Shaggy 1968–
Shaggy 1968–
Reggae singer
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
At a Glance…
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 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.
Awards: Grammy award for Best Reggae Album, for Boombastic, 1995.
Addresses: Agent —The Agency Group., Ltd., 1775 Broadway, Suite 433, New York, NY 10019.
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.” Co-writing 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.”
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
Sources
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
Shaggy
Shaggy
Reggae musician
Born Orville Burrell in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22, 1968, Shaggy earned his nickname from the animated Saturday morning show, Scooby Doo. Scooby’s sidekick, “Shaggy,” was the ever-hungry hippie on the show, and his friends thought it fitting for Burrell because of his unruly shock of hair. A cover of the reggae tune “Oh Carolina” in 1993 catapulted Shaggy to international fame, but subsequent success with the Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic in 1995 and multiplatinum Hot Shot in 2000—on which the hit single “It Wasn’t Me” appears—established him as one of reggae’s most popular artists.
Shaggy left his native Jamaica at age 18 to join his mother in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, where he soon found himself a place in the local New York reggae scene. While in high school, Shaggy would use his lunch break to recite lyrics and perform on the benches outside. Shaggy’s recording career started at the age of 20, debuting with “Man A Mi Yard” and “Bullet Proof Buddy,” followed by “Big Hood” and “Duppy Or Uglyman” for producer Lloyd “Spiderman” Campbell. But his musical career took a higher leap after he hooked up with New York’s premier reggae radio DJ and producer, Sting (not to be confused with pop rock recording artist and former Police member). Shaggy cut “Mampie” with Sting, and the song rose to number one in the New York reggae charts along with his next single, “Big Up.”
Shaggy’s musical career was temporarily halted in 1988. After a difficult year trying to find work with a steady paycheck and wanting to escape the gun-to-your-head mentality of the streets of Brooklyn where the only work that could be found was illegal, Shaggy joined the United States Marines. He thought it was a way out of poverty and a vacation from the harsh streets of Brooklyn, but was misled and found himself in the middle of the Gulf War. He also found himself driving an armored HumVee tank through an Iraqi minefield.
When Shaggy returned from the Gulf War, he was stationed in Camp LeJeune, in North Carolina. While he had been in the Gulf, the New York street tunes he had first recorded made him a local star. Every weekend while he was on active duty, Shaggy made a pilgrimage, driving 18 hours to New York City to record his music. There, he would live the life of a star, but during the week, he was back on base with a mop and bucket, having misbehaved his way into various duties.
Success was right around the corner for Shaggy when in 1993 he released “Oh Carolina,” a remake of an old Prince Buster classic. “Oh Carolina” became a surprise smash hit topping charts around the world. He became a world traveler and performed in a number of countries. He was also the first dancehall artist to perform in South Africa following the abolishment of apartheid. His 1993 debut album, Pure Pleasure, established Shaggy as one the most exciting new voices in the reggae
For the Record…
Born Orville Richard Burrell on October 22, 1968, in Kingston, Jamaica.
Began recording career, age 20; fought in the Gulf War, c. 1988-92; had first hit with “Oh Carolina,” 1993; released Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic, 1995; released Original Doberman, 1996; Midnite Lover, 1997; and Hot Shot, 2000.
Awards: Grammy Award, Best Reggae Album for Boombastic, 1995; Juno Award (Canada), Best Selling Album, 2002.
Addresses: Record company—MCA Records, 70 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608. Website —Shaggy Official Website: http://www.shaggyonline.com.
movement. With the release of Boombastic in 1995, Shaggy’s audience expanded across all formats.
The Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic derived its name from a Jamaican word meaning anything sensational. Since its release in July of 1995, it shattered barriers worldwide, taking reggae music to new heights on pop, rap, and R&B charts throughout the world and reaching platinum record sales in the United States. Boombastic took the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album and dominated the top spot on Billboard’s Reggae Album Chart, where it held the numberone slot for 30 consecutive weeks, making Boombastic the longest numberone reign in the chart’s history. The title track of the album went platinum and emerged as one of 1995’s biggest hits.
Shaggy’s main critics are purists who question his brand of reggae music. But Shaggy replies, according to David Hiltbrand in TV Guide, “you have to bridge the gap to succeed in this game.” Shaggy wants his music to be ecclectic and gets his reward from fans instead of critics. Shaggy also grew up listening to Jamaican radio where “anything goes.” With that influence, Shaggy was exposed to all kinds of music. Plus, Shaggy sees music history as starting with reggae, and before that, with the drum and bass rhythms of African music. “If you want to live under the shadow of Bob Marley, be my… guest, but I ain’t doing that. I’m respecting that man’s work, moving… on and trying to do something, because it’s a new generation we’re working with right now,” Shaggy told MTV.com.
After the slow-going 1997 release of Midnite Lover, his third album, Virgin stopped all support of the album, let sales drop, and let Shaggy go, a reaction Shaggy attributes to the fact that “most labels right now are not looking for career artists, in any genre,” according to Mim Udovitch of Rolling Stone. Shaggy wasn’t throwing in the towel and spent much of three years concentrating on soundtracks, since he lacked a record deal. He contributed songs to soundtracks including Speed 2: Cruise Control, For Love of the Game, and “Luv Me Luv Me” with Janet Jackson for How Stella Got Her Groove Back. It was his contribution to this last soundtrack that got Shaggy noticed at MCA—and a new record contract. Even though he was looking for a contract with a small record company, Shaggy was impressed with the promotion he received at MCA and signed on.
Shaggy was being called a “has-been” when the unforeseen happened. After Hot Shot —Shaggy’s 2000 release with MCA—stalled in the charts, a disc jockey in at KIKI-FM in Honolulu named Pablo Sato picked up the single “It Wasn’t Me” on Napster. He began heavy rotation of the song, and it was an overnight hit in Hawaii. Before long, the deejay Tommy Austin from KKRZ in Portland was visiting Hawaii and noticed the reaction to the song, which he tried to duplicate in Oregon. It worked, and before long, audiences across the country were singing along—and buying the CD. Hot Shot suddenly shot up the Billboard chart to number three, along with “It Wasn’t Me,” which reached number one. The next popular single from the album was “Angel.” Hot Shot had sold more than six million copies as of June 2001 and made Shaggy the first reggae artist to top the Billboard 200.
Shaggy soon had an appearance on NBC’s Today Show and also played himself on the soap opera All My Children. He headlined at Walt Disney World Summer Jam Concert and Fox’s Teenapalooza. Shaggy wants to continue making music, but he has hinted at a career in acting. He is also starting a label with MCA called Big Yard, which will feature reggae musicians. He said about the new label in an interview with MTV: “There are a lot of great acts in Jamaica… [who] come out of there, and only do two or three songs. We need people to guide these young talents, to look at this as a career and not as a hustle.” In 2001, the first two artists signed to Big Yard were RikRok and Ravyon, who toured with the Backstreet Boys.
Selected discography
Pure Pleasure, Cema/Virgin, 1993.
Boombastic, Cema/Virgin, 1995.
Original Doberman, Greensleeves, 1996.
Midnite Lover, Virgin, 1997.
(Contributor) Speed II: Cruise Control (soundtrack), Virgin, 1997.
(Contributor) How Stella Got Her Groove Back (soundtrack), MCA, 1998.
(Contributor) For Love of the Game (soundtrack), MCA, 1999.
Hot Shot, MCA, 2000.
Sources
Books
The Complete Marquis Who’s Who, Marquis Who’s Who, 2001.
Periodicals
Billboard, August 2, 1997, p. 9(2).
Ebony, May 2001, p. 116.
Ebony Man, May 1996.
Entertainment Weekly, January 19, 2001, p. 90.
People, August 14, 1996.
Rolling Stone, February 15, 2001, p. 31.
Time, February 19, 2001, p. 75.
TV Guide, June 23, 2001, pp. 29-30, 32.
Online
All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (April 1, 2002).
Grammy.com, http://www.grammy.com (April 1, 2002).
MTV.com, http://www.mtv.com (April 1, 2002).
Recording Industry Association of America, http://www.riaa.org (April 1, 2002).
Shaggy Official Website, http://www.shaggyonline.com (April 1, 2002).
—Robyn Weiss
Shaggy
Shaggy
Reggae Artist
Orville Burrell was born in Kingston, Jamaica on October 22, 1968 and earned his nick-name, “Shaggy” from the animated Saturday morning show, Scooby Doo. Scooby’s side-kick, “Shaggy” was the ever-hungry hippie on the show, and his friends thought it fitting for Burrell. He left his native Jamaica at age 18, to join his mother in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York where he soon found himself a place in the local New York reggae scene. While in high school, Shaggy would use his lunch break to recite lyrics and perform on the benches outside.
Shaggy’s recording career started in his 20th year, debuting with “Man A Mi Yard,” “Bullet Proof Buddy,” followed by “Big Hood” and “Duppy Or Uglyman” for producer Lloyd “Spiderman” Campbell but his musical career took a higher leap after he hooked up with New York’s premier reggae radio D.J. and producer, Sting—not to be confused with pop rock recording artist and former Police member, Sting. Shaggy cut “Mampie,” with Sting and the song rose to number one in the New York reggae charts along with his next single, “Big Up.”
Shaggy’s musical career was temporarily halted in 1988. After a difficult year trying to find work with a steady paycheck, and wanting to escape the gun-to-your-head mentality of the streets of Brooklyn where the only work that could be found was illegal, Shaggy joined the United States Marines. Thinking this was a way out of possible poverty and a vacation from the harsh streets of Brooklyn, he was sadly mistaken and found himself in the middle of the Gulf War. What he thought was going to be something like summer camp turned out to be war on the front-line. He also found himself driving an armored HumVee tank through an Iraqi minefield. Shaggy joked many times about that experience, “Some people go in the military for 20 years and never see fighting. I go for four years and get straight into a war.”
When Shaggy returned from the Gulf War, he was stationed in Camp LeJeune, in North Carolina. While he had been in the Gulf, the New York street tunes he had first recorded made him a local star. Every weekend while he was on active duty, Shaggy made a pilgrimage, driving 18 hours to New York City to record his music. There, he would live the life of a star, but during the week, he was back on base with a mop and bucket.
Success was right around the corner for Shaggy when in 1993, he released, “Oh Carolina,” a remake of an old Prince Buster classic. “Oh Carolina” became a surprise smash hit topping charts around the world. He became a world traveler, performing in an endless number of countries. He was also the first dance hall artist to perform in South Africa following the abolishment of
For the Record…
Born Orville Richard Burrell, October 22, 1968 in Kingston, Jamaica.
Awards: Grammy Award for Boombastic
Addresses: Home —Kingston, Jamaica; Brooklyn, New York. Record company —Virgin Records, 1790 Broadway, Sixth floor, New York, NY 10019.
apartheid. His debut album, Pure Pleasure established Shaggy as one the most exciting new voices in the reggae movement. With the release of Boombastic, Shaggy’s audience expanded across all formats.
The Grammy-winning album, Boombastic, derived its name from a Jamaican word meaninganything sensational. Since it’s release in July 1995, it has shattered barriers worldwide—taking reggae music to new heights on Pop, Rap, and R&B charts throughout the world and reaching gold record sales in the United States. Boombastic took the 1996 Grammy Award for “Best Reggae Album” and dominated the top spot on Billboard’s Reggae Album Chart, where it held the number one slot for 30 consecutive weeks; making Boombastic the longest number one reign in the chart’s history.
Boom basticTops Billboard
The title track of the album went platinum and emerged as one of 1995’s biggest hits. Boombastic ripped through format boundaries and topped the following Billboard charts: Hot R&B singles, Hot R&B singles Sales, Hot Rap Singles, and Rap Airplay Monitor and rose to number three on Billboards Hot 100 Singles chart on the strength of it’s number one showing on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart. Worldwide, Boombastic hit number one on the national singles charts in Italy, Sweden, New Zealand Ireland. It went to the top five in Germany, Holland, Span, Denmark, Greece, Finland, Switzerland Austria, Norway, and Belgium.
“Why You Treat Me So Bad,” one of the singles from Boombastic, features a guest performance from ex-Brand Nubian rapper Grand Puba; following such gems as “Summertime,” a high spirited update of the Mungo Jerry classic, and “The Train Is Coming,” which was featured in the movie, Money Train. Another of Shaggy’s songs, not from the Boombastic album, was used in the remake of the movie, Flipper.
Most of Boombastic’. 14 tracks were produced by the New York team of Sting and Robert Livingston, who have done a great job at capturing Shaggy’s raucous, fun-loving approach to Reggae. No one in the 1990s has done more for Reggae in earning the world wide attention than Shaggy. He has admitted his desire to advance a culture—specifically, the musical culture of reggae—and to be an ambassador and a positive representative of this music. With this purpose in mind, Shaggy is campaigning to get a star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the late reggae legend, Bob Marley. He feels Marley deserves that star achieving the highest point in reggae, making music from his heart—with no compromises. Shaggy won’t relent until that star shines with Marley’s name.
Thanks to the help of Sting, Robert Livingston and long time partner Rayvon, Shaggy’s monetary concerns are in the past. Above all, Shaggy’s success mirrors his personal motto “No matter where you go or what you do, make an impression.”
Selected discography
Albums
Pure Pleasure, Cema/Virgin, 1993
Boombastic, Cema/Virgin, 1995.
Original Doberman, Greensleeves, 1996.
Sources
Periodicals
Ebony Man, May 1996.
People, August 14, 1996
Online
http://www.jamweb.com/shaggy.html
http://www.pegasus.rutgers.edu/-albe/shaggy.html
http://www.musicblvd.com
—Robyn Weiss
Shaggy
SHAGGY
Born: Orville Richard Burrell; Kingston, Jamaica, 22 October 1968
Genre: Rock, Reggae
Best-selling album since 1990: Hot Shot (2000)
Hit songs since 1990: "Boombastic," "It Wasn't Me," "Angel"
Shaggy is one of the best-selling dancehall artists in the world. Dancehall, a variant of reggae, rarely enjoys the U.S. sales of hip-hop and other forms of black music. Nevertheless, thanks to pop hooks and easily understood lyrics, Shaggy has attained superstar status. Shaggy's formula combines pop and R&B with sampling and interpolating popular songs.
Shaggy grew up in Jamaica, and his family moved to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, when he was sixteen years old. He earned his nickname in childhood, after the cartoon character and friend of Scooby Doo. As a teenager Shaggy took up DJing and singing. He recorded songs with an area producer, Shaun "Sting" Pizzonia. After high school Shaggy joined the U.S. Marines but remained committed to his craft, driving from North Carolina to New York to record music on the weekends. His independent releases "Mampie" and "Big Up" topped the reggae charts. His update of a 1960s reggae hit, "Oh Carolina," reached number one in England in 1993. Shaggy's success won him a contract with Virgin Records. Virgin released the album Pure Pleasure (1993), which contains "Oh Carolina." Songs like "Nice and Lovely" with the crooner Rayvon foreshadowed the melodic sound that came to dominate his biggest hits.
The follow-up, Boombastic (1995), and the title track were even more successful. Both the single and the album sold more than 1 million copies, and Shaggy's efforts were hailed by the establishment. Boombastic won the 1995 Best Reggae Album Grammy. Unlike his first two albums, Shaggy's third effort, Midnite Lover (1997), lacked a defining big hit, and MCA Records dropped him.
Re-signed by Virgin Records, Shaggy bolstered his fourth album with hit-friendly ingredients. The album Hot Shot (2000) boasts the production team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a duet with label mate Janet Jackson, and a sample of the Jacksons' "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground" on "Dance and Shout." The lead single "It Wasn't Me," featuring Rik Rok, is mischievous and raunchy. It was one of the most popular songs of 2000. "Angel," an update of the Juice Newton hit "Angel of the Morning," had broad appeal to country, reggae, R&B, and pop listeners. Hot Shot topped the Billboard pop chart for six weeks. It hit number one in fifteen other countries, and it went platinum six times in the United States.
Shaggy's follow-up, Lucky Day (2002), did not equal this success; with songs like the title track, "Strength of a Woman," the album's reverent, romantic themes diverged too far from the frisky fare of Shaggy fanatics.
Shaggy's career has been marked by as many international hits as all-out misses. Despite his erratic commercial trajectory, Shaggy's core strength remains intact: He boldly mixes a variety of musical styles to stretch the boundaries of dancehall.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Pure Pleasure (Virgin, 1993); Boombastic (Virgin, 1995); Midnite Love (Virgin, 1997); All Virgins (Signet, 1999); Hot Shot (MCA, 2000); Lucky Dray (MCA, 2002).
dara cook
shaggy
shag·gy / ˈshagē/ • adj. (-gi·er, -gi·est) (of hair or fur) long, thick, and unkempt: the mountain goat has a long, shaggy coat. ∎ having long, thick, unkempt hair or fur: a huge shaggy English sheepdog. ∎ of or having a covering resembling rough, thick hair.PHRASES: shaggy-dog story a long, rambling story or joke, typically one that is amusing only because it is absurdly inconsequential or pointless.DERIVATIVES: shag·gi·ly / -əlē/ adv.shag·gi·ness n.