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Sean Merrick, known professionally over his career by the pseudonyms Jacky Jasper, H-Bomb and HDV, is a Canadian-American rapper, record producer and celebrity gossip blogger.

Merrick is best known for his work with Kool Keith under the name H-Bomb as a part of rap groups KHM (later known as Clayborne Family) and 7th Veil, as well as for performing as Jacky Jasper on Kool Keith's album First Come, First Served and the Analog Brothers album Pimp To Eat.

In Canada he is also known as a major contributor to the country's early hip hop scene while performing as HDV, as well as for his 1990 single "Pimp of the Microphone".

Under the moniker Jacky Jasper, Merrick became co-founder of and major contributor to the tabloid news site Diary of a Hollywood Street King. The blog was credited as having been the first to publish Charlie Sheen's HIV status in 2014.

Music career

Merrick, performing out of Toronto under the stage name HDV, released his first album Sex, Drugs + Violence through Canadian independent record label ISBA Records. The album spawned his best known Canadian single "Pimp of the Microphone". That same year he also performed as a member of the Canadian hip-hop and dance music supergroup Dance Appeal. The group was formed to protest CRTC decision 90–693 by which an FM station license was awarded to a country music station rather than a station featuring black and dance music oriented programming, which the city of Toronto had been lacking. The group released the single "CRTC (Can't Repress The Cause)" that went on to win the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Dance Music Video of the Year in 1991.

In 1993 Merrick released his second solo album as HDV, Higher Deeper Values again on ISBA Records. HDV was known for pornographic lyrics and for dealing with subjects such as the life of black people in Canada's inner cities as well as racial-tension and politics. Merrick also spent eight months in a Toronto jail after being convicted of living off the avails of prostitution.

Merrick moved to New York City, then on to California where he released the albums In Yo' Face in 1996 and Narcissism 1997 under the alias H-Bomb. Narcissism also gave rise to the single "Playa's Need No Love" with Roger Troutman, which peaked at number 33 on the Hot Rap Songs, making it Merrick's first charted single.

Merrick met Kool Keith and Ice-T and appeared on Keith's 1999 album First Come, First Served as well as the Analog Brothers' 2000 album Pimp to Eat under the moniker Jacky Jasper. Merrick, Kool Keith and rapper Marc Live formed the hip hop trio KHM and released their debut album in 2002 titled Game. From 2002 to 2004, Merrick released two more solo albums under the Jacky Jasper alias, Keep My Shit Clean and Jacky Who?. 2004 also saw the release of the sophomore KHM album titled Clayborne Family.

In 2005, Merrick served as a producer on Shade Sheist's sophomore album Before The Waitin' Before The Hatin' under the name H-Bomb. Merrick and Keith collaborated once again to form a rap duo 7th Veil. They released an album titled Stoned in 2008, featuring production from Chilly Chill and guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Ike Turner, Rick James, Silkk the Shocker and Flavor Flav among others.

Blogging career

In 2009 Merrick co-founded the tabloid news site Diary of a Hollywood Street King under his pseudonym Jacky Jasper. Merrick would also become the main contributor to the site. The site was the first to publish Charlie Sheen's HIV status in April 2014.

In the Media

On June 15, 2012, Jacky Jasper appeared on Dateline NBC for the featured investigation into 1990's rapper Timothy Blair, aka Tim Dog. The two-part documentary-stye series titled "The Perfect Catch," credited the Diary of a Hollywood Street King blog platform for serving as a noted "message board" that connected a set of alleged online dating scam victims of Tim Dog.

August 2016, mainstream news outlets reported Jacky Jasper had been impersonated by a noted celebrity stalker in order to "get close" to the Kardashian family matriarch, Kris Jenner.

Discography

Singles

Guest appearances

References

1. ^ Perlich, Tim (September 30, 2004). "Trucker style: Kool Keith turns 18-wheeler". Now Magazine. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Now Communications. Retrieved March 10, 2019. With any luck, we may even get a preview of his forthcoming 7th Veil project with H-Bomb, aka Jacky Jasper, aka Toronto's own "Pimp of the Microphone" HDV.
2. ^ Barr, Greg (January 25, 1991). "Rap and Metal: Both music forms on centre stage this weekend". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. p. D3. Retrieved March 10, 2019 – via newspapers.com. Known off stage as Sean Merrick, HDV calls it like it is, and he's seen it from the inside. Merrick spent eight months in a Toronto jail, convicted of living off the avails of prostitution. He was a pimp.
3. ^ Starr, Larry; Waterman, Christopher Alan; Hodgson, Jay (2009). Rock: A Canadian Perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 391. ISBN 0195427610. Sean Merrick (a.k.a. HDV) added his provocative 'gangsta rap' style to the mix in Toronto with songs such as 'Pimp of the Microphone', which aggressively challenged the prevailing myth that Canada has no ethnically marked underclass or any impoverished inner-city communities.
4. ^ Troper, Harold Martin; Weinfeld, Morton (1999). Ethnicity, Politics, and Public Policy: Case Studies in Canadian Diversity. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press. pp. 72–77. ISBN 0802080278. HDV is one rapper whose racial politics are more militant and definitely not integrationist. He addresses interracial marriage and racial tensions between blacks...HDV draws on his real-life experiences (he spent time in jail for his involvement with drug trafficking and prostitution) in his music and uses 'pimping' as a metaphor for all of the different levels of exploitation in society.
5. ^ Conroy, Ed (February 13, 2016). "Tracing the 6's boombastic hip-hop roots. Before Drake, there were pioneers Maestro Fresh Wes, Devon and Michie Mee". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. p. E4. Retrieved March 10, 2019 – via PressReader. As our hip-hop royalty continues to perfect the "Toronto sound" blowing up worldwide, Toronto is truly ground zero for hip-hop innovation in 2016. It wasn't always so pervasive: Our first-generation rap artists fought to be recognized...Unsurprisingly, the song kicked up a ton of controversy, but it went on to win a MuchMusic Video Award. Devon later joined forces with Maestro, Dream Warriors, Michie Mee, B-Kool, Lillian Allen, Eria Fachin, HDV, Messenjah, Jillian Mendez, Self Defense and Leroy Sibbles (and more) to form Toronto rap/ragga supergroup Dance Appeal, whose single "Can't Repress the Cause" railed against the Canadian music industry's lack of inclusion and acknowledgement of hip hop.
6. ^ "Jacky Jasper Presents: Diary of a Hollywood Street King" (Press release). Los Angeles, California, United States: Marketwired. AOne Entertainment. January 13, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
7. ^ Moynihan, Colin (January 6, 2016). "Sheen's path to HIV disclosure". The Santa Fe New Mexican. Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The New York Times. p. A10. Retrieved March 10, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
8. Moynihan, Colin (2016-01-05). "The Path to Charlie Sheen's H.I.V. Disclosure". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
9. Barr, Greg (October 12, 1990). "Lorraine Segato - On her own". Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. p. D3. Retrieved March 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. recently took part in the recording of Dance Appeal a song and video that takes aim at the CRTC and other interest groups that opposed a recent bid to establish a black/dance FM station in Toronto. The licence went to a country station instead.
10. "Black dance music fans upset with CRTC decision". The Leader-Post. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Canadian Press. August 11, 1990. p. C14. Retrieved March 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. Toronto black dance music groups, furious over a decision on Wednesday by the federal broadcast regulator to award an FM radio licence to a country music station, want to appeal the decision to the federal cabinet.
11. Denham Jolly, B. (2017). In the Black: My Life. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: ECW Press. p. 181. ISBN 1770909931. The strength of our support among artists was shown when some of the most talented hip hop music musicians joined the lobbying effort to the point of putting together a group they called Dance Appeal, which included artists such as Maestro Fresh-Wes, Michie mee, B-Kool, Lillian Allen, Leroy Sibbles, Lorraine Scott and Lorraine Segato from the Parachute Club. Dance Appeal recorded and performed a protest song called "CRTC (Can't Repress The Cause)," which demanded the government reverse the Rawlco decision. The song's video received blanket play on MuchMusic, and in 1991 it even won the MuchMusic Video Award for Best Dance Music Video of the Year.
12. Mitchell, Tony (2001). Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the US. Middletown, Connecticut, United States: Wesleyan University Press. p. 310. ISBN 0819565024. In contrast, the provocative, pornographic rapper HDV (Sean Merrick, from Toronto), in tracks such as "Pimp and the Microphone", rapped about the harsh conditions in which black people were living in Canadian cities.
13. "Additional resources for 'The Perfect Catch'". NBC News. 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
14. ATLien (2012-06-22). "jacky jasper dateline-nbc". Straight From The A - Atlanta Entertainment Industry Gossip & News. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
15. ^ "Feds arrest Newark woman for allegedly cyberstalking reality TV star Kris Jenner". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
16. "Bond granted for Bay Area woman accused of cyberstalking Kris Jenner". FOX 5 New York. 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
17. Evans, Erica (2016-08-19). "Woman arrested on suspicion of cyberstalking and threatening Kris Jenner". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
18. Sibor, Doug. "Kris Jenner Was Stalked, Hacked, and Impersonated". Complex. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
19. "HDV". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
20. "H Bomb". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
21. "Jacky Jasper". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
22. "Jacky Jasper Chart History". Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
23. "KHM Chart History". Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
24. "Jacky Jasper Chart History". Independent Albums. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
25. "KHM Chart History". Independent Albums. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
26. "KHM Chart History". Heatseekers Albums. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
27. "H-Bomb Chart History". Hot Rap Songs. Retrieved 2018-02-17.

• Living people
• 20th-century Canadian rappers
• 21st-century Canadian rappers
• Canadian hip-hop record producers
• Canadian male bloggers
• Black Canadian musicians
• Black Canadian writers
• Rappers from Toronto