Sean Paul is rubbishing an age-old rumor that the reason he never performed with Beyonce was because Jay-Z had stopped her.
In an interview with OnStage’s Winford Williams, he said that he performed a total of four times, including once at Reggae Sumfest with Beyonce and that there is no life to the rumor which seemed to suggest that the Jamaican might have been too enticing for Beyonce and he might have stolen her from Jay-Z.
Sean Paul said, “nothing of the sort, when people said Jay-Z was jealous I had said in certain interviews that I don’t know if the fact that we didn’t perform very much or that when we did perform, problems happened, like the MTV awards in Europe there was a big problem that year when the pro-tool skipped and right when it was my part so I don’t if those things caused people to have rumors,” he said.
He added that there is no bad blood between him and Jay-Z. “I knew Jay-Z before I knew Beyonce and I’d also done a song with him before I did “Baby Boy” with her, so for me it was something that blew up, it was a big sexy song you know.”
This is the second time that Sean Paul is clearing up those pesky Jay-Z jealousy rumors over the past couple months.
Sean Paul on being slighted by Grammys at the peak of his career
Meanwhile, Sean Paul also spoke about his experience being in the music industry for two decades as he recalled his experience collecting his first Grammy for his Dutty Rock album for Best Reggae Album, which he says left him feeling snubbed by the Recording Academy. The artist disclosed that on the night of the event, which saw him winning an award, he was earlier in the night not allowed in the building!”
“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t allowed in the building which was a weird thing to me and it kinda prove to me that they don’t see this genre as anything which is disappointing even though Dutty Rock had sold 7 million and also that it was affecting other people’s music and there were a lot of rappers gravitating towards it, sounding and using the sounds to make it sound like the tracks I was using and it was selling a lot and I was competing with these big artists…[I was] walking on the red carpet and we spoke and right when we finish, I was told- ‘ok that’s your caravan over there’, it was upsetting to me that night and I never really spoke about it before until late last year, I felt snubbed, pushed under the carpet.”
“When other music becomes huge wherever it is from it is celebrated at the Grammys and they’re given a seat at the Staple’s Center but I didn’t have a seat. I was watching Black Eye Peas with five people walk past on the carpet and go inside and my management and mi sit down in a caravan,” Sean Paul said.
Sean Paul said that he later performed with artist Sting and he felt slighted by the Grammys, especially when he made the speech which he said was not broadcasted on the main screen.
He added that he has become wary of the awards shows since that sour experience, but that did not stop him from continuing to making good music. “It’s great to get accolades and be awarded and get recognized but that’s not really what I do it for, I do it for the music…”
