His Boombastic Voyage

08/09/2000 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Jacquie Juceam

With its familiar samples and humorous lyrics, Shaggy's highly successful fusion of reggae and pop has earned him a Grammy, and in any given year, he usually sells more units than the other top three dancehall artists combined. His debut album for MCA, Hotshot, despite the variety of producers behind it (including Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and reggae's hitmaking brethren Dave & Tony), doesn't stray from Shaggy's proven formula for success: It's fun, easily digestible, and full of samples of everyone from Michael Jackson to the Steve Miller Band. In other words, it's quintessential Shaggy.

"Have I been anything else but gimmicky? You know? Think about that one," declares the artist known as "Mr. Lover Lover" (and named after Scooby-Doo's cartoon sidekick), as he discusses his long-standing modus operandi. "I have always been gimmicky and tongue-in-cheek, and I have never been serious on music. I don't sit down and make records that are mad."

Shaggy's music may lack the protest lyrics and general rage that characterize a good majority of modern-day reggae and dancehall, but like many top reggae artists, he has had to struggle and pay his dues in order to get a break. He used to beg for a chance at the mic in cutthroat Flatbush, New York reggae clubs; then, when he finally scored a New York-area hit in '89 with his now-classic reggae record "Big Up" (the song that originated the slang term), he found himself rejected by Jamaican fans who were biased against "foreign" (and, therefore, in their opinion, "inauthentic") reggae artists. As a New York-based, Jamaican-born reggae artist, he seemed stuck in an awkward zone between two worlds.

Frustrated with his stagnant career, Shaggy joined the Marines and even served in the Gulf War, but he continued to record; one of his recordings was a cover of the Folkes Brothers' "Oh Carolina" for the indie dance label Signet Records. "Oh Carolina" taught him a hard lesson about sample clearance law (after its release led to a hefty lawsuit that left him penniless), but the song cracked the British pop charts and landed him a deal with Virgin Records, so in the long run, his legal gamble paid off. Shortly after, in 1995, Shaggy racked up a major crossover hit with "Boombastic," the title track off his second album. It was now clear that he was destined to become not just a reggae star, but a bona fide pop star.

Now that he's become reggae's biggest success story since Bob Marley, Shaggy can often be found chilling out in Kingston, Jamaica, where he occasionally records for local reggae labels like Madhouse or his own Big Yard Records. Considering how long it took for him to gain credibility in the Jamaican market, one has to wonder if he records for those labels just so he can maintain his footing with skeptical Jamaican reggae fans. Shaggy quickly retorts, "If anyone in Jamaica questions my credibility, I don't need to prove a damn thing to them. If you look at New York DJs right now, who the hell is still standing? I have been doing this 12 years, and I am still here hanging with the Beenie Mans and the Bounty Killers."

It's not just Jamaica's reggae fans who have been stingy with their support for Shaggy, however. Surprisingly, he's never gotten much support from America's urban media, either. "At the end of the day, when I look at everything, when 'Oh Carolina' came out we didn't get played on urban stations--we got played on reggae stations and on pop stations," Shaggy points out. "Both 'That Girl' [his duet with Maxi Priest] and 'Love Me Love Me' [a duet with Janet Jackson] were never played on urban stations; they were played on pop stations. It was not my choice, I didn't plan it, I just have to go with what goes."

Stressing somewhat defensively that he records both his hardcore reggae and overtly pop albums for fun, not in a calculated attempt to win over any target audience, Shaggy concludes with shrug, "So I used the Michael Jackson sample in [the Hotshot track] 'Dance And Shout.' I don't look at it as a credibility record; I just look at it like a great idea. People should do exactly what the record says: Dance and shout and shut the f--k up."