Shaggy will perform at the huge Reggae Sumfest in Jamaica today, along with other artists such as LL Cool J, Buju Banton, Morgan Heritage, Allison Hinds, Alaine, Da’Ville, Cherine, Christopher Martin (Shaggy’s Big Yard stable mate), Etana and Iley Dread. I’m sure pictures and videos of the concert will be available later, but for now there’s an interesting Shaggy interview of which I can’t resist to post some pictures as well – doesn’t he look so cool!?
Church Heathen
The basic concept of Church Heathen are the experiences of a man who is not
an avid church goer, but who is pressured by his church going girlfriend to come to church with her on Sunday. So he goes reluctantly and he sees there are a lot of things happening in the church although he thought it would be boring. He
sits beside a woman who tells him what’s going down in the church (infidelity, fraud, men who only go to church to get chicks, the irls who are jumping up and down praising at the lord who were at the dirty dance the night before [you can watch the video of the night before Shaggy went to church and the Sunday in church itself here]), so he decides it’s better than a soap opera and “decides he’ll be present again next Sunday. So the song is dealing with the issues going on in a candid way and it’s not as much political as it could be. Shaggy says jokingly: “don’t
mess with me, since I can still do a remix”.
Intoxication
The new album is called Intoxication because the music feels intoxicating, not because Shaggy was intoxicated while making the album. It’s his first album without an A&R (“thank God”). The album was made by Shaggy himself mostly and he wants to keep things this way before he goes back to a major [Shaggy parted ways with Geffen Records in October last year and is now with VP Records and his own label, Big Yard Music Group]. He’s enjoing his freedom right now, Church Heathen has started off properly [it has been #1 for weeks on the Jamaican, NY, Miami and English dancehall charts to name a few] and everything is going the way he wants it to happen.
He proceeds to talk about his achievements in music (Shaggy has achieved more than any other artist in his genre of music, but he wants to regain the dancehall by connecting with the generation that has missed out on his dancehall hits like Big Up, Hot Gal, Girls’File, Mampie or his first #1 Oh Carolina and is on his way doing so by his underground new dancehall successes like Church Heathen, Ready Fi Di Ride and Rub a Dub We Want), his musical stylea and working with so-called superproducers like Scott Storch and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. More (interview video and article in Italian).