O Shen

O-Shen (real name: Jason Hershey ; * 1978 in Spokane ) is a musician from Papua New Guinea .

He released his first album in 1997 in Papua New Guinea. Noticed he is in his home so that he became the first artist in the local language to rap published. As a result, he had an impact that made him famous as the "ambassador" of Papua New Guinea and earned him a lot of popular support. His first albums were only sold in the Melanesian Islands, but in 2000 he made it to fame outside of Oceania with a stay in Hawaii .

His style of music, a mixture of reggae , hip-hop and today's modern music, helped him to win the 2001 Na Hoku hanohano award , a title for the best album in Hawaii, which must contain the reggae music style.

His song "Throw Away the Gun" was part of the soundtrack in the movie 50 First Dates (2004).

childhood

Jason Hershey was born in Washington in 1978 and grew up in Butaweng in Finschhafen , his father John worked as a doctor at the Lutheran Braun Memorial Hospital. Jason liked to play in the nearby waterfall of the Butaweng River, which he sang about in "Meri Lewa" and "Solwara Mangi"; the "stairs" that his father cut into the rock for him are still there today. In his youth the family returned to the USA, where he began to write his own texts.

Discography

album	Label	publication
Iron Youth	Cinammon Red Records	January 2000
Rascal in Paradise	Hobo House on the Hill Records	February 2003
Kanaka Pasifika	CHM Supersound	February 2004
Rising Son	Sharpnote Records	January 2005
Faya!	Sharpnote Records	2005
Best of O-Shen	Tokuma Records	2006
1 rebel	Sharpnote Records	July 2007
Saltwater Messenger	Sharpnote Records	February 2011
In Ex-Isle	Allstar Records	April 2013
Pacific Storm	Push Broom Productions Inc.	August 2013

Web links

• O-Shen on MySpace.com