Sean Paul is the 36-year-old Grammy winner whose dancehall reggae hits include Temperature, Get Busy and We Be Burnin‚Äô, plus collabs with Beyonce, Rihanna and Keyshia Cole.

The product of Portuguese, Chinese, Jamaican and Jewish roots, Sean Paul Henriques was educated at Jamaica’s Hillel Academy and now lives in Kingston. Last year he earned more than his country’s banana industry. And he’s just getting started. His fourth studio album, Imperial Blaze, drops Aug. 18.

This weekend, Sean Paul is performing alongside Gilberto Santa Rosa, Arturo Sandoval and more at the Tampa Bay Caribbean Carnival at Vinoy Park. Tbt* chatted with him last week about his accent, Matisyahu and the evolution of reggae.

"It‚Äôs not a written language," he says. "Every year there‚Äôs new words and new ways of expressing yourself."

Click here to read Dalia Colon's full interview with Sean Paul.

Photo: Getty Images.
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