Shaggy‘s love affair with his Island home Jamaica runs deep although he served in the US Navy during the Gulf War. For the last 30 years he has represented brand Jamaica with hit albums and hit singles like no other artist. He recently got his 8th Grammy nomination for Best Reggae album at the 2023 Grammys. The Wasn’t Me singer won the award twice, first in 1996 for Boombastic and then in his Sting collab album 44/876 took home the trophy in 2019.
He once told Bob Pittman of iHeartradio that he took the “Grammy ting” for granted and lowered his expectations when it came to the award. Now the 54 year old takes no chances and instead bases his career moves on facts, an open ear to the ground and his continued ability to reinvent himself.
In this exclusive interview Shaggy talks with WMV about the possibilities for selling his catalogue, the upcoming Island Music Conference and what he plans to do to help the Jamaican music industry.
I am particularly proud of your nomination, because it’s different but it’s still Jamaican music. How do you feel about the Grammy nod?
The concept is a different concept but the music is still reggae. Obviously I have never been quite down this way before. That’s also stepping outside the box but still keeping the tradition of reggae music. You can play records and hear distinctively that the music is reggae but a lot of those Jazz chords we had to take out some of those chords because most reggae is two chord-reggae and Sintra songs are 5-chords, you know, 6 or 7 chords but that’s why we had people link Lenky, Dean Fraser, myself of course, Dave Richards, a lot of those people who are experts at really trying to keep it as reggae as possible. Sting was very keen on that, that it had to be reggae.
Were you worried about sales when you dropped the album?
If we were worried about sales we would have gone with a major label partnership. We definitely kept it to ourselves. This was released on our label and distributed through CD Baby which is one hundred percent independent. We did that because we wanted to keep the music and own the masters. To have control of the master and do what we wanted to do with it. I think if we had gone with a major there are certain things we might have to be doing differently. It was always gonna be something that we put out that is gonna be a catalogue slow burn but I just toured Australia and we are No. 2 there. It’s one of those records where eventually people will overtime grab .
On the matter of catalogues, have you sold yours yet or are you closer to selling your catalogue?
The Songbook probably wouldn’t do much because those songs are all cover songs. Catalogue is always good to have and always good to wait for the right time to execute.
There is HarbourView Private Equity which is owned by a Jamaican Sherrese (Clarke Soares), she has a billion dollars to buy catalogues, are you likely to sell the a private equity or a record label like Universal?
If you were a seller of catalogues and you are selling your catalogue it all depends on what you want to do with your catalogue. If you are a person who just going do it just for money you take the highest bidder, who really cares what happens after that? But you can also do it in a deal where you still have control over it, you have a say on what they will do with the catalogue once they are trying to monetize it. It all depends on how you write the deal.
When you look at all them hedge fund people that are having it now, you know the music business, you gonna ask yourself how are they gonna monetize it Because Universal and Warner and a couple of these massive companies probably have the leg up on monetizing it as far as syncs and third party licensing. Maybe a lot of these hedge fund guys might now have the know-how to monetize it best and that is to be seen. As you can see the interest rate is going up and as its going up multiples get less. As the multiple get less that number might shift and at some point the hedge fund guys might need to partner.
They used your song Boombastic is in The Crown Season 5, how you get your music in the Crown, Cheetos commercial etc.?
That is to show you the power of the brand. I can tell you that I have a special company going out there looking for it. This is really just the power of my brand, and the fact that I have been able to keep my brand relevant over the years. They were timeless songs. In Boombastic, the type of sounds that were used were not the type of sounds that were being used at the time in 1996, we had sounds that were built and they became timeless sounds on all of these songs. The songwriting was just classic, they were not just huge then but grew over time and I can only attest that to songwriting, production, vocal style.
You are reinventing yourself, you have been in the game longer than all the other current Reggae Grammy nominees, how are you able to reinvent yourself like this, whats the thought process?
Its always trying to do something a little better, I make music selfishly trying to please my own taste and hoping that it connects. But it’s keeping your finger on the pulse and still being cool. Every new music out there I listen to them. when I came with “Guh Down Deh”, I kinda listened to what was going on, I came with something that was hybrid but yet still connected with the dancehall at the same time.
I am probably one of the only artists who can do that, for instance I am in the middle of my pop things and i left Universal, and went ahead and did a song called Church Heathen and in doing it, I knew I needed to connect to the dancehall. Because I was doing some shows and to how me did big and the world knows me and when me go a Jamaica go sing people stand and look pon me suh. I wasn’t getting no kinda respect at all, so I knew I needed to do something else. Even though it was against what the record company and my management at the time wanted, I went ahead and did Church Heathen. The whole idea came to me with this church so that is relatable and we came in at 19 weeks at No. 1.
Tell me about the Island Music Conference (IMC).
IMC is our opportunity to gain knowledge. Not just the business of music but the music business. But the standard of music and what is going on right now. Some of it is not in a text book. Some of it is a feel of what is going on, the pulse of what is going on. The best way to do that is to bring the players in. Some from Spotify, YouTube, iHeartMedia, SiriusXM, Agencies. Live Nation and people from the Grammys who can give a better understanding to our artists.
What is the date of IMC and where?
It’s in New Kingston, Jamaica at a couple of venues. There is the Chairman’s dinner, there will be performances from local acts who want to showcase their talent and what they are doing to some of these people.The main thing is to educate and let people meet and have artists showcase who they are and learn the business of the game.
Listen to the exclusive interview with Shaggy on the World Music Views Podcast below:
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