of dancehall-influenced tracks performed partly in Jamaican patois that range from charming to forgettable. The tracks where Snow performs in patois — Lonely Monday Morning, Runway, Champion Sound — have a genuine dancehall energy that supporters of the album point to as evidence of more than novelty. The tracks where he sings in English about relationships — Girl I've Been Hurt, Lady with the Red Dress — are the pop-dancehall filler that dragged the album's overall quality down. A Rate Your Music reviewer called it soulless fluff for the fickle dance crowd, relevant in 1993 and not much else.
Final Verdict and Rating
12 Inches of Snow earns a 3/10 rather than lower because Snow has genuine dancehall ability in certain tracks and because the context of the album makes it fascinating regardless of its quality. A white Irish-Canadian man rapping in Jamaican patois from prison, becoming number one while incarcerated, being denied entry to the country where his song topped the charts — that is one of the most remarkable stories in pop music history. The album around Informer did not fully deserve the attention the hit generated. But Informer itself, whatever Pitchfork thinks of it, is one of the most unexpectedly successful and bizarre number ones in Hot 100 history. Final Rating: 3/10.
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