It was me

 

Shaggy is an interesting character in the music industry — and the world in general. For those of us who are early millenials (if that), you will remember “Boombastic”, the 1995 hit that put the man on the map. Taken from his third studio album, that song was the first bona fide commercial juggernaut Shaggy had, and a key milestone for dancehall music, way before Sean Paul, Pitbull or Rihanna ever made a dent. But it was neither the beginning of the road, nor was it in any way shape or form the pinnacle of the artist’s career…

Interestingly (although you may have guessed this was going there), Shaggy’s peak was a bit of a lucky accident. Let’s rewind a little: the follow-up to Boombastic was 1997’s Midnite Lover, an album which was not necessarily anticipated as the next big thing — and was not taken as such once it was released. By 2000, Shaggy was therefore an established musician, but by no means a superstar. So the making of fifth album Hot Shot involved quite a bit of negotiating between the artist and his label, the latter not quite being sure of the direction the project was taking.

A specific point of contention, as is often the case in these situations, stemmed from the single selection process. Shaggy and producer Sting International both felt that “It Wasn’t Me” had significant potential, featuring a clever sample and a strong beat, while label executives were less convinced. It would likely have never been released as such, if it were not for Hawaiian DJ Pablo Sato, who stumbled upon a bootleg of the album prior to release on a Napster-like site — again, the dot com era… — and decided to play the track he felt was a gem. The rest, as they say, is only history in retrospect: the song shot to #1, Shaggy became a household name and has since become an icon in the reggae / dancehall community, regularly churning out new material to this day.

As Shaggy himself summed up in a Vice documentary about the making of the song and how fortuitous its success really was: “It’s been like that my whole career”. We’re happy that it was…