Shaggy

reggae musician

Personal Information

Born Orville Richard Burrell on October 22, 1968, in Kingston, Jamaica; grew up in Kingston; moved at age 18 to New York City, where his mother worked as a medical secretary. Took nickname "Shaggy" from Scooby Doo television cartoon program.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Marine Corps.

Career

Reggae/hip-hop/pop vocalist. Recorded singles that gained exposure in New York reggae dance clubs, late 1980s and early 1990s; "Oh Carolina" topped reggae dance charts; signed to Virgin International label and released debut album, Pure Pleasure, 1993; released second album, Boombastic, 1995; released third album, Midnite Lover, 1997; appeared on soundtrack of film How Stella Got Her Groove Back in duet with Janet Jackson, 1998; signed to MCA label; released Hot Shot, 2000; became first reggae artist since 1991 to top U.S. pop charts with single "It Wasn't Me," 2001.

Life's Work

Characterized historically by political and spiritual lyrics and a serious attitude, the Jamaican musical tradition of reggae has been difficult to bring to widespread popularity with fun-loving American audiences. Yet Shaggy, with two huge hits and several successful album releases in the 1990s and early 2000s, accomplished just that. A quick and talented writer, he created a style that was rooted in Jamaican dance traditions but displayed a pop sensibility and a sense of humor that endeared him to ordinary music fans in the United States and beyond.

Shaggy was born Orville Richard Burrell in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22, 1968. His nickname referred to his long hair and came from the hippie-like character by that name on the children's cartoon Scooby Doo. After growing up in Jamaica's violent central city, Shaggy left at age 18 for the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where his mother was already living and working as a medical secretary. Attending high school just as rap music was exploding in popularity, he found that his skills at Jamaican-style "toasting," a style that in fact was one of rap's forerunners, put him in high demand.

After graduating from high school Shaggy grew discouraged with his prospects in Brooklyn and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1988. Trying to keep a hand in the reggae recording scene, he drove long hours into the night between New York and his Marine base in North Carolina. With the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991 he was sent to Iraq. The experience sharpened his ambitions, and he made profitable use of the long waiting periods required of the U.S. forces by writing a stock of new songs. But he was also a keen observer of the war's slightly surreal aspect. "It was wild," he told Time. "The atmosphere was kind of like Three Kings," a 1999 film that starred actor George Clooney.

Back in New York at the war's end, Shaggy released several singles on small independent labels that did well in New York's numerous reggae clubs. The most successful of them, "Oh Carolina," was a remake of a pre-reggae classic of Jamaican pop, by a group called the Folkes Brothers, which in turn drew on U.S. soul music sources. Shaggy's version inventively incorporated samples of the original song. "Oh Carolina," recorded while Shaggy was still in the Marines, was released in Great Britain by the larger Greensleeves label, topped pop charts there and in several other countries, and was in turn picked up by the major Virgin International label. That led to the release of Shaggy's debut album, Pure Pleasure, in 1993. Shaggy kept his momentum with his sophomore release. Boombastic, released in 1995, reunited him with the New York reggae DJ Shaun "Sting" Pizzonia, who had produced his earliest dancehall efforts. The title track of Boombastic became another international hit and also cracked open the doors of the U.S. market for the artist; the album received a gold record for sales of 500,000 copies, appeared on pop, rap, and R&B charts in the United States, and remained atop Billboard magazine's U.S. sales chart for a record 30 weeks. Boombastic earned Shaggy a 1996 Grammy award for Best Reggae Album.

Shaggy's third album, Midnite Lover, was released in 1997. An ambitious outing, it attempted to cover perhaps too many bases. The album contained various single-ready tracks tailored for U.S. urban radio play, but the artist also felt the need to reestablish his credibility with the dancehall reggae hard core. "We showed on this album that I can do whatever Beenie Man or Buju Banton are doing," Shaggy told Billboard. Despite strong initial support from the Virgin label the album went nowhere, and Shaggy was dropped from Virgin's roster. "They saw me as a guy bringing them a couple of hits, not somebody building a career," Shaggy lamented in conversation with Time.

Without a record label and losing the spotlight to younger artists, Shaggy seemed to be on a downward slide. However, as he told Ebony, "the lesson that I have learned from my mother that has stayed with me through today is perseverance. Absolutely. That has played into my music, my career--not giving up." Shaggy kept on composing new material and making new contacts, and before long he landed a spot on the soundtrack of the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back, with a soundtrack helmed by the durably successful urban pop producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Quickly writing a song ("Luv Me Luv Me") to their specifications, Shaggy ended up recording the tune with megastar Janet Jackson on chorus vocals.

That song reached upper chart levels, and as a result the MCA label, which had released the soundtrack, signed Shaggy to a new contract and released his album Hot Shot in 2000. On that album Shaggy discarded all pretensions to reggae authenticity. "My album might be disputed by purists as not reggae enough, but I want it to be eclectic and crossover," he told Time. "To hell with categories." Cowriting all but one of the tracks on the CD, Shaggy succeeded brilliantly in his aims, crafting a radio-friendly urban-American sound with a perfect hint of Jamaican inflection that set it apart from a crowd of hip-hop-oriented competitors. Hot Shot contained a new version of "Luv Me Luv Me" and an energetic club number, "Dance and Shout," that sampled Michael Jackson's music.

But the album's most successful composition was "It Wasn't Me," which dominated the listening selections of Americans (and others) of all backgrounds through much of late 2000 and early 2001. In the song, Shaggy gives advice to a friend who has been caught by his girlfriend "red handed creeping with the girl next door." Though the friend has been seen in a variety of compromising positions throughout his living space (including the bathroom floor), Shaggy tells him to maintain steadfastly that "it wasn't me." Naughty but not mean-spirited, the song fit perfectly with Shaggy's genial sense of humor. With "It Wasn't Me," Shaggy became the first reggae artist to top the U.S. pop singles charts since Shabba Ranks in 1991.

Time speculated that the song's success might even be enough to kick off a new U.S. reggae craze: "So when you hear Madonna and Britney Spears singing to a reggae beat a year from now, remember, it all started with Shaggy," instructed writer David E. Thigpen. As for Shaggy himself, he began to reap rewards from his long years of creative persistence. Spending much of his free time with his two young sons, he maintained a home in Kingston, Jamaica, as well as one in New York. "There's nothing more I want to accomplish," he told Ebony. "I just want to create and make great music."

Awards

Grammy award for Best Reggae Album, for Boombastic, 1995.

Works

Selected discography

• Pure Pleasure, Virgin International, 1993.
• Boombastic, Virgin International, 1995.
• Midnite Lover, Virgin International, 1997.
• Hot Shot (contains "It Wasn't Me"), MCA, 2000.

Further Reading

Books

• Chang, Kevin O'Brien, and Wayne Chen, Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music, Temple University Press, 1998.
• Contemporary Musicians, volume 19, Gale, 1997.
• Larkin, Colin, ed., The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae, Virgin, 1998.

Periodicals

• Billboard, April 29, 1995, p. 16; August 2, 1997, p. 9.
• Ebony, May 2001, p. 116.
• Jet, February 26, 2001, p. 64.
• Time, February 19, 2001, p. 75.

Online

• All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com/.

— James M. Manheim

See Shaggy Lyrics

• Born: October 22, 1968, Kingston, Jamaica
• Active: '90s, 2000s
• Genres: Reggae
• Instrument: Vocals
• Representative Albums: "Boombastic," "Mr. Lover Lover: The Best of Shaggy, Pt. 1," "Midnite Lover"
• Representative Songs: "Boombastic," "Oh Carolina," "In the Summertime"

Biography

Emerging in the early '90s, Shaggy was the biggest crossover success in dancehall reggae. Not only did he become the genre's most commercially potent artist in the international market, he was also more than just a typical flash in the pan, managing to sustain a career over the course of several highly popular albums. Perhaps in part because he wasn't based in Jamaica, he never really needed to have it both ways: virtually ignoring the hardcore dancehall crowd, his music was unabashedly geared toward good times, a friendly (if horny) persona, and catchy party anthems. He wasn't shy about lifting hooks wholesale from pop hits of the past, a chart-ready blueprint similar to that of hip-hop stars like Puff Daddy, but he also had fairly eclectic tastes, giving his records a musical variety lacking from other dancehall stars. As a result, he became one of the scant few reggae artists to top the album and pop singles charts in America, not to mention numerous other countries where he's had even greater success.

Shaggy was born Orville Richard Burrell on October 22, 1968, in Kingston, Jamaica, and was nicknamed after the Scooby-Doo character. At age 18, he joined his mother in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, New York, and soon began performing with the local Jamaican-style sound system Gibraltar Musik. A steady income proved to be a more pressing matter, however, and in 1988 Shaggy joined the Marines. Stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, he continued to pursue music in his free time, and often made the drive back to New York for recording sessions. He cut his first single, "Man a Mi Yard" b/w "Bullet Proof Buddy," at age 20 for producer Don One's own small label; for the follow-up, "Big Hood" b/w "Duppy or Uglyman," he worked with producer Lloyd "Spiderman" Campbell.

Shaggy's most important connection, however, proved to be radio DJ/studio engineer Sting (born Shaun Pizzonia), who got him a gig cutting dubplates at Phillip Smart's studio. One of those records, "Mampie," became a huge hit among New York reggae fans; its follow-up, "Big Up," was even more popular locally, and marked the first of several duets with Brooklyn singer Rayvon. However, Shaggy still had obligations to the military, and his budding career was interrupted by Operation Desert Storm in 1991; he was sent to Kuwait for a five-month tour of duty. After returning to Camp Lejeune, Shaggy resumed his sessions in New York, and waxed a cover of the Folkes Brothers' ska hit "Oh Carolina." Originally recorded for Prince Buster's label, the song was given a modern dancehall update complete with a prominent "Peter Gunn" sample. At first, "Oh Carolina" was simply another local hit, but thanks to some overseas promotion, it was picked up for release in the U.K. by Greensleeves in late 1992. It was an instant smash, vaulting all the way to the top of the British pop charts early the next year and doing the same in several other European countries.

"Oh Carolina" wasn't as big a hit in the U.S., where it stalled in the lower half of the charts, despite its inclusion on the hit soundtrack to the Sharon Stone film Sliver. Furthermore, its follow-up singles, the tongue-in-cheek gospel of "Soon Be Done" and the jazzy "Nice and Lovely," failed to duplicate its success. Nonetheless, the overseas success of "Oh Carolina," coupled with the high-profile Maxi Priest duet "One More Chance," was enough to land Shaggy a lucrative deal with Virgin Records. His debut album, Pure Pleasure, was released in 1993, and included many of his recent singles; the following year, Greensleeves issued a collection called Original Doberman, which covered many of his earliest recordings.

Now firmly a star in Europe, Shaggy went on to conquer the U.S. with his next album, 1995's Boombastic. The title track was an inescapable hit, selling over a million copies; it reached number three on the pop charts and number one on the R&B charts, and also became his second U.K. chart-topper. "In the Summertime," the flip side of the American single release of "Boombastic," climbed into the U.K. Top Five as a follow-up. Meanwhile, the album went platinum, nearly reaching the R&B Top Ten, and spent a full year at number one on Billboard's reggae album chart; it also won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album. A third single, "Why You Treat Me So Bad," featured guest rapper Grand Puba and nearly reached the British Top Ten in 1996, but failed to make much of an impact stateside.

Shaggy followed his breakout success with an extensive world tour, consolidating his European following, and recorded a hit duet with Maxi Priest, "That Girl," in 1996. He returned to solo action in 1997 with the Midnite Lover album. The first single, a dancehall version of Big Brother & the Holding Company's "Piece of My Heart" featuring duet partner Marsha, was a relative flop in the U.S., though it had some international success. Similarly, the album was a commercial disappointment, and Virgin, assuming that Shaggy's moment had passed (as it quickly had for many of dancehall's crossover hitmakers), dropped him from its roster.

Undaunted, Shaggy turned to movie soundtracks to keep his name in the public eye. He appeared on a minor hit duet with Janet Jackson, "Luv Me, Luv Me," from the soundtrack of How Stella Got Her Groove Back in 1998, and followed it by contributing the solo cut "Hope" to For Love of the Game in 1999. By this time, he was able to land a new deal with MCA, and rewarded them with one of the biggest-selling reggae albums ever. Released in 2000, Hot Shot started off slowly as its lead single, "Dance and Shout," flopped in the States. However, a radio DJ in Hawaii downloaded the track "It Wasn't Me" (featuring Rik Rok) from Napster, and began playing it on his show. Soon it was a national hit, rocketing up the pop charts and hitting number one in early 2001; naturally, it did likewise in the U.K. and many other European countries. Its follow-up, "Angel" -- a rewrite of the country hit "Angel of the Morning," featuring Rayvon on vocals -- also went straight to number one in the U.S. and U.K. Hot Shot, meanwhile, spent six weeks at number one on the album charts and eventually sold over six million copies in the U.S. alone -- an almost unheard-of figure for a reggae release.

While Shaggy prepared his follow-up album, more pieces of product hit the market in 2002: Virgin put out Mr. Lover Lover: The Best of Shaggy, Vol. 1, a compilation covering his years at the label, while MCA issued a remix album, Hot Shot Ultramix. Before the end of the year, Shaggy released his new album Lucky Day, which was loosely designed as a respectful tribute to womankind. Its first two singles, "Hey Sexy Lady" and "Strength of a Woman," didn't fare well in the U.S., but the album sold respectably well, going gold by year's end and charting in the Top 30 on both the pop and R&B listings. In 2005 he returned with Clothes Drop, this time on the Geffen label. Early in 2007 his "Church Heathen" single began dominating the dancehall scene thanks in part to its video starring the legendary Ninjaman as a priest. The big hit single landed on Shaggy's album Intoxication released that same year. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Clothes Drop [LP] Buy this CD	Clothes Drop Buy this CD	Live at Chiemsee Reggae Summer Buy this CD	Hot Shot [Japan] Buy this CD	Unauthorized Souvenir: The Story of Shaggy [+ Book Buy this CD
Wild 2NITE, Pt. 1 Buy this CD	Boombastic Collection: The Best of Shaggy Buy this CD	Lucky Day Buy this CD	Hey Sexy Lady [CD/12"] Buy this CD	Clothes Drop [Bonus Track] Buy this CD

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