As reggae’s best-selling living artist, Shaggy took a detour from the mainstream this year.
After multiple crossover hits, “Church Heathen” signalled a departure from the formula-though mixing Gregorian chants into a dancehall record was always going to raise eyebrows. Predictably, it failed to match past chart successes, but it was an overdue return to his roots, and packed a punch powerful enough to re-establish his foothold among the dancehall elite.
“The only thing I needed to prove was that I could go back to dancehall,” Shaggy said, explaining the origin of the record during an interview last week, “[Otherwise], right now, as an artist, my focus is just to have fun.”
The song, a playfully wry satire of the all-too-familiar Sunday morning scene, found him delivering on both counts in his trademark baritone. It is hardly likely to be registered among the highlights of his career, but it is the kind of record that could only have been made with the reckless abandon of an artist no longer constrained by record label executives.
Certainly, none of the major labels was interested in having him make a dancehall album.
For almost 15 years, Shaggy has proved pop-infused reggae could reach the mass market. And, during that time, he has been consistent, cranking out hit after hit on a regular basis: “Oh Carolina”, “In the Summertime”, “Boombastic” and the Maxi Priest duet “That Girl.” But it was his 2001 album, ‘Hot Shot’, which became the commercial landmark for the genre, delivering two number one singles, on the way to selling six million copies in the US alone. It also paved the way for other acts to cross over, like Sean Paul and even Elephant Man.
Although he had a blueprint for success, Shaggy said he wants every album to be different. So he tried to reinvent himself, while Geffen Records wanted more radio-friendly records.
As a result, he said, he felt 2002’s ‘Lucky Day’ and 2005’s ‘Clothes Drop’, were not given the kind of major promotion from the record label that he thought each album had deserved.
It is true they earned high marks from the critics, but they underperformed commercially (‘Lucky Day’ sold over 500,000 copies in the US, while ‘Clothes Drop’ performed abysmally).
For him, it soon turned into “a contractual nightmare” that only ended when he left last year, determined to reclaim his place in dancehall — a prospect that he admits was very challenging. As unlikely as a song like “Church” was, Shaggy said he wanted to avoid the conventional. “I decided on it because it’s unique,” he said, “People would hear it and ask, ‘what’s this?'”
On his new album, ‘Intoxication’, released this year on his Big Yard Music label, Shaggy hardly sticks to convention and evades any easy classification by genre. Granted, he leans heavily towards dancehall (“More Woman”, “Criteria” and “Body A Shake”) and roots reggae (“Mad Mad World” with Sizzla Kalonji and Collie Buddz, “All About Love” and “Reggae Vibes”, the latter, a love song to reggae, is a bonus track released in Japan). But pop fans will be pleasantly surprised to find he has not strayed too far from formula. Although there is nothing on par with either “It Wasn’t Me” or “Angel”, there is the delightful “Bonafide Girl”, with usual partners in crime Rik Rok and Tony Gold,” “Out of Control” with Ravvon and current single “What’s Love,” which manages to achieve the rare feat of making the ever prolific Akon palatable.
The album is his first on the label, but Shaggy said there is no pressure to chart high, particularly since the underperformance of the last two has given him some breathing room. “We raised the bar so high anyway,” he explained, “and nobody has been able to get there. Right now, the sky is the limit. The main thing was to get past Geffen, Interscope and MCA”
As is to be expected, there are both pros and cons with the switch to an independent label.
Following the move to Big Yard Music, he had complete creative control over the album, including final say on the track listing, the artwork and even the direction of music videos. Although he believes it was the right way to go, he admits that the distribution is a problem, since smaller labels lack the capital to promote albums on par with the major companies.
But with the success of digital downloading, new modes of distribution have been emerging. In October, British rock band Radiohead released its latest album, ‘In Rainbows’, as a digital download, and invited fans to pay whatever they wanted for it. The sales figures have yet to be released, but initial reports indicated that the band sold 1.2 million digital copies on the first day alone. The figure is roughly double the sales of Shaggy’s last two records combined, but he is unsure whether it could be a viable model for reggae acts. He said that there is more support for Radiohead as an independent band than there would be for a reggae artist. (In fact, Radiohead is an alternative rock band. Although not currently signed to a major label, it has been one of the most commercially successful and influential groups since the early ’90s.) According to Shaggy, while reggae is a unique genre, one of the drawbacks has been its lack of consistency, leading labels and promoters to view it as seasonal music. “Apart from Sean [Paul] — who has had an incredible run and thank God he has kept the light on for us — no one has gotten a number one song on the Billboard charts since me,” he observed. “We have more songs on the charts, but they don’t go all the way, because there is a lack of consistency. We need better songs.”
Consistency might be a problem, but it is content that continues to generate the most debate. Reggae and dancehall have been lightning rods for criticism over misogyny and, in particular, homophobia — what with lyrics that incite violence against members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. In fact, over the last few years gay rights activists have organised strong lobbies against reggae and dancehall acts that perpetuate homophobia. The most successful has been the Stop Murder Music campaign, organised by the UK LGBT group OutRage! It has convinced sponsors to drop artists, forced the cancellation of concerts in Europe and the US and successfully lobbied for bans on musicians who advocate violence against homosexuals. Nevertheless, many reggae and dancehall performers, especially those seeking to cross over, are prone to ambivalence about the homophobic content of their music. But Shaggy does not hesitate to call it a wasteful pursuit for artists, especially since he sees both genres as uniquely fertile. “It doesn’t do us any good,” he said. “There are more things going on in the world than that.”
Because of his incredible success, Shaggy is no stranger to awards and accolades. But in October, he received an unexpected honour when he was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD) at Jamaica’s Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards ceremony. He received the award for his contribution to the music industry in both Jamaica and internationally. In some respects, the award brought him full circle. Commander is certainly further than he got in the US military, where he was a field artillery cannoneer. Shaggy, born Orville Richard Burrell, is a former Marine, who, as the story goes, developed his trademark inflection during his time in the military.
Having served during Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War, he was prepared to sound off on the continuing US military operation in Iraq, saying it did not differ from his tour of duty. “It was a mistake then and it’s a mistake now. And somebody needs to ‘fess up and bring those boys home,” he said, while pointing out that America is clearly pursuing its own interests because of its dependency on the region’s oil supply. “In hindsight, it has become clear why we are there and it has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction — it is about oil.”
