Sean Paul Says Drake and Justin Bieber “Don’t Credit Where Dancehall Came From”

Sean Paul has called out artists including Drake, Justin Bieber, Major Lazer, and Kanye West for appropriating dancehall without crediting its roots, in a new interview with the Guardian. Paul, who says he’s a Drake fan, also questions the rapper’s use of patois. He adds that it’s galling to see dancehall’s massive influence when many Jamaican artists can’t get U.S. visas.

Paul says:

It is a sore point when people like Drake or Bieber or other artists come and do dancehall-orientated music but don’t credit where dancehall came from and they don’t necessarily understand it. A lot of people get upset, they get sour. And I know artists back in Jamaica that don’t like Major Lazer because they think they do the same thing that Drake and Kanye did – they take and take and don’t credit.

Talking about his new album, he adds:

Dancehall is back but this time it’s also infused with Afrobeat, with hip-hop, with trap, and that’s fine with me. Sure, I would like what we do in Jamaica, that authentic dancehall, to be on top, but it simply isn’t. So I want this album to bridge that gap.

In 2014, Paul collaborated with Major Lazer on “Come on to Me.”

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