25 April 1993
Here we are again: a white chart-topper, wearing his whiteness as a badge of identity, peddling a watered-down and infantile facsimile of music of Black origins. Darrin O’Brien had no Caribbean cultural or family heritage, but his line was that he had immigrant neighbours from that region in his native Toronto. Also, his back story of having been held in custody on murder charges, as related in ‘Informer’, was wafted at us as some sort of hallmark of his street cred, as if a life of crime were de rigueur for any artist in a traditionally Black form. So, was Snow the Vanilla Ice of reggae? Yes, but also worse than that.
Snow performs ‘Informer’ toasting in Jamaican Patois. This is cultural appropriation; not only is he cashing in on mainstream white Europe and America’s instinctive acceptance of a male white artist over a Black one in the same form, but he’s putting on the accent and mannerisms of a performer of Caribbean heritage to do so. In his own head Snow may be doing this with the sincerest respect, but that’s akin to praising him for not putting on blackface and fake dreadlocks. In 1993 we just laughed at him and tolerated this as a novelty record. Today I hope we’d know better.
