Try to think of any song by Sean Paul. What is he saying in the intro?
Paul is a world-renowned artist, and his hit song “Get Busy” led the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks in May 2003. It was a playable song in Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2. It was featured in the second season of The Wire. Michael Scott dances to a version of it in The Office.
“Get Busy” was an international sensation from the Jamaican Grammy Award-winning artist, and two decades later, it was the subject of a recent feature on VICE. During the interview, he made a shocking reveal.
He was asked about the ubiquitous and recognizable intros to his songs, in which it often sounds like he says his own name with “da” separated between the first and last.
“Sean da Paul” are the official lyrics to “Temperature” on Genius.
Fact: I used to think that Sean Paul was shouting out Chanderpaul at the beginning of every song in a weird tribute to the Cricket player
— Santokie (@Santokie89) August 16, 2017
But to some, like Caribbean sports journalist Santokie Nagulendran, it actually sounded a bit like he was saying Chanderpaul — the last name of a famous cricket player from Guyana.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, also known as Shiv, is the former captain of the West Indies cricket team. He recently made the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame and he currently coaches the United States women’s national cricket team.
WTF Fact of the Day ft. Shivnarine Chanderpaul pic.twitter.com/wVWz87rP0i
— Hardik Rajgor (@Hardism) December 14, 2022
As it turns out, Nagulendran was somehow right all along. Just as he suspected, Paul confirmed to VICE that he was actually saying Chanderpaul (and not Sean da Paul) this whole time.
Curiously, that fact actually makes some sense in the context of the song:
“Di gyaldem Schillaci, Chanderpaul.”
Last year, the rapper told HipHopDX that Schillaci was a reference to the Italian soccer player Salvatore Schillaci. So that means Paul was showing love to two athletes at the top of their respective fields.
This is one of those details simply way too specific to be a lie and way too interesting and fun to not fully embrace.
So next time you’re dancing and singing along to “Temperature” at a party, try and remember it’s not Sean Da Paul suh mi give it to, suh mi give it to. It’s actually Chanderpaul who suh mi give it to.
