Multi-platinum superstar Shaggy has signed a joint venture deal with VP Records. The Angel DJ made the announcement on Friday at the Island Music Conference in Kingston Jamaica.
The Grammy winning artist says the reason he signed with the legacy reggae record label was partly due to patriotism and the fact that VP Record will focus more on a reggae act than other labels.
The first single from the deal is a collab with dancehall artist Teejay titled “Gyal Dem Time.”
Shaggy co-produced former VP artist Spice’s debut album “10” which spawned the breakout single “Go Down Deh” with Sean Paul and Spice. The music video for the single has surpassed 167M streams.
The Ranch Entertainment artist’s most successful album Hot Shot, his 5th studio album has sold 8.8 million units in the U.S. according to data supplied to WMV by Luminate.
The album has sold 6.8 million pure copies along with 1.2 billion on-demand streams.
The career defining album by MCA-Geffen was released in the United States on 8 August 2000,and in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2000,with a revised track listing. The revised editionwas also released in Europe, with the song “Why You Mad at Me?”.
The album was re-released in the UK on 26March 2001. Hot Shot is now eligible to 8XPlatinum by the Recording Industry Associationof America (RIAA), and has sold over 12 millioncopies worldwide.
The last RIAA certification for Hot Shot was 6x Multi-Platinum on June 5, 2001.
A remix version of the album, Hot Shot Ultramix,was released in June 2002. Four singles werereleased from the record, including “It Wasn‘tMe“, “Angel“, “Luv Me, Luv Me“, and thedouble A–side single “Dance & Shout / Hope“.Hot Shot was the second highest–chartingstudio album in the U.S. of 2001 on theBillboard Year–End chart and was thebest–selling album of 2001 in Canada.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, February 8 during a panel discussion at the inaugural staging of the IMC (music conference) Shaggy took some time to teach an aspiring artist what it takes to become a superstar.
“Me nah wear all black,” Shaggy advises the young rapper who was a the back of the room pleading to be heard. Shaggy then gave him a chance the perform on stage in front of executives from iHeart Radio, Meta, YouTube and other major platforms.
Watch Shaggy explains why he signed the joint venture with VP Records on World Music Views’ YouTube channel below:
