Producer Rohan ‘Snowcone’ Fuller Is Keeping His Head ‘Above The Water’

Billboard-charting producer Rohan ‘Snowcone’ Fuller’s latest rhythm project is ‘Above the Water’.

Beenie Man leads out the project with ‘Money and Business’, while I Waata shows up with ‘Woow’. Other acts on the project include Shane O with ‘Rescue Me’, Da Professor with ‘Fresh Millionaire’, Thrillarush with ‘Bumpa’, and Neelah with ‘Lickle Lickle’.

A champion of the original dancehall sound, ‘Snowcone’ is comfortable putting out a beat that doesn’t resemble the sea of banal trap-dancehall riddims.

“I am not swimming against the tide. I don’t have a problem with trap dancehall. Ah the yutes dem time, dem needs too, their kids need things too, we have to support them from a distance, yu can encourage them but don’t kill their dreams. Mi just ah work with them if dem a work with you, everybody go through their own phase of life. If yu have nothing positive to say about the yutes dem, just sit back and shut up. Leave the youths mek dem be creative,” he said.

“Music is just music. I have all types of rhythms in my catalogue, it just depends on what the artiste likes and who you vibes with right now. The music is wide open. People want good songs. It doesn’t matter the riddim sometimes. As long as the song can sing along to,” he said.

Fuller has been busy working in his brand new studio, Psalms 35 in Stony Hill in upper St. Andrew.

He also produced a collaboration called ‘Never Give Up’ featuring Agent Sasco and Romain Virgo.

“This collaboration song falls under the subgenre, lovers dancehall, I am very proud of it, like how yu have lover’s rock, I am bringing in lover’s dancehall, this song has a nice guitar string ah play right through, really romantic, that go with the vocals of Sasco and Romaine Virgo,” he said.

Fuller has been working with international acts such as Jamelody, who did albums with the late Bobby Digital. He has worked with Clive Hunt, Earl Wilks and Don Corleone.

“I also did a single called ‘Our Father’ with Jamelody, a super talented artiste from Trinidad,” Jah Snowcone said.

In 2005, Snowcone scored a major hit, Temperature on the Applause riddim, later included on Sean Paul’s The Trinity album. The song earned a Billboard award for Hot 100 Single of the Year. Snowcone also received an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award.

He has also had hits with Bounty Killer, Elephant Man, Bling Dawg, Capleton, and Spragga Benz.

These achievements earned him two ASCAP awards and paved the way for his collaboration with some of the biggest names in hip hop, including Akon, Li’l Wayne and Sean Kingston.

The Applause beat remains his biggest project.

It also spawned a considerable European hit in Ring Ding Ding for LOC, a Jamaican-British trio, in 2006.

Fuller’s latest production is the Ital Stew, a beat featuring some of dancehall’s hottest acts.

Originally from the Crescent Road area of Kingston, Fuller says he immigrated to the United States in the early 1980s and got involved in the bustling New York City reggae scene.

He turned to producing in 2000 after years of working as a road manager for acts like Mega Banton, Shabba Ranks, Patra, and Vicious. He was also an understudy to Remi, who produced Banton’s 1994 hit song, Soundboy Killing, and singer Ini Kamoze’s comeback smash, Here Comes The Hotstepper.

His big break locally came in 2001 with the Rice and Peas beat which produced hits by Bounty Killer (Mystery Is The Man) Spragga Benz and Elephant Man (Warrior Cause) and Assassin and Sugar Slick (Dedicated To The World).

Even hip hop superstar Wyclef Jean got in on the Rice and Peas action, recording his Warriors Part Two song on the beat.