Shaggy Shags On-23 Paycheck Posse in Tow, Shaggy gives the 411 on Hot tubs, Growing up in the Hood, and Canadian Women

One of my favourite interviews of all time was a really wacky exchange with dancehall reggae star Shaggy. I was supposed to talk to him right after a show in Toronto but he blew that off and the PR woman at the label told me that I could catch him at the after party at 2:30 a.m. He showed but it was super loud and he was tired and decided to leave two minutes after arriving. I had resigned myself to thinking the interview wasn't going to happen after getting the double blow-off and so I thought I'd just do an extended concert review to fill the page but thankfully PR woman wasn't going to give up so easily. She knew a member of his entourage and managed to get Shaggy for me the next morning.

“Glad to make you all Moist and wet,” shouts Shaggy, giving love to the jam-packed club in mid-town Toronto. The house is crammed with ladies of all shapes, sizes and types—halter topped buxom honeys, cute as Love Hewitt College co-eds, and dolled up cougars on the prowl—something for every one of the handful of calculating pick-up artists in attendance.

A sea of hundreds of blondes, brunettes, redheads and raven-haired women surround me and shake, sashay, and yes, sweat to the music. On stage booty dancers shimmy and grind their beefy bottoms to the beat.

Just as the crowd can’t get any hotter, Shaggy turns the heat up another notch: “it’s no secret that making baby music, is Reggae music,” he quips before busting into the XX chromosome respect anthem, “Strength of a Woman.”

Do you find sex funny?

Falling off the @!$%#ing bed, that’s pretty funny or breaking a headboard…next door.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of publicity?

Nah, I’m not the guy your going to see on milk cartons, if that was the case then I’d be banging Jennifer Lopez.

Who has a cooler afro you or Macy Gray?

Nah, I don’t even think I have an afro.

Ok, how many women do there have to be in a hot tub before you step in?

I don’t dig that so much. I’m not really digging fifty women in a hot tub. Hot tubs are unsanitary

So the hot tub scene is not your thing?

I don’t even know why people go into them @!$%#s, you don’t know what chicks got. I know this guy who’d be at the bottom of the hot tub with like six chicks with smelly feet and crusty asses. Who the hell would want to be in a damn hot tub, it’s unsanitary? I’m not feeling hot tubs.

Shaggy, I've always wondered, what is the song “Hookie Jookie” about?

You know when you hook them with the juck, you know what I mean, in the nook that’s what it is.

Umm…ok Shaggy, sure.

It’s self-explanatory, I can’t believe you don’t get it

Where do the most beautiful women in the world come from?

Curacao

Where does Canada Rank?

Canada is up there too, I’m not just saying that because I’m here. There are some beautiful chicks in Canada. They are very pale at times, you really need some sun around this mutha@!$%#er you know.

So does Canada Crack the top 10?

[ignoring the question] If you send a couple of these chicks over to Jamaica to get some sun time, and come back they’d be alright.

Favorite body part?

“I like a nice looking ass, I’m an Assman I like chicks with ass, especially when it's from behind[hesitates for a moment]…ok well you get the picture.

What’s the kinkiest request you’ve ever had?

Chicks have sent panties for me to wear, just fan mail @!$%#. I’ve been asked to sign body parts. I think the wild thing was when I met a young lady who had my name tattooed on her ass which was quite flattering. To think that someone would tattoo your name on her body is amazing.

Is it harder for you to connect to your buddies from your old neighborhood in Flatbush, Brooklyn?

No it’s not hard to connect with them, but frankly I’ve kind of moved on. The thing about a ghetto is get out, that’s what it is really, who the @!$%# wants to sit in a God damned ghetto. Get this straight, half the people in the ghetto are not there because they want to be, they’re there because they can’t help it na’mean. If they can get out and go into the suburbs they would do that. What the @!$%# do you think it is, lets sit down and celebrate being from the hood.

Best way to kill some time?

My favorite way to kill time is sex. Fog up the windows, dude!

Good at any sports?

Video games. I’m good at Pac Man. I’m an old school video game guy, I never left that era. @!$%#ing Nintendo.

What about hockey?

No, I hate hockey, move on.

Will you still be behind the mic in 10 years?

I want to be like the Rolling Stones like Keith Richards looking like a lizard and @!$%#. I opened for the Rolling Stones and it was certainly an experience.

Pick up any tips opening for the Stones?

They’re pretty calm. I just think that’s the heights of the career, when your on a tour that they serve lobster in catering... in general catering, and they have two different catering halls, that’s the top of the mother@!$%#ing top, you know na’mean that’s money.

Who were you last mistaken for?

Lenny Kravitz

Yeah, I can sort of see the resemblance.

Really, I don’t know, I think I’m better looking then him but if you want to say that fine.

An abbreviated version of this article first ran in REV Magazine

Copyright © Mike Dojc, 2006

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