Sean Paul.

SEAN PAUL'S MANAGER STEVE TWO-WAY'D ME with an urgent message. "Aki, we just got to LA. We have a show in three hours and we need someone to braid Sean's hair. Can you help us? If you can get that to me in an hour we can de the interview." I replied, "Done. Where you at?" I holla'd at my girl Candy, who is Beyonce's hair stylist, and told her to come scoop me up quick-steez. Candy and me hit the 5 south to Anaheim, but--hot damn--we got locked down in mad traffic. We finally pulled into the Doubletree Hotel an hour late, valet parked the whip, and bounced up to room 1923. We were greeted by Sean Paul rocking a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, Sean's brother and DJ busy editing the beats for that night's show on a laptop, Steve, and Ponytail, the hot sexy dancer from the "Gimme the Light" video. Candy got busy on Sean's hair and I showed him my book. "Trasha in da house. Yeah," he said, and pointed over to a bag of kush lying on the dresser. I rolled an L and we connected. I paralyzed for a minute while Candy finished Sean's braids. It was right after this that I had the blessing of seeing Sean Paul and his DJ tear the hotel room to pieces, rehearsing for the show. Dutty, yeah.

One love, Sean Paul.

Trasha!

What you doing out here in Caliente-fornia?

I'm doing a radio show for Powerhouse out here in Anaheim, then I'm getting straight on a plane and going to Toronto for the Much Music Awards. We just came here from Washington, Philly, and Orlando. Next week we go to Europe for two weeks, then I come home to Jamaica for two weeks, and then I go on tour with 50 Cent. I tome back home again for one night, for Stonefest in Jamaica, and then I go back on tour with 50. That's my whole summer.

You're the main man for bringing dancehall to hip-hop and America right now.

Hip-hop has been infiltrating Jamaica fur a little while. When cable came to Jamaica, it brought with it BET and MTV. So the hip-hop artists who didn't traditionally do well at home are now doing very well: the culture is moving that way. I'm one of the kids who always saw hip-hop and dancehall music as linked and close to the street. Dancehall is now urban music where people talk about their lives, their culture, their dreams, how it really is, how they wish it would be. That's basically what dancehall is all about, So when I do an album, it's naturally gonna come out sounding like that I believe it's gonna reach the same fans who listen to hip-hop, and those who are fans of dancehall will naturally hear hip-hop influences in there. I did songs on the album with Tony Touch, Rahzel, Busta Rhymes and a lot of collab's with hip hop artists, like 50 Cent and so on. That's why the kids say. "Yeah, this is the dude who understands hip-hop and is bringing dancehall to us."

Who did the riddim track on "Gimme the Light?" That shit's banging.

In Jamaica there are lots of producers. When I started in the game there were hardly any. I'd have to go to the producers and literally stay the whole day, beg them; wait for them to get my voice. Many times you don't get voiced so you go to another studio and wait again, and so on, That's how I had to do it to get heard. My first album came out in 2000 and was a collection of all the 45s I had done with producers who took a chance with me. I wasn't really from the dancehall scene, and nobody thought I could be someone to contend with Go dudes like Tony Kelly, Stevie and Cleevie, Sly and Robbie, these dudes are on the first album On the second album i worked with a couple of producers Black Shadow produced the riddim for "Gimme the Light." And Lanky, a cat from Buju Bantun's band for a long time, produced the riddim for "Get Busy." When I go home I'm gonna voice for producer named Skatta, Everyone in Jamaica is talking about him. If you ask people in Jamaica what riddim is poppin' off, they say "Skatta."

Do you still put out dancehall 45s?

Yeah, I put a 7" of "Gimme the Light" out in Jamaica. A lot of the songs are 7" singles first: a lot of the songs on the album were 7" singles. For Dutty Rock, I did 50 45s and then I picked 15 out of the 50 that had to definitely be on the album They were out there showing the public that I'm working, because there is so much music coming out in Jamaica. The Jamaican audience looks at you by what you have out, so the singles keep the audience there. Then l take the best singles and do something with Busta Rhymes or Bone Krusher or Rahzel. That's how I put the album together.

What hip-hop did you listen to in Jamaica?

When I was young, there were groups of cats that used to go around and breakdance and do battles, Breakdancing was big but rapping wasn't, because the kids couldn't understand the accent. There were lots of rap songs, however, that did break through in Jamaica: Slick Rick, Public Enemy, and of course Run DMC. In the early '90s I got into Leaders of the New School and Tribe Called Quest. And I knew that song Buju did with Busta Rhymes, "Voice of Jamaica." So I've been following rap artists straight up to now. That's why my music sounds like that One of the first songs I ever got into was "Roxanne." I like hip-hop because it spoke to me in a language I understood. Bob Marley is a genius, but I could never understand what he was saying or what he was talking about. Rap was more catchy in a rhyming way, so it kept my mind more on it. Hip-hop brought me closer to music. Now I can understand more about music by being closer to rap and the cuts People would tell me "That song's not a new song, it's an old song from a long time ago," Then I come to my generation where BIG and Puffy did a song called "I'm Comin' Out," and I tell the kids it's an old song from Diana Ross. So it brings us all closer to the music.

Shouts?

Give shouts to all people who respect and follow the tradition of reggae music. What it is you can't explain; people are like, "What is reggae?" It's this, it's that, but basically it's the heartbeat of Jamaica. It's our expression. "We are called the Third World and this is One Earth, and we need to speak out. Although dancehall is fun, there is conscious music that comes out.