By Colin Aurelien

15th August 2005

The Rex Cinema and Bar in London’s West End was the venue chosen by Atlantic Records for the exclusive playback of ‘The Trinity’, the new album from reggae dancehall artist Sean Paul. ‘The Trinity’ is the follow up to his 2002 release ‘Dutty Rock’, which included the hit singles ‘Gimme The Light’, ‘Get Busy’ and ‘Like Glue’. With worldwide sales close to six million and a plethora of collaborations including Jay-Z, Sean Paul is now an international superstar. 

The success of ‘Dutty Rock’ coincided in a period were reggae dancehall-inspired music was gaining widespread commercial success. Today however, prior to the release of ‘The Trinity’, another genre of dancehall known either as ‘Spanish dancehall’ or ‘reggaton’ has started to gain the acclaim once reserved for reggae dancehall. 

Sean Paul was greeted by rapturous applause from the audience present for the exclusive playback. The night began with Sean explaining the concept behind the album’s title: “This album is called ‘The Trinity’ basically because it’s my third album. It was done at home in Jamaica, which is so-called the third world, and also it took three years since ‘Dutty Rock’ came out for it to be on the shelves.” 

‘The Trinity’ features production from a host of the island’s most prominent and up and coming producers, including Steven ‘Lenky’ Marsden, Don Corleone, Renaissance Crew and Snowcone. On this album Sean stays close to the fast tempo and vibe mapped out by ‘Dutty Rock’. This is not only demonstrated through the choice of producers, which includes ‘Get Busy’ producer Lenky, but also by the inclusion of tracks such as ‘Exquisite Girl’ and ‘Ever Blazin’, which were produced shortly after the success of ‘Dutty Rock’.  

However, for all the similarity between the two albums Sean was keen to talk about what he perceives as setting ‘The Trinity’ apart from his previous work. “This album also shows a little bit of growth, where there’s a few songs that deal with some deeper issues. One of them I must mention is called ‘Never Gonna Be The Same’. I lost a friend earlier this year; I also lost an aunt of my own, so it’s a song that deals with loss and many people can identify with it,” told Sean. 

After Sean’s prolific period as a guest artist on tracks such as Beyoncé’s ‘Baby Boy’ and Blu Cantrell’s ‘Breathe’, many observers will be surprised to find out that guest appearances have been kept to a minimum. With only five spots made available, featured artists include Daddy Yankee, Nina Sky and Wayne Marshall. Although appreciative of the extra exposure gained through his collaborations, Sean is less enamoured at being labelled the “collabo king”, which he believes takes away from his achievement as a solo artist: “I’ve got a lot more songs than those collabos they’ve heard.” 

The first single to be released of the album is a track called ‘We Be Burning’, which initially started its life off as a “weed tune”, until the decision was made to make the necessary changes to counter any potential problems of getting the track played on radio and TV stations. Stand out tracks include ‘Send It On’, ‘Head In The Zone’, ‘Head To Toe’, ‘All On Me’, ‘Temperature’ and ‘Give It Up To Me’, a cut which reminds Sean of ‘Like Glue’. 

Although Sean would like the provisional track list of 21 to remain, the album could hit the shelves minus two tracks. The Renaissance-produced track ‘Close To Me’, which was a big hit in Jamaica over a year ago, and ‘Dip It Low’ which uses the military riddem, both face the cut which would be unfortunate considering that they’re two of the best on the album. Two better candidates for the cut should be ‘Connection’ featuring Nina Sky and the reggaton-inspired track ‘Oh Man’ featuring Daddy Yankee. 

The night ended abruptly with Sean Paul leaving almost immediately after he introduced the track ‘Oh Man’, seemingly unconcerned with the audience feedback of this track. The very fact that ‘Oh Man’ is the only track previewed unmixed together with Sean’s introduction, “I don’t hate it, it’s Caribbean music”, could suggest the inclusion of this reggaton track was probably an after thought. This leads me to believe that maybe Sean isn’t reggaton’s biggest fan, even though he recognises the growing mainstream commercial appeal of the genre. 

Having listened to the album in its entirety, I can reveal that ‘The Trinity’ is blessed with a high percentage of hot tracks that will force even the most ardent illegal music downloader to go out and buy the album when it hits the shelves on September 27th 2005.

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