Issue 29 / July 2011
Issue 30 / August 2011
SHAGGY EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEW
REGGAE / DANCEHALL
www.guestlist.net
57
We met a legend in the business, this man has sold in excess of ten million records worldwide, has won a Grammy Award and is considered an icon.
Mr Wondah @guestlist
How is it going, bredrin? Bless up every time.
You are currently in the UK right now headlining the One Love Reggae Peace Festival, you have your new single ‘Sugarcane’ out and you released the album Summer In Kingston... Yeah, Summer In Kingston is the one I have just released and this is the only album. Any other one is
unauthorised.
Ok, so how are things poppin’ off right now? We debuted straight in at number one with the album Summer In Kingston on reggae iTunes in the US. The single ‘Sugar Cane’ is also number one on reggae iTunes. We debuted on the UK reggae iTunes at number one and we haven’t even really started playing the tune here yet. No-one really knows ‘Sugar Cane’ as much yet. We are building the store in the US with a lot of airplay; we blocked the streets of Kingston [Jamaica] with a free party where ten thousand
people came out. So if you are going to do it, you just have to do it big because that’s how we do it.
So rewind the clock a little; people see you and know you from all the hit songs like ‘Boombastic’, but I under- stand that you come from Rea Town in Kingston, quite humble surroundings? I was born in Rae Town and I lived in Down Town Kingston at Char- lotte Street, then I lived on Haywood Street and my mother used to work at North Street right at the Gleaner [Newspaper] company. I have lived in New
Haven and Patrick City. I am from a single parent family; I was always living in a tenement yard but they say the ghetto really means ‘get out’, so that’s how it is.
Then you went to New York as a teenager? Yeah, I lived in Flatbush [Brooklyn] and we were struggling there as well. I went into the military after that because I ended up doing some things that I shouldn’t really do. It doesn’t take a rocket scien- tist, when you see people getting locked up and shot, to figure out this is not for me.
You are a singer/songwriter, and you are a dancehall DJ. What’s your inspiration for making music and writing in particular? Because I can’t do nothin’ else! You don’t want to see me kick a ball, believe me. This is the only thing I do good. I am horrible at probably everything else. I can barely add. Thank God for calculators! That’s me; music is my life so I really don’t do anything else.
So the new album is running it right now. Yes, it is released already. It is
number one on your reggae iTunes and it is called Summer in Kingston at £2.99, the ‘recession price’, so everybody can afford it. You must be able to find £2.99, the ‘recession price’, so you’re good but for a limited time only. Because if people think I am going to keep it at the recession price the whole time, they are making a mistake...!
Catch details of Shaggy’s August world tour at
www.shaggyonline.com
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