Getting to Know. . . .Snow

“I was in jail and I had a dream I was flying over all these houses, me and my mother. She was picking out houses. When I got out of jail, the first thing I bought was a car for me and a house for her.” - SNOW

A decade ago, Darrin O’Brien entered prison a troubled young thug and left an international recording star. It was the kind of story a Hollywood screenwriter could hardly have topped, a nigh impossible yet classic tale of uncanny timing and fortune. But it was all very real. And it was exactly the kind of cyclone experience that could have left a youthful talent like O’Brien, better known to the world as SNOW, chewed up in its wake. It didn’t.

Ten years later, SNOW is at the top of his creative game with TWO HANDS CLAPPING, his fifth and most ambitious musical statement yet. Delivering on the instant appeal of his early hits like “Informer” and “Girl I’ve Been Hurt”, TWO HANDS CLAPPING finds SNOW mastering the dancehall reggae he’s best known for, while introducing to the music new levels of pop and R&B melody that make for a sturdy offering from start-to-finish. It’s an album that’ll get dancefloors bumping and lovers grooving – feet tapping and heads nodding. It’s a mature pop album, a pop survivor’s album. It’s a record SNOW has earned.

“I’m at a place in my life right now where I feel like I found myself,” says SNOW. “I found my style of music on this album.”

Hello.  My name is Darrin, what's yours?  What you just read was, in a nutshell, my life.  The whitewashed version, what the PR people want you to know.  But now that you've stumbled across my little home on the web, I feel I should be honest with you.

I am Snow.

You probably all remember my one brief moment in the sun, a catchy little ditty called "Informer." Yes, it's really me, the rastafarian-influenced, Canadian, "white boy" rapper. "Informer" was certainly a high point for me. Even if the video channels had to use subtitles on my video, I was on top of the world.   But it didn't last. Couldn't last. The world just wasn't ready for a white rap artist back then. Especially not with an indistinguishable Jamaican accent and a Toronto upbringing.  Eminem may not want to face it, but he owes a lot to me.  And Vanilla Ice.  We are truly the Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson to his Jackie Robinson.   Except we're all white.

Anyway, the dream ended, and the world rejected me.  But they didn't just forget about me like my name was. . . oh, I don't know, Tracey Bonham. No, they made a joke out of me.  All the millions who had so happily shelled out their dollars to find out that yes, the Snow truly is 12 inches deep, now mocked my still unexplained patois and claims to be from the Canadian projects.  And it didn't stop. Why, only last week I recieved a call from my good friend Dean Winters, who told me that "Informer" was being lambasted on some VH1 countdown.  About five years ago I realized that there just wasn't a place for my kind in the world anymore. Coincidentally, that's also the time that the royalty checks stopped coming, and the creditors did everything short of whip down me pants and look up me bottom. So. . .



That is why I started Twelve Flakes.  You're never more free than when you've been completely abandoned by society.  So I thought I would use what lessons I had learned from my 15 minutes in the sun, and start a new society.  One where it didnt' matter how much money you had or what clothes you wore.  All that matters were if you'd done your share of the plowing, and if you'd been kind to your fellow man.  I recruited a few adventurous spirits, and we bought a small patch of land in the wilds of Ontario.   We started simply, living in teepees and harvesting beans.  But as time went by, our numbers grew.  We began to have success in the hammock and tofu biznesses.   We were to build an entire village, with solar heated showers, composting toilets, even a sweat lodge, for when we want to connect on a spiritual level with the black Jesus.

Beginning Twelve Flakes is the best thing I could have possibly done.   I've strengthened myself on a physical and mental level, I've connected with other humans in a way I never thought possible. I've even been inspired to give rapping another shot. Rome wasn't built in a day, so they say.  I certainly hope that's true. 
I thank you for taking the time to look at our website, I hope it inspires you to trek out to Twelve Flakes for a visit, or even a possible membership.  Peace and blessing to you in every moment of your life.
---Darrin

. . . A licky boom boom down.

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