Their use of the past tense “ had a fake patois” gives a pretty good idea of what became of the very-much-alive Snow in our collective consciousness: he disappeared. Das Racist, who devoted their song “Fake Patois” to the phenomenon of American performers trying to sound like they’re from Kingston, included the line “My man Snow had a fake patois/Even Jim Carrey fuck with the patois” in reference to the song and ensuing parody.
At the height of its popularity, “Informer” was big enough of a cultural phenomenon that the song’s video was parodied by Jim Carrey as “Imposter” back in his In Living Color days. What made the song so unusual wasn’t its sound, which is comparable to that of contemporary tracks like Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper,” but the fact that it was performed in Jamaican patois by a white dude from Canada with a George Michael haircut. The album it was released on, 12 Inches of Snow, soon went platinum.
A catchy early-90s dancehall reggae song with a “stop snitching” message, “Informer” spent seven straight weeks at #1 on the Billboard Singles Chart in 1993, making it the biggest reggae single of all time. You’ve probably heard the song “Informer” by Snow, even if you don’t know you have.
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