Sean Paul has come out swinging against pop stars Justin Bieber and Drake, chastising them for using Jamaican music without giving credit.
“It is a sore point when people like Drake or Bieber or other artistes 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,” he is quoted as saying in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
He described as “exploitation” the practice by pop artistes who use Jamaican phrases and not pay homage to their place of origin. Sean Paul’s comments are similar to those of Mr Vegas, who in May took Drake to task for not crediting deejay Popcaan on the hit song Too Good, on which they collaborated for his million-selling album Views.
Sean Paul is equally dismissive of the term ‘Tropical House’ being ascribed to a genre which draws from dancehall. Tracks such as Rihanna’s Work and Bieber’s What Do You Mean? have been categorized as such.
“Dancehall is back, but this time it’s also infused with Afrobeat, with hip hop, with trap, and that’s fine with me,” he told The Guardian. “Sure, I would like what we do in Jamaica, that authentic dancehall, to be on top, but it simply isn’t.”
— By Richard Johnson
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