It goes both ways....todays dancehall borrows a lot from hip hop music and culture...in my opinion too much But most of hip hop evolved from dancehall so you gotta respect it.....look up u-roy and lord kitchener and prince buster and count machuki for the foundation.....then yelloman and eek-a-mouse.....that's why most of the pioneers in hip hop were first generation west indians or born in the islands as well....kool dj herc who pretty much single handedly jumpstarted hip hop was born in jamaica....brought the dancehall scene over the water...hip hop was new york's adaptation of the dancehall sound system clash scene....grandmaster flash was born in barbados...even the next generation...doug e fresh was born in barbados....slick rick was 1st generation jamaican......and dancehall "Rap started﻿ in Jamaica way back in the late 50s with DJs like King Stitt and Count Machuki. They used to rap over old school R&B even before Ska was being played at soundsystems. Sure there's always been guys who can rhyme but Jamaican DJs were the first to rhyme over a prerecorded rhythm track. Rap is a sub-genre of Jamaican Dancehall music."...."dj-ing" and "toastin" was rappin