What Is Snow's Net Worth?
Snow (also known as Darrin O'Brien) is a Canadian reggae musician, rapper, singer, and producer who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Snow is best known for his 1994 smash-hit single "Informer," which topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for seven weeks. Snow has released the studio albums "12 Inches of Snow" (1993), "Murder Love" (1995), "Justuss" (1997), "Cooler Conditions" (1999), "Mind on the Moon" (2000), and "Two Hands Clapping" (2002), and in 2019, he was featured on Daddy Yankee's single "Con Calma," which was certified 3x Platinum in Canada and earned several awards.
Early Life
Snow was born Darrin Kenneth O'Brien on October 30, 1969, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Snow's father was a cab driver, and he has three siblings. His mother raised him in Toronto's Allenbury Gardens public housing project after divorcing his father, and there, he began "hanging out with these Irish dudes …. fighting, drinking and stealing." By the time Snow reached the ninth grade, he hadn't learned how to properly read, and he soon dropped out of school. In 1987, he spent eight months in jail for beating someone with a crowbar during a fight at a bar. He was released in early 1988, then Marvin Prince, a Jamaican-born DJ, befriended Snow after seeing him deejay at a party, and the two started playing parties together. Later that year, Snow was charged with attempted murder after two people were stabbed at a North York pub and he was blamed for the attacks. After serving eight months in jail, he was acquitted by a jury. While incarcerated, he wrote music and performed with other inmates, and he attended school, "taking English and health and upholstery."
Career
Marcus Prince came up with the stage name "Snow," which stands for "Super Notorious Outrageous Whiteboy." After Prince pitched Snow's music to rapper M.C. Shan, Snow traveled to New York in 1991 and was introduced to producers Steve Salem and David Eng. He signed with Salem and Eng's Motorjam/Elektra record label, and his debut album, "12 Inches of Snow," was released on January 19, 1993. The album reached #3 on the Canadian Albums Chart, #5 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and #4 on the "Billboard" Reggae Albums chart, and it was certified 3x Platinum in Canada and Platinum in the U.S. The single "Informer" reached #1 on the charts in the U.S., Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Sweden, and in 1999, it was included in "The Guinness Book of Records" for being "the biggest-selling reggae single in US history." Snow followed his successful debut with 1995's "Murder Love," which topped the "Billboard" Reggae Albums chart and included the singles "Si Wi Dem Nuh Know We" (featuring Ninjaman & Junior Reid) and "Sexy Girl." He then released 1997's "Justuss," 1999's "Cooler Conditions," and 2000's "Mind on the Moon," and the 2000 single "Everybody Wants to Be Like You" reached #2 on the Canadian Singles Chart and was honored by the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada for coming in at #1 on MuchMusic.
(Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives)
As of this writing, Snow's most recent album is 2002's "Two Hands Clapping," but he has released several singles since, such as 2008's "Just 4 U" (featuring Kobra Khan)," 2009's "Adore You," and 2014's "Shame" (featuring Mykal Rose). In 2019, he performed on Daddy Yankee's single "Con Calma," a reimagination of "Informer" that reached #4 on the Dutch Single Top 100 chart and #6 on the Canadian Singles Chart. The single won several awards, including seven Latin "Billboard" Music Awards. Snow is also credited as a writer on the track, and Daddy Yankee spoke to Apple Music about the collaboration and his love for "Informer," stating, "It was one of my favorite songs growing up, and to do this the right way I needed the guy to be on the record. You got to give honor to a classic in order to make a new version of it, and once I showed it to him, he said, 'Wow, it's amazing. I'll 100% be on the song.' So you have a Canadian and a Puerto Rican making Jamaican music. Two pioneers, two people pushing the cultures."
Personal Life
Snow married actress/model Tara Elizabeth Singh in May 2016. In 2015, the couple appeared on the CBC web series "True Dating Stories" and spoke about one of their earliest dates, and it was the most-watched episode of the series. Snow has a daughter, Justuss, who was born in 1996; her mother, Tamei Edberg (Snow's common law wife), died of cancer in 2009. He also has a daughter from a different relationship, who was born three months before Justuss.
Awards and Nominations
In 2020, Snow won seven Latin "Billboard" Music Awards for "Con Calma": Latin Rhythm Song of the Year, Streaming Song of the Year, Airplay Song of the Year, Hot Latin Song of the Year, Vocal Event Hot Latin Song of the Year, Digital Song of the Year, and Top Latin Song of the Year. He has received four "Billboard Music Award" nominations, winning Top Latin Song of the Year for "Con Calma" in 2020; his other nominations were for Top Reggae Album for "12 Inches of Snow," Top Rap Song for "Informer," and Top Hot 100 Artist – Male (all in 1993). "Con Calma" also earned Snow a Latin Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban Fusion/Performance, a Socan Pop Music Award from the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada Video Awards, and Lo Nuestro Award for Song of the Year, Single of the Year, Crossover Collaboration of the Year, and Urban Song of the Year. In 1994, he won a Recording Industry Association of Japan award for Best New Recording Artist, and he received a Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada Video Award for Much Music Top Video for "Everybody Wants to Be Like You" in 2001. Snow has also earned 10 Juno Award nominations, taking home the prize for Best Reggae Recording for "Informer" in 1994.
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