Papa San Says He Has Had Greater Success As A Gospel Deejay

Dancehall legend Papa San says that he has had greater success as a gospel Reggae/Dancehall artist than as a secular deejay.

Speaking in a recent interview with Onstage’s Winford Williams San, to promote his new solo album Life Lessons, Papa San pointed out that he had maintained his fans from his secular days, many of whom got baptized before him.

“A lot of the fans that I used to have in the secular got saved before I do.  And they pray me in.   So by the time I get over, I have thousands of people that say ‘hey man, I used to follow you back in the days and I was praying for you’.  And all over the world we find the same thing,” he explained.

“And we see the same fans from in the 80s and the 90s in the church today, lifting up Jesus Christ.  They were fans before and they became fans again all over,” he added.

In another interview with Teach Dem, Papa San while pointing out that he has a mammoth following on the African continent, also said he had seven gospel albums, all of which have been on the top 10 of the Billboard Reggae Albums chart as well as three Stellar Awards.

“We have seven albums and everything top 10 Billboard… and it’s just God.  Almost everything that we did coming up as a gospel artiste is history, because remember Victory was the first album that break worldwide,” Papa San said.

“Victory shot, and I went back to Uganda and the crowd was like five to six times more than when I went the secular time.   The secular audience came out and the gospel community came out and it was a record-breaking crowd.  So we started pulling Africa so big that Africa become like another place for us, like a Jamaica for us.   We went to Malawi, Africa.  We were the first artiste to enter into Malawi as an international artiste… secular and gospel; it never happen period,” he added.

In Nigeria, he said, the situation has been similar. 

“We went to Nigeria; 550,000 people in Nigeria- a whole lot of us.  So we been to Africa so many times and see the impact of the music, because the secular fan base you know – people don’t understand that I have a huge fan base secular,” he mused.

“Even in Uganda, I couldn’t find my engineer; it was alike a sea of people.  We couldn’t get out of the vehicle; they were rocking the vehicle with us… there was no security to control the movements of the people in Uganda – and this is gospel.  And so it was amazing; people get saved like crazy… so the impact that came with the gospel album, there is no comparison,” Papa San said. 

Now 55-years-old, Papa San started out on the music scene performing on sound systems such as Black Scorpio and Creation as a youth in the late 1970s.

The Strange singer’s breakout song was I Will Survive which sampled American singer Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 classic of the same.  The song raced up the local charts and propelled the Spanish Town native into a household name.

At least 17 of Papa San’s songs topped the local reggae/dancehall music charts, among them Dancehall Good to We, Strange and Style and Fashion.     He had also recorded two huge hits, Legal Rights and Round Table Talk with his close friend Lady G. 

He also won numerous awards for Deejay of the Year, Most Versatile Deejay, Best Dressed Deejay, and Best Video during his secular Dancehall heydays.

However, a slew of mishaps beset Papa San in the three years that followed the death of his brother Dirtsman in 1993.  His sister was also killed in a motorcycle accident, a cousin was killed by the police, and he himself had legal problems after being arrested on gun charges in 1994.

Papa San was baptized in 1999 and thereafter, started doing Dancehall and Reggae Gospel Music.   Now an ordained Pastor in Florida, he has maintained his authentic Dancehall and Reggae approach to his music.  Among his gospel albums are Victory, God and I, Journey, Real and Personal, and Higher Heights.