Artist: Snow
Album: 12 Inches of Snow (1993)
Release Date: August 1992
Recorded: 1992
Genre: Reggae fusion, hip hop, dancehall
Label: EastWest
Songwriters: Edmond Leary, Darrin O’Brien, Shawn Moltke, Terri Moltke, Jeffrey Silva (associate writer)
Producer: MC Shan
Informer by Canadian dancehall artist Snow has surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify. The song produced by legendary Hip Hop artist MC Shan, who was the mentor for Snow that got him his record deal with East West. It was the lead single from Snow’s debut album “12 inches of Snow.”
The song is Snow’s third track to reach the milestone behind his feature on Daddy Yankee’s Spanish- remake of the song “Con Calma” which charted in 20 countries and reached the top 10 in 10 others.
Con Calma ha surpassed 1.2 billion streams on Spotify and is certified 41x Latin Platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America for selling more than 2.46 million units. Snow took to Instagram to show off his Spotify trophy acknowledging the milestone saying “Thank you to all the fans.”
Con Calma was the most viewed song on YouTube in 2019 with 1,654,819,842 views that year.
Power 105’s Charlamage The God gave “Informer” a resounding endorsement back in April, saying Snow is Legend“ and he “Still got the skreets in a chokehold if you ask me.” He continued, “This is what the game is missing, who amongst us can restore the feeling??? Let’s Discuss……”
In addition to being certified Platinum in the U.S. for selling one million units, the song is also certified Silver in the U.K. for selling more than 200,000 units, Gold in Austria and Netherlands, Platinum in Germany(500,000) and New Zealand (10,000) and double-Platinum in the U.K.
“Informer” topped the charts in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Eurochart Hot 100. It entered the top 10 in Austria, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain. In Snow’s home country, Canada, it topped The Record’s singles chart and reached the top 10 on the RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart.
The reggae-hip hop-dancehall infused song was Snow’s first song to hit the US Billboard Hot 100 where it peaked at No. 1 for 7 weeks starting March 13. It was among a slew of dancehall songs to hit the Billboard chart in 1993 and it stayed a total of 25 weeks on the Hot 100. Informer charted in 13 countries including No. 2 in the U.K. and finish the year (1993) at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 17 on the U.K. singles chart.
The music video for the song was directed by George Seminara was remastered and released on YouTube in 2019. It has surpassed 42 million views on YouTube. The video depicts Snow entering a jail cell. His producer MC Shan is featured, explaining his imprisonment for refusing to become an informer. DJ Marvin Prince is seen in a sauna with women, while bikini-clad women and female dancers in black and white outfits added to the visual appeal.
Snow also released an updated Informer music video in 2019 set in a nightclub.
