Chris Explains “Informer” by Snow to People Who Still Have Cognitive Function

Recently, I came across a YouTube video about the 20 best 90s one hit wonders, or something. One of the songs listed was Informer by Snow. I vaguely remembered it, so I decided to give it a listen. It features very fast rapping, so I looked at the lyrics. Which is why I’m doing this article.

Snow is a Canadian rapper. He’s of Irish descent, rapping this song in a Jamaican accent, that he wrote while in prison for murder. And I’ll be honest, while reading the lyrics, I started to think I was having a stroke. So here we go.

[Intro: MC Shan & Snow]
What’s up, man?
Ayo, what’s up?
Yeah, what’s going on, yo?
I’m sick and tired of 5-0 running up on the block
You know what I’m saying?
Yo, Snow, they came around looking for you the other day (Word?)
Word, bust it!

Ok. Nothing new here. The cops (or “mounties” as Snow would call them) are after him. Presumably on horseback. I’m not overly familiar with Canadian law enforcement.

[Snow]
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down

Wait. What? Is that even words?

‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

Like, I think I can feel my brain melting.

Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down

Also, what the fuck is a boom-boom down? Why is it being licked? Is this Canadian slang for oral sex? Like if Snow had an orgasm, does he calling it going “boom-boom down”?

‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

I would love to “invent” some silly interpretation to this, but honestly, I have no fucking clue what he’s event trying to say.

Police-a them-a they come and-a they blow down me door
Break a car troo, troo my window

They broke a car through your window? Like the cops got a crane and lifted a car and put it through his apartment window? Or was it an Incredible Hulk type of moment? But a Canadian Hulk who apologized for getting angry.

So dey put me in de back de car at de station

Is this the same car that the cops moved into his living room through the window? And why did they put him in the back of the car AT the station? Wouldn’t it make more sense to put him in the back of the car and THEN go to the station? I’m so confused.

From that point on, me reach my destination
Where the destination reachin’ outta east detention
Where dey looked down me pants, look up me bottom, so

Hmm. Maybe the cops are the ones licking his boom-boom down.

Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

I’ve now listened to this around 15 times in the last month and I’ve still got nothing. There’s “Jamaican patois” and then there’s a brain aneurysm.

So, bigger dem are they think dem have more power
De pon di phone me say dat one hour
Me for want to use a once an’ now me call me lover
Lover who me callin an’ a one Tamei
An’ mi love her in my heart down to my belly-a
Yes say daddy me Snow me haffi cool an’ deadly
Yes the one MC Shan an’ the one Daddy Snow
Together we-a love ’em is a tor-na-do

Uh. So bigger people have more power. I guess that makes sense in prison. Is “de pon di” slang for “Ponce De Lion”? Maybe a “ponzi scheme” before that was a thing? Then he does more gibberish before wanting to call his lover Tamei, who he loves with his heart and belly, and presumably his boom-boom down. Then more gibberish. Also, he loves a tornado.

Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

Ok. Please. Make it stop. I think my nose is going to start bleeding.

So, listen for me, you better listen for me now
Listen for me, you better listen for me now

I really can’t. I can’t listen much longer or I might stroke out.

When-a me rock-a the microphone, me rock on steady-a
Yes a daddy me Snow me are de article don
But the in an a-out a dance an they say where you come from-a?
People dem say ya come from Jamaica
But me born an’ raised in the ghetto that I want ya to know-a
Pure black people man that’s all I man know
Yeah me shoes are a-tear up an’a me toes just a show-a
Where me-a born in are de one Toronto, so

Here we get Snow’s biography, where people think he’s Jamaican, but he’s really poor from a ghetto and I guess thinks he’s a black man. Which… um… Is false.

Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

I wonder if this is really clever in another language. On another planet.

Come with a nice young lady
Intelligent, yes, she gentle and irie
Everywhere me go, me never lef’ her at all-ie
Yes-a Daddy Snow me are the roam dance man-a
Roam between-a dancin’ in-a in-a nation-a
You never know say daddy me Snow me are the boom shakata
Me never lay-a down flat in-a one cardboard box-a
Yes-a daddy me Snow me-a go reachin’ out da top, so

This song spent 7 weeks in the number 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992,

Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

It went platinum. In multiple countries.

Why wo ee? why wo ee? an’ wo ee an’ wo ee?

Ok. Now he’s just fucking with me.

[MC Shan]
Me sitting ’round cool with my dibbie-dibbie girl
Police knock my door, lick up my pal
Rough me up and I can’t do a thing
Pick up my line when my telephone ring
Take me to the station black up my hands
Trail me down cause I’m hanging with the Snowman
What I’m gonna do? I’m backed and I’m trapped
Slap me in the face and took all of my gap
They have no clues and they wanna get warmer
But Shan won’t turn informer

Again with the licking? Does that mean something different than the dictionary says? At least, I can understand most of MC Shan’s bars. Also, RIP to his gap, whatever the fuck that is. Did he go shopping for new clothes at Gap and then the cops slapped him and took it all? Oh. And not to be too pedantic. Ah, who am I kidding? That’s the whole point of this. But you’re writing a song about it. That’s the definition of informing us about it.

[Snow]
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down
Informer, ya’ no say daddy me Snow me I go blame
I lick he boom-boom down
‘Tective man a say, say daddy me Snow me stab someone down the lane
I lick he boom-boom down

I think it’s cool how fast he can talk. I just wish the noises he talked so quickly actually meant something. Imagine if this talent was used for good?

Diggity dum, diggity diggity dum, an’ wo ee, an wo, an wo ee

Diggity dumb is right.