Ask Sean Paul who gave him his first real shot and he won’t name a Kingston producer or a New York label boss. He’ll name Kardinal Offishall.
“First person to pay me, first person to put me on a track, I always say,” the Jamaican dancehall star explains in a new interview that kicks off Billboard Canada News, now streaming on YouTube.
The conversation, hosted by Alicia West, runs about thirty minutes and covers his whole career. The thread that keeps coming back is Canada.
“Canada has influenced my music in many ways,” he says, and he backs it up with names, places and family history.
That first collab was “Money Jane,” a Baby Blue Sound Crew track that also featured Kardinal and Toronto singer Jully Black.
Paul says the topic came up just the night before the interview. “They asked me who was the first person to put you on, give you a collab? And I said Kardi. Kardi Offishall.”
For anyone who followed Toronto’s scene back then, it makes sense. Kardinal and Jully Black were already heroes in the city’s hip hop and rhythm and blues world, and Toronto’s deep Caribbean roots made it a natural meeting point for dancehall and rap. Kardinal would later score his own international hit with “Dangerous” alongside Akon in 2008.
The Canadian link stretches into the visuals that made Paul a global name. He talks about shooting “Gimme The Light” and “Get Busy” with Toronto director Director X, then working as Little X, and dancer and choreographer Tanisha Scott. Both became longtime collaborators.
Those videos landed during the Dutty Rock era, when dancehall pushed hard into mainstream pop. “Get Busy” went all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Dutty Rock won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album.
Director X has since shot clips for Drake, including “Hotline Bling,” while Scott has choreographed for Rihanna and Beyoncé.
Then there’s the family side. Paul’s grandfather lived in Scarborough, Ontario when the artist was young, so his ties to the country began long before any record deal. It’s a detail that reframes the Toronto story as something closer to home than a business connection.
The interview doesn’t stay in the past. Paul also walks through his biggest chart hits and his work with pop stars like Rihanna, with whom he recorded “Break It Off,” and Sia, whose “Cheap Thrills” remix with him topped the Hot 100 in 2016.
He also speaks about supporting Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, the storm that tore through the island in late October 2025. For an artist so often linked with party records, it’s a reminder of how closely he stays tied to home.
For Billboard Canada, choosing Paul as the very first guest says a lot about how the outlet sees the country’s place in global music.
The full episode is live on YouTube now, and future episodes will show where the new series heads next.
