Sean Paul shockingly doesn’t actually say 'Sean de Paul' in his songs

Let's be honest - a lot of us have no idea what we're saying when we're trying to do a Sean Paul song on karaoke.

The combination of his spitting speed, his strong Jamaican accent and the inclusion of Patois slang can make it quite difficult to take in, let alone recreate.

But one lyric the lot of us are all convinced we had right is his trademark introduction when he begins a track - you know the one, 'Sean de Paul.'

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it turns out that we've been murdering that line all this time too.

The dancehall star, 50, has actually never once said 'Sean de Paul' in any of his songs, despite what your ears may have been telling you.

We've actually been mishearing the rapper for years - despite many people thinking he had laid the ground work for other musicians to announce themselves at the beginning of a track.

Many of us thought Sean Paul had paved the way for the likes of Jason Derulo and Mr Worldwide himself, Pitbull.

Jonathan Wood/Getty Images

However, the singer hasn't actually been name-dropping himself in his biggest hits, such as 'Temperature'.

In actual fact, Sean Paul was actually shouting out someone else with the habitual introduction.

Music fans only made the mind-blowing discovery after a social media user confessed that he used to think that the rapper was actually saying 'Chanderpaul' rather than his own name.

The bloke revealed in a post on X that he had spent years presuming that it was a 'weird tribute' to Guyanese cricket legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Although the theory was initially laughed off by others online, the lad went on to do some digging.

Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

He noticed that Sean Paul actually explained the true origin of the tagline during an interview with Vice while discussing his iconic track 'Get Down'.

At the very end of the chat, right as the credits start to roll, the celebrity was asked about how he made the leap from Sean Paul to Sean de Paul - only to reveal that that's not what he's been saying at all.

"There was a famous cricketer in Trinidad, Shivarine Chanderpaul," the rapper explained.

"Everybody was like 'Chanderpaul' and yo, that name stuck. And then I just started to say it at shows and met the dude Chanderpaul years later, and he's like 'Yo!'

"But yeah, big up to Shivarine Chanderpaul."

So next time you're in the club and a Sean Paul tune comes on - make sure you're putting some respect on Chanderpaul's name.

Topics: Music, Celebrity, Social Media, Weird, Cricket

Olivia Burke

Olivia is a journalist at LADbible Group with more than five years of experience and has worked for a number of top publishers, including News UK. She also enjoys writing food reviews (as well as the eating part). She is a stereotypical reality TV addict, but still finds time for a serious documentary.

@livburke_