Shaggy not focused on legacy; superstar committed to building lives

Arguably one of the biggest names to emerge from Jamaica musically, with a strong crossover appeal that has seen him work with icons from practically every popular genre of music, Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell is a well-known and respected global ambassador for Brand Jamaica. However, despite his many achievements and accolades over the last three decades, ‘Mr Boombastic’ will be the first to tell you that, in his view, you are only as relevant as the last body of work you produced.

Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner at his Island Music Conference held at the Courtleigh Auditorium on Thursday, Shaggy reasoned that, despite how big an artiste is currently, it will not mean much 100 years from now.

“I tell you why I say this: Do you have a great-grandfather? Do you know him? No? He probably was a great man, but right now he’s just a picture in an album somewhere or one on a wall. That is exactly what I’m going to be,” he said.

“You ask some kids right now who Michael Jackson is, and they don’t know. You cannot be too full of yourself and feel like you are going to leave behind this big legacy. What I do know is that we are all servants. These songs that I wrote, although I physically wrote them, they were bestowed upon me from a higher power. If they came just from me, I’d be writing a hit every week,” he said.

“So they were bestowed upon me, and when I go on tours, there are about 500 people, including stage handlers, riggers, lighters, etc. One of their kids may end up in an Ivy League school and eventually find the cure for cancer. So when you look at what you do, it is a gift that has been given to you to touch and change people’s lives. And when you’re old and it nah hit nuh more, it simply means you’ve done your time, and the crowd will say thank you for your service. This is how I look at it. So I try to build lives, not legacies.”

To stay relevant, he said, one has to look to try new projects, sometimes in areas that you previously never explored.

“You have to pivot. Yes, Mr Boombastic, et cetera, was my brand then, but now, I just have to pivot as I go. So when you close one chapter, you open another,” he said, noting that his new chapter currently finds him doing plays.

“I never did plays before. Right now I’m in the middle of a play, a musical with Sting called The Last Ship. It’s running in Paris right now, and then we will be doing Australia for a bit, and then do two and a half weeks in June at the Met,” he said.

Shaggy was also in Jamaica following the passage of Hurricane Melissa for humanitarian work. He and his team were instrumental in delivering more than 200 beds to hurricane victims.

“We did it through a group called Roadies International. When I was in Paris, I was approached by people who don’t want to send goods and stuff through channels they didn’t know. They want to go through a reputable person, and they saw me on the ground. So people like Sting, Paul McCartney, and a lot more wanted to assist, and so we facilitated bringing items down and distributing them.”

Music, however, will always be his go-to comfort, and he just released Dancehall Nice, which was done in collaboration with Beres Hammond and Dexta Daps as part of his upcoming album. Shaggy said that he wanted to introduce something fresh to another generation of music consumers.

“Everyone knows Beres [Hammond] for his one-drop style and him being ‘Mr Lovers’ Rock’, so I thought that if I’m going to do another Shaggy and Beres song, I wanted to do something in dancehall. Beres has been a part of dancehall for a long time, so I wanted to put him on it and show this new generation that Beres is back. A lot of these young kids don’t know about songs like Pull Up the Vibes with him and Buju [Banton] and other big dancehall hits, so it was another reason to go that route.”

nicola.cunningham@gleanerjm.com