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<\/p>\nShaggy is an international superstar. The dancehall reggae sensation has earned blockbuster album and single sales in the U.K. and beyond with his strong voice and inimitable style. Born in Jamaica but a longtime U.S. resident, he has been landing hits on the charts since 1993. While he easily holds his own as a performer, these days he\u2019s as likely to embark upon a collaborative project, helping younger artists gain a foothold in the music industry. He\u2019s currently on tour across North America, but found time to sit down for a conversation with me.<\/p>\n
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I get the sense that for you, reggae is a canvas that you paint on. Instead of coloring inside the lines, you use reggae as a foundation, adding other elements to create the finished pieces. Would you agree, and if so, how did you develop that approach? <\/b><\/p>\n
I would agree with that. Look at music overall: Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. We\u2019re not inventing the wheel here, bro. You know what I mean? It\u2019s really your experience to something that\u2019s already been there. You could talk about different melodies, but there\u2019s only so much you could do. What you bring to each recording is based on your feeling, your journey. If you asked me to make music that I was making in the early \u201890s, I can\u2019t make that right now because I\u2019m not in that place. I could duplicate what I\u2019ve made, but I can\u2019t really<\/i> make it. With technology now, anybody could sound good. But can everybody make you feel? Can they evoke an emotion out of you? And that comes, I think, with pain, whatever situations and pains you go through.<\/p>\n
I was a kid when I did Boombastic<\/i> (1995). You might be asking, \u201cWhat kind of pain are you really singing about in that song?\u201d Because it\u2019s really not about the subject matter of the song; it\u2019s really about what the song is doing to my life at that point, and the opportunity that I\u2019m bringing into singing. So if I say \u201cMr. Boombastic,\u201d I might have talking about being romantic, fantastic, the greatest lover and all of that. But at that point, I was a kid who wasn\u2019t getting laid!<\/p>\n
And when I got famous I was like, \u201cI can\u2019t believe this!\u201d So you\u2019re hearing the pain of that, of me basically saying, \u201cWow, I have actually peaked. I have struggled to where now I actually<\/i> get laid!\u201d So sometimes it\u2019s not really the subject matter, but it\u2019s the pain of what you\u2019ve gone through.<\/p>\n
I remember the first time I got dropped from Virgin Records. There was a young lady that used to do promo for me. I\u2019ve eaten at her house. When her kid was born, and I bought her kid jewelry. She was in the trenches with me every day, doing these interviews.<\/p>\n
And once I got dropped, she wouldn\u2019t answer my call. I was like, \u201cOh, shit!\u201d For her, it was a job. For me as a young kid, she meant something to me. She was my family, but I quickly learned, \u201cOkay, well, I guess this is what it is.\u201d So on my next journey, I\u2019m looking at things totally from a different angle. So you will express all of these pains that you\u2019ve gone through these compositions that you\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n
So you\u2019re right: it is a canvas that I\u2019m actually painting, but I\u2019m painting the picture of my life as I move through it.<\/p>\n
Obviously we\u2019re going way back here. But on \u201cAngel\u201d from 2000\u2019s Hot Shot<\/i>, you used a familiar sample, something that is widely recognized, and took it someplace very different. When you were doing things like that, would you start with the sample and build on that?<\/b><\/p>\n
My early producer was a guy by the name of Sting International. Not Sting of The Police; different guys. I was lucky enough to have Sting International as a producer, but he was also a deejay and avid vinyl record collector. His whole house was filled with vinyl. He literally could be producing and say, \u201cThis needs something, and I\u2019m taking this from a James Brown record from 1965.\u201d He knew his records like that. He knew how to arrange because he knew how records are supposed to sound.<\/p>\n
But he used to give me these CDs filled with different samples, because he had a great ear. I might get 30 samples, I might get ten samples. I would listen, and whatever spoke to me, I went with. And I heard Steve Miller\u2019s \u201cThe Joker\u201d as a sample. And the first thing I said was, \u201cThis riff sounds like a reggae riff.\u201d At that point, I fell in love with that sample. I didn\u2019t even know the original song! I was young at the time [it was released]. But I could hear something that was speaking to me, something I liked.<\/p>\n
We came up with the verses first. \u201cLife is one big party when you\u2019re still young, but who\u2019s gonna have your back when it\u2019s all done?\u201d And Rick Rock walked in to the studio in Jamaica. He just started to sing, \u201cGirl, you\u2019re my angel, you\u2019re my darling,\u201d which is from Juice Newton. And I was like, \u201cThat fits really good. Let\u2019s change some of the words to peeps and shorty.\u201d And then we had something that sounded really cool.<\/p>\n
About two days after that, I ended up doing the second verse and the bridge; then we had a song. We turned it in to Sting International, and he started to add all the guitars and things around it. Then we had a record that we thought sounded special.<\/p>\n
My manager told me the other day, \u201cInspiration is a luxury; you\u2019ll find inspiration if you gotta pay your bills.\u201d And those bills ain\u2019t waiting for inspiration, bro. So you better find it.<\/p>\n