Photos of a very young Sean Paul during his days as a member of Jamaica’s national water polo team have surfaced thanks to one of the Grammy-winning artist’s old teammates.
The photos show a relatively young Paul along with a young man named Jake Muller together. Muller shared the photos on Twitter in response to a random tweet that asked followers to “tweet a true story from your life that sounds made up.”
In response, Muller said, “when I was 16, I played water polo against Grammy Award-winning reggae artist Sean Paul.”
The tweet accompanied three photos showing Muller shaking hands with Sean Paul. The Jamaican is seen wearing a white t-shirt and a grey cap on his head with what looks like braids peeking out.
There is also a troll-worthy photo of Paul and Muller, who are both bare-chested and wearing black speedos with nothing else to cover their abs and torsos. Paul has not reacted to the photos, but he was last spotted performing in Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Sean Paul previously spoke about his time on the water polo team, which started when he was 13 – 21 years old.
In an interview this year, Paul said he gave up a possible career in water polo sport to follow his music career. In a Guardian interview, the “Baby Girl” artist says that his family was going through immense hardship after his father was imprisoned. As he fluttered to understand all that was happening while also coping with his new economic circumstances, he turned to Bob Marley’s music for inspiration.
The singer said that after releasing his first song and being told that he would be a “one-hit-wonder,” he was determined to prove everyone wrong, and that’s when he quit water polo in 1996 to chase after his dreams of becoming an artiste. He is credited among the very few who exposed dancehall as a genre to the world.
To date Sean Paul is a 9 time Grammy nominated dancehall artist with one Grammy win under his belt.
