Snow Lonely Monday Morning (1992)
The 1990s were a wild time in music. Grunge and alternative rock were huge, techno and rave culture entered the mainstream and nu-metal had its moments. Boy bands and girl groups dominated the charts. And it was also the golden era of urban music, with hip-hop and R’n’B reaching peak popularity. Interestingly, it was hard not to be aware of everything else that was happening even if you identified as a raver, a skater, a b-boy or a fly girl, or whatever subculture you were into.
So, even if you weren't particularly into hip-hop or rap, you probably knew the melody and chorus of “Informer” by Canadian rapper Darrin Kenneth O'Brien, aka Snow, by heart. But did anyone really know the lyrics? Snow, a white Canadian artist, sang and toasted fluently in Patois, making it difficult for most listeners to understand what he was actually saying. Nonetheless, “Informer” became a massive global hit in 1993, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks.
Remarkably, the song was written behind bars. O'Brien had multiple run-ins with the law in his teenage years, mostly stemming from his involvement in street life. In 1988, he was involved in a bar fight that led to charges of attempted murder. He was convicted and sentenced to prison, where he wrote the lyrics to “Informer”, which are about being wrongfully accused and dealing with snitches (or: informants).
Once you decipher the lyrics, you might realize that they're not exclusive to “Informer”. The same lines also appear in “Lonely Monday Morning”, another track on 12 Inches of Snow, the album that featured the global pop hit. “Lonely Monday Morning” has a slow, dragging riddim, with all the lyrics again in Patois. While the hooks are different, the verses are the same—yet they're delivered in a completely different style by Snow as an MC.
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