Shaggy: I don’t have to prove myself anymore

Shaggy has a lot to look back on over his career — superhit songs, stardom, and driving from Abu Dhabi to Dubai when it was all sand and camels.

“I don’t think I can count the number of times I’ve been here,” the reggae star told us on Wednesday ahead of his performance in Dubai that night.

The singer is performing at Zero Gravity at a private event to close the 12th Dubai International Film Festival. His performance is one of the first events organised by new entertainment venture 117 Live and The Audience.

“I’ve been coming here as far back as ‘95-96. But it’s the first time I’m involved with a film festival here.”

Now, the Mr Boombastic singer is appealing to a whole new generation, with another hit song, Habibi Love, under his belt 20 years after the song that brought him fame.

“I’ve done all I can,” he says, when asked if he’d still like to beat the No 1 Jamaican artist ever, Bob Marley. “I’m in good company. I’ve done my thing in music. I don’t need to prove myself anymore. I’m happy to be twenty-something years in the game and end up with a Top 20 song this year. Who would have thought? The whole industry is like, what? ‘I need your love’?”

What gets quoted back to you the most?

‘It wasn’t me’ is pretty. It gets a little tricky for people to say ‘Angel’.

Do you still smile when they do that?

I find it incredibly flattering. To be doing these songs that are incredible catchphrases, to have songs that last for so long, is pretty impressive.

Do you know when you’ve made one of those?

There’s some songs you might know in your gut, the hardest part is convincing everybody that’s the song. That’s the task.

Did you ever just know?

Mr Boombastic was a unique song. We fought for that one. There’s other songs that I fought for that I knew were going to be hits. I didn’t know I was going to get the hit. Like, It Wasn’t Me, because I actually gave that song away to two different people. I couldn’t keep it. I wanted to, but the powers that be at that time didn’t want me to keep it. But it ended up coming back to me.

You have a military background. What have you taken from the military that’s been useful, and one that has been no use whatsoever in your music career?

There have been many things I have taken from the military that has no use in a music career. Saluting makes no sense in a music career. Nah! Nobody cares. Discipline, you do need that for the music business. We get up early and go to bed late in the night. Just being in that work mode and having that work ethic that comes from the military.

There’s a real craft to picking the right sample. How do you do it?

You do some songs that are original, and some that have a sample. Because we are reggae and not really mainstream, there’s no radio format that supports reggae, so you have to do little tricks to bring recognition, put you in a lane. It kind of boils down to what works. I might try three or four samples and only like one. If it’s too obvious sometimes it doesn’t work. It’s all by ear, how I feel, how it feels when I’m done with it.

Normally it’s me and my producer, Sting International.

Favourite sample?

I would say Mr Boombastic, King Floyd, is pretty good.