Sean Paul Says High School Knee Injury Has Hindered Him From Being A Better Stage Performer

Dancehall superstar Sean Paul says he has never been bothered by sentiments expressed by many Jamaicans over the decades that he was a boring stage performer, unlike his Dancehall colleagues who are known for igniting crowds with energetic dancing, prancing, and jumping.

According to Sean, he knew had to stay in his “own lane” and not exert himself as the after-effects of a dreadful knee injury he sustained whilst playing football during his days at Wolmers Boys School, relegated him to being almost immobile at times, an issue of which many people were unaware.

“There were times when people say: ‘oh him caan perform’.  To me it was always like I live and I learn, so I am gonna go up on that stage and face the fire.  Every time.  And I don’t care what people think.  I know that just like me telling my nephew and my son right now, the more  you shoot the basketball is the more you gonna get better,” Sean Paul said during a recent episode of Odyssey with Yendi: Untold Journeys with former Miss Jamaica World, Yendi Phillipps.

“So yeah I not ashamed; I wouldn’t change nuttn.   And you grow from strength to strength; you learn everyday. From kids you learn from elders.”

“I have a knee injury and dat happened when I was in school playing football.  And mi kinda bruck mi knee, turn sideway an a bag a suppm. And it was a long road to recovery.  So when I first started to perform I was really stiff on stage especially because of that knee… If you have ever had like a joint especially the ankle or di knee dem or di hip, it’s very immobilizing.  So that was one of the reasons why I couldn’t do nothing,” he explained.

Sean says the Willie Bounce dance when it was invented, turned out to be his “saving grace” as it was perhaps the only Jamaican dance move he could manage to do, which did not call for a series of movements that could aggravate his knee problem.

“So I was like im gonna do dis to di full,” he said.

The dance thereafter became his staple move on stage and in many of his music videos.

Sean Paul’s lack of stage movement might have also contributed to him not being able to garner street cred in his native Jamaica.  In a recent Entertainment Report interview, he had alluded to the fact that, like himself, Grammy princess Koffee was not considered to have street cred, yet this was not important in the scheme of things.

Paul’s first show of the year will be broadcast live on the streaming platform Dreamstage from a beach in Jamaica this Saturday, May 8 at 4:00PM EST.

“Fans will teleport to the Caribbean for feel-good music through Dreamstage’s superior hi-def visual virtual concert stage that brings dancehall ambassador Sean Paul and surprise musical guests into homes where fans can dance like no one’s watching in unison with others,” a release said.

“Against the backdrop of turquoise waters, expect music by his live band and DJ as he jams to a mix of his classics as well as singles” from his Live N Livin album.