In an exclusive interview with WMV, Shaggy reflected on how he helped bring dancehall music into arenas long before it became commonplace, pointing to his solo arena runs in the UK during the Hot Shot era as a pivotal moment in the genre’s evolution.
Over the last two years, dancehall artist including Buju Banton, Vybz Kartel and Bounty Killer were solo headliners for arena shows and this year Alkaline joined with a Barclays Center show and will be headlining the Kasaya Center in Miami on Memorial Weekend. While acknowledging the current generation’s success, he noted that he had already broken that barrier during the height of his Hot Shot era.
“I did solo arenas,” Shaggy said. “When we did Hot Shot, we did arenas, and I did it by myself too. There was five shows at Wembley Arena when we did it solo. It is in the UK, not the U.S.”
That momentum was interrupted by the events of September 11, 2001, which dramatically altered the touring landscape. “What happened, we had 9-11, which halted everything,” he recalled. “Those five shows we had at solo, we ended up doing like two or three because 9-11 happened and the whole world shut down. Planes were halted, things couldn’t go. Promoters and agents at that point were scared to go into bigger arenas, and it really kind of shifted the whole thing.”
At the same time, Shaggy faced major label uncertainty as MCA Records shut down. Looking back, he believes a different strategy could have changed the trajectory of his U.S. career. “For about two years, I sat there, didn’t really have a label,” he said. “They could have moved us over to another label instead of sitting on a label that was shut down. We didn’t have a president, no staff, nobody to approve anything.”
The situation became particularly frustrating as records continued to gain traction internationally. “If you notice, ‘Hey Sexy Lady,’ ‘Strength of a Woman,’ and ‘Hey Baby’ hit everywhere else in the world except the United States,” Shaggy explained. “We couldn’t promote in the United States because they didn’t have anybody to okay it.”
Thanks to the support of international executive Martin Kierszenbaum, Shaggy was able to take those records directly to overseas audiences. “He created a budget for us to go promote those records,” Shaggy said. “I ended up going to Europe and hitting all the radio stations. That’s why those songs became top five and number one in every other country except the U.S.”
Last year, he joined Pitbull on the international leg of the Party After Dark Tour, performing in arenas across multiple markets. This year, he continues to tour extensively with a combination of standalone headline dates and major festival appearances throughout North America and Europe.
Watch full interview on YouTube.
