Sean Paul aims to ‘push dancehall culture’ on international tours

International dancehall/reggae artiste Sean Paul says he will forever be waving the banner high for dancehall music, despite his massive crossover hits in several other musical genres.

Upon recently embarking on his US and European tours, the Grammy-Award winner said one of his main aims was to introduce more of his 'dancehall side' to the masses in aid of spreading his authentic musical heritage and, by extension, the culture.

"From ever since, for me, it's not just that we make money when we do shows, but to push the culture. And at this point in my life, it's more about pushing the culture - more about keeping that flag up. I've been through lots of years where dancehall was nutten to these international waters or it wasn't as big as I was able to tek it, and then I took it and it became huge and the baton pass to the younger generation," Sean Paul told THE STAR.

"Sometimes mi hear even our own people in Jamaica seh 'Dancehall dead' just because the sound has changed, and I find that I had to push through all a dat negative connotation, [for] this genre that I love and believe in and brought to a bigger part of the world and became very internationally successful off of it. So I always try to push the flag and mek sure seh the haters and the people dem who don't like dancehall see it; and shows were always the way to do it."

He noted that in his earlier years, he used to host "19 free shows every summer" just to market himself to the American space, which granted him several opportunities to sometimes be the only dancehall artiste, representing among some top hip-hop and R&B artistes on major shows.

Sean Paul said he wished more young artistes will be granted the opportunity to expose the dancehall genre and their talents through tours.

"It's a music where the big execs don't see the numbers in it and they didn't even see them with me, they just took a chance. But nowadays, they're not taking no chances and there's a lot of artistes nowadays, through social media, can have their own powerful fan base. So the way to kinda keep those fans or to gain new fans is to do these shows and that is why I still do dem and will continue to do dem until as long as I can," he said.

The 21-city 'Greatest' tour in the US recently ended on a massive high on June 16; the Europe leg of the tour ended last Tuesday. Sean Paul admitted that he has not done many shows locally, therefore he promised to "come home to Jamaica [with a] big show soon as this has been well overdue".

On his quest to prove that dancehall is still relevant in the hip-hop/R&B space, Sean Paul continues to elevate Jamaican artistes through his Dutty Rock production company, some of whom have also been representing with him on his tours. Along with Charly Black, Busy Signal, Chi Ching Ching and J'Calm, he highlighted that veterans Bushman and Capleton recently joined in on his latest production, the 'Brimstone' rhythm. The artiste also said that his Sean Paul Foundation is currently organising items to assist persons who were impacted by the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

Since his start in the business in the early 2000s, Sean Paul has had several major international collaborations with artistes such as Nicki Minaj, Davido, Sia, Keyshia Cole and Feid. However, his second dancehall/reggae/hip hop infused album, Dutty Rock, was his commercial breakthrough that catapulted him into the international space.