International Talk Ep.9 SHAGGY!

Norie talks with Shaggy about his new album
Lottery, his NYC Broadway performance on Sting's The Last Ship, his IMC conference in JA, touring and more.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:17

So we see you on the streets doing your thing all over New York City, promoting like you always do. Like I call you the promoting guard.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

I know they bring me back in, you know, bring me back on the block now. Like the other day, I went there. I went in the I was staying in the I was telling some of my guys I was in a hotel uh which is right by the venue. I said, man, I haven't been in a I haven't been in a hotel with a shower curtain for a while. I'm back down to the you know, I mean, you know, it's it was one night, you know. But that's the hotel they put you on that promo run. DJ's thing the hotel is it's got shower curtains. I'm I'm used to showers, I'm used to you know you have a standing tub over on the side of the suite.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

But that's good to let people know that when it's promo time, it's promo.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

I'm back in the gully. I don't know these. These ain't these ain't my regular top. These are just linens. You're like, Ricky, who who booked this? I'm not used to it. I mean, I was just in Paris in the, you know, Royal Monsters. I was at I was at the Royal Monsieur. How was that? You know, how was your Paris name? Very Paris-y.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

So so I know you were doing a play. How was that?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

I'm still doing the play with me and Sting.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

What's the name of it? It's called The Last Ship. The Last Ship. Yeah. So what exactly does uh the Last Ship like?

unknown 1:52

What is that about?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Uh The Last Ship is really a play. Um it's really personal to Sting. You know, Sting wrote the play and wrote the music for the play. Wow. And it's really personal to Sting uh because it speaks about his childhood. Um with his with his uh his you know you know back in the days England was the place that really was making all the ships, maybe 80% of the ships in the world was done through through England. And because of the economy and technology, it that kind of dried up. And it's a story about the last ship being built. And um, you know, the the government shut down the shipyard, but you know, the workers decided that they're gonna they're gonna build this ship regardless. And they even went ahead, broke into the yard, and finished. Yeah, yeah, it's a crazy story like that. And it's also a love story there too, because uh, you know, one of the characters, um Gideon, uh, you know, he left um because his dad was a shipyard maker, also generational things, and he decided he didn't want to do that, wanted something better for himself. He went away and he had a kid and he had to come back, and you know, it's kind of like Sting in a way that Sting was from those shipyards too, but he decided to do something different for himself and becoming a rock star, you know what I mean? Uh he was a dreamer, a dream of being something bigger, you know what I mean? So I think the story is really like that, you know. And uh you know, it's just me going into my acting chops. It wasn't something I I had planned on doing, but Sting is one of those guys that always put me in uncomfortable situations, you know, and like wearing the suit we had the way before. Yeah, well, you know, the thing too is when you whenever you're you're uncomfortable, that's growth, you know. And so I welcome the challenge and uh and because he's batting for me and he's uh you really have to I really can't let him down to rise to vacation.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So so that's like uh you, him, and like uh how much of a cast.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Well it's it's I think it's like 48 people, I think that's on uh on stage. That's uh the whole production is about 280 people. It's a really it's a huge production. Oh, that's we're touring it now. I mean we did Amsterdam First, which was uh out of the UK is coming over too. Yeah, we're we'll be in at the Metropolitan Opera House on uh in June uh from the 9th to the 14th. Uh we're going to Australia from the I think uh the first of the first week of um next month is when uh four weeks in Australia for four.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

You're putting out an album.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah, we're doing album plays, like we're movies, everything, right? Yeah, we're doing it all. Gas all the way. All the way. You know what I mean? I'm allergic to boredom, man. It is what it is. You know, I don't I can't stay home and just you know plant flowers and you still gotta make time for the family. Well, you know, the the good thing is that my kids are all grown up now. So my sons they're on they're doing their own thing. My my daughters are in you know during school right now, and you know, and you know, my wife makes time for us as much as we can, but you know, you know, you know, I'm on the grind.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

So uh I've heard the name of the album is called Lottery that you're working on. And the single that you're promoting right now, well the singles I should say. Yeah, multiple singles. The first album, like I said the other day, the first time I've seen you put out so many records in what, a month and a half, maybe so.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Well, because the album is coming in in May. I think May 15th is the album. The first single we came out with was Me and Akon and Idonia. It's really an international kind of a sound because obviously Costi was the producer of that. He's really a guy that had his finger on the pulse of that international sound. And we were absolutely right, it's really streaming well overseas and doing well, you know. I mean the states too. And in the States, yeah. But but you know, globally, it's that kind of a sound that it has. Then we came with you know, uh Dexter, Barris, and myself. And I know as as you as a DJ, the minute you see a record of those three names in it, you're gonna want to play. Yeah, you want to listen and hear what it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

I ain't gonna lie, it definitely sounds like a Berris that was like 30 something years old.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Yeah, because uh a lot of kids now, the younger generation, they look at Barris Hammond, they look at this uh one drop crooner, lover's rock singer. They don't realize that Berris used to be really heavily influenced. Uh uh who he heavily influenced the dance hall. All those earlier records with him and Booju, Berris was running the dancehole one play. Some of the top dub plates that was Barris Dubplates. You know what I mean? So I think this is an opportunity to really kind of reintroduce this new generation to who really Bear is Hammond and then that recorded. And he's not, and don't put him in a box, it's this love is rock singer.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

That record definitely did it because when we first heard it, and even though we played in the club, it's like it's a whole different vibe. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? The way the the the beat drop. And then he's doing, he's singing, and then after that, Dex is singing, and then you killing with the DJ style. It's like it's like a real curing package. Yes, yeah, it's real great. So you being like what what made you come up with these ideas though? Because that's that's a lot of different artists as you've worked with.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

I understand that when we're going into music, I don't just make music just to make music. I I make music and market at the same time. I'm first of all, I'm looking at the market because I'm making it for my album, so I know what my brand is. Yes. You know what I mean? So I have to make it conducive to my what my brand is. You know what I mean? So I'm making if I'm making uh, for instance, a song with I don't know, you know, here's a record. Akon is a global uh artist. You know, we look at A Akon's numbers, to my numbers, they're almost around the same, but and it's global. You know, I think he has actually more than me, you know what I mean? And it's global. You know, he's the guy that hits in every country. He's also pretty does pretty well on rhythmic radio. Yes. You know what I mean? And then you put Idonia in it, which really kind of brings it back to the core. Idonia is that artist that everybody likes. You know what I'm saying? You don't dislike Idonia, you know what I mean? You could be Gully Gaza, but he's just right there. He's right there, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? He's just that guy you like. Yeah. So um, and and everybody knows he's he's cool, it's fashion, it's it's music, you know what I mean? You don't not like it. He's very balanced with his music, yeah. So, you know, he he was a great fitting for that. And with um, you know, Dan saw nice, it's Barris Hammond. You know, he's bringing that flavor, you know what I mean. So I'm looking at that of how Dexter is bringing something from one generation, Barry's from another generation, and there's me. Yep. You know what I mean? To come along to give something that is incredibly unique. And then with Robin Thick now, with a song like this, with uh looking lovely, you know, it's more adult, contemporary in a way. Yeah, you know what I mean, but uh it's also lovely day that's also a cross-format beat. 100%. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So if you're gonna look at where what format this record is gonna be, the minute this record becomes hot, it's on all formats. You know what I mean? It's that kind of record because it depends on how it is.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah, and it definitely, I think, I think the way it was composed together is a great mesh.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

And then the put the the the artistry of putting it together between the two artists, yeah. I think both brands work really well. Robin Thick, shaggy, you know, growing sexy type type of vibe. Yeah, it does work. And I mean, we're not trying to sound like it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

You have a good producing year putting things together, you know. Like I realized that lately with all the records you're putting together. Is that a compliment? I can't. I'm actually give me a compliment for the yeah. Pull that out. Yeah, it's my second compliment I gave you for the year. Yeah. And I don't really give you a lot. But you know, so I was like, definitely the production putting together these records, because I know you are the mastermind behind people don't know. Yeah, you know, here.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah, it's really looking at the scope of things and even the album of how we shape the album. Uh it's it's a roller coaster ride. You're looking at a genre of dance hall and reggae music, you know, uh Jamaican culture is a culture that has birthed so many different genres. You know, reggaeton comes from it, you know. I mean, hip-hop comes from it, you know, I mean, Afrobeat is heavily influenced by it. You know what I mean? So even some of the earlier days and rock, a lot of rock stars just come to Jamaica for that inspiration. Songs, look at even the police, you know, this biggest, their biggest song, Every Breath You Take, was written in Jamaica, was inspired out of it. So uh there's something magical there. So for me to put an album, I have to have the album putting you through this roller coaster ride, you know what I mean, of all of these genres. So you're gonna get your one drop reggae record, you're gonna get your dance hall feel, you're gonna get your you know, your RB hybrid, you're gonna get all of these records, you know what I mean, but they're all gonna be fly. And they're all gonna have one thing in common is that they're all gonna be fly, yeah, baby. And the one thing in common is gonna have is that shaggy sound.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

I mean, that shaggy style of music. But it needs that shaggy sound, and that's a sound that a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

But it's hybrid. It's hybrid. I've always been, I'm the king of hybrid. I started with old Carolina. I was criticized when I was doing that record of doing, you know, crossover music, whatever it is, you know, hybrid music. They know the purists hated me because they think I wasn't doing authentic reggae. You know, I'm my argument to that is I can't look at Dennis Brown and Bob Marley and these guys who are my heroes and think that I'm gonna do a record better than them. Those guys were masters of the craft. Yes. So for me, I had to make a different style of music to make my own mark. Yeah, you know what I mean? Which is ironic. Bob Marley did the same thing. He had uh session musicians, rock musician overdubbing rock sounds to get on rock radio, you know, and he was also criticized for selling out at the time. But at the end of the day, it's so ironic that Marley's music is now the blueprint of what reggae music is. Much like what I was doing is hybrid. You listen to the dance hall now, it's all hybrid. I'm just saying. It definitely has a definitely has that sound. You've got I I what was it? Y YML, what's the name of that beat? YFL. YFL, that YFL beat? Yeah. What part of that is dancehall and reggae? That's a hybrid beat.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

That's the most popular dance hall beat right now. Right now, yes, it is. Right? There's none of that that is dancehall as how we know it, 90s dance hall or it, you know what I mean? You're right. That's a new, it's a hybrid sound. So it really lends back to what we were doing back in the days.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, I never really thought about the hybrid sound like that. You're right. I think you you actually making sense today, what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah, I know I normally I know I normally don't. Yeah, you know, like maybe maybe this maybe this time, I am maybe this time I am.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah, actually, you actually know what you're talking about nowadays. Yeah, I'll try my best. So I heard you have some more features on the album.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, I got you know, Jeremiah. He's on the title track lottery. Um, I also have um Anthony Hamilton, Will I'm Good. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Um definitely you know, of course I have Ray Von. I can't leave Ray Von off. It's not a shaggy album, but I Ray Von. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ravon. Uh 450 is on one of the joints of the room. Oh, for real? Yeah. Nice. Real cool track. Uh, you did a good really good job on that. I like that kid. I, you know, I think he's representing it.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

He's got a very 360 album. Yeah. Like it has every every every five youth. It just boils down to relationships and putting people on there, you know what I mean? So, as in you now, locking in this album and knowing that this is what it is. So we are knowing that the hybrid is not to be played with. Yeah, but I think that's where we are in music, right? Nah, sometimes people kind of be feeling like the hybrid, you know, oh just it's just it's just shaggy. But yeah, but this album showed a lot of diversity, bro.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Yeah, but even when they just say it, when have they not said it's just shaggy? Like, you know, when Boombastic came out, it it's just shaggy. You know what I mean? It's always been that. I need your love, it's just shaggy. It's just shaggy. A shaggy ting got money. Yeah, yeah. Shaggy team got mine. So it it it's just nothing different. You know what I mean? It's just, you know, I I think if you want to shift culture, you gotta come up with hybrids. Or is you just doing the same thing that your peer that your heroes have done?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

And you're not gonna top them. And I think a lot of people haven't given credit for the IMC.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Well, you know, I can't take credit for IMC because, you know, I I could take credit for being the face of it and and really the driving force of getting everybody to come. But you gotta give it to Sharon and Judy. You know, Sharon, that's Sharon's baby. She came up with that idea. You know, I just agreed with her, I agreed with her on it because you know, I seen so many artists lose their intellectual properties, you know, uh just because they just didn't know. You know, I was also one of them that got caught in that trap. You know what I mean? I just didn't understand the business of music. I was just in the music business. You know what I mean? And um that is just their, you know, what annoys me. I wish I would have more inner city. I want the guys from the garrison to be there. You know what I mean? Right now, I'm seeing the Uptown kids showing up, you know. Them's the kids that, you know, they've never taken a school bus, go to school here. They got mom and papa. They've been dropped off and picked up, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the the man, them, they got both parents, you know. The youth them within uh in the garrison where I've you know grow up with auntie and granny.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah, definitely granny.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

But you see what I think, I think now me going personally for the first time and being experiencing it experience. Oh, that was your first trip. Yeah, it's my first time there.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

So I was like, I was very impressed myself because it was, you know, and I couldn't participate this much as I usually do because I was only there for two days. Yeah, because I I was in the middle of the play. You know, so that that was annoying. But yeah, Spice was there. She was she she definitely, you know what? I was happy Spice was there because I wasn't there, and she really kind of just stepped up for me as an ambassador for it. Yeah, yeah. I was really, really happy.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

That's my sister all day. She definitely supported you. Oh, yeah. She asked questions.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Well, you know what? She, if you notice when she said certain things, she turned around and said when I was buying my house cash, and she looked at me and Shaggy was talking about. Because these are everything I'm telling these are conversations I've had with her. Okay. You know, I've I've talked to her about her taxes, I talked to her about getting her getting business managers, I talked to her about um buying things on credit, I'm talking to her about the points on her cards, I'm talking to her about you know the flights, you know, setting up her her points on that. There's so many people just play planes and don't even they don't even claim their points. 100%. You know, it's I'm I'm teaching her all of that and be like how you should do it. You can see she's definitely what stage you should be in, how you should set up your company, you know what I mean? Tell her to lease cards instead of stop buying them cash, you know what I mean? So you because it's a lease and it's a write-off. You know, I've been telling her all of these things, you know what I mean. So she being on stage and doing then is coming down and starting to ask the right question because she wants to grow, she wants to learn. Yeah, you know what I mean. I've I've given her so many different ideas. So when she's there and she's looking at me, yeah, yeah, yeah. She knows why she's looking at me.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Because I've had those conversations with her. And then when her son came up, and then you was like, and then you ran up with her son, too. I was like, yo, look, that know, yeah, so good.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Because that book, everything you want to know about the music business was the first book I've read when I was doing it. And that's when I started to ask questions. And when I started to ask questions, that was the demise of my whole thing. Gotcha. Because the people who were involved with me at that point, I was in the dark. So when I read that book, I said, Well, okay, I'm now I need to ask some questions. And the minute then I started to take control is when it wasn't cool for the people who were in control at the time. You know what I'm saying? So that was the beginning of the hit. And I it was such a disruptive book that when I seen him walk up with it, I'm like, when I seen uh old boy give it to him, yeah, uh as a book. That that book, I'm like, Yeah, that book is. JR actually gave it to him as a gift. I think that's one of the best gifts. I hope he reads it. Yeah. I mean he can read online because ain't nobody reading a hardcover deal.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

But as long as he grasps what it is from the book, you know. So, okay, so we have the play. Yeah. We have the album. Any any other like musical tours or anything else coming up?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

No, I mean I start touring from June all the way down throughout Europe.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Also, also the the the play is not the tour, you're doing actually the shaggy tour.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Yeah, then I go back into my day job, you know. But there's also Amsterdam again, uh, which is another sold-out month, and then they're doing, I think, I think there's uh there should be an England announcement, and they should be it's gonna the play is gonna go into other territories. And and so they have I mean I'm welcome, they want me on all of it, you know, but I still got you know I got an album I'm promoting at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

So yeah, I got it, I got it kind of in and out on a lot of it. You gotta make sense. So just you know, talk to the rest of the team that you know you need uh one of your boombastic DJs on the open and set, you know, on uh some of these tours, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but they need good ones. You know, it's all right, you know, as one of the boombastic, you know, DJs, you know. Okay, it's all good. At least I got that job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Well, nah, you're not just getting like you guys are making this, making the channel, man. It's great things that we you you know with you and with Willie, what you have to transform um the sound of the channel. Uh, you know, guys over at Cirrus are really, really great. You've set us a you've given us uh um an identity, you know, compared to, for instance, our counterpart, which is uh the Bob Marley station. I mean, you you you come on Bombastic Radio, it's a sound. You know what I mean? It's an identity that is there. And I'm and I'm and I I don't I'm not as involved in it because really it was really created as an outlet for our culture. You know what I mean? So that other artists should showcase on it. I I rarely have much else to do with it, as you know. You know what I mean? I just call you guys and say, okay, what's up? But that's it. You know, but we definitely do our part to make sure that I spoke to Scott yesterday, the head, the head of Cirrus, and you know, and you know, he he was happy to he was happy to see me and happy to take my uh make my conversation so I know y'all doing right. When y'all ain't doing right, you know when you say hi, they just act like they don't hear you.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Nah, well, but you know, we definitely we definitely do what we gotta do for it to make sure it grows and actually become the brand that that Cyrus needs. Because there is no culture need. Yeah, and you know you're always an advocate for the culture, so that's one thing we know about you. So um anything else that you have going on that we need to know about?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Nothing at all, man. We're doing um You don't have nothing else? Tons of tons of things happening this week. We know Robin Think is here with us doing a lot of promo. Um, you know, we got the Sherry Shepherd show tomorrow. We got uh Drew Barrymore on Thursday. You know, we just uh earlier today we did uh um Mark and Kelly, you know, to the Breakfast Club the day before. You know, so there's a lot of things, you know. We got KT KTU coming up. There's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Oh, yeah, the KTU uh anniversary. Anniversary. You know, just trying to see if we could get Robin out of that.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

There's a bunch of stuff we got going on, man. So we're working, man.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

That's what it is. The working the working machine is here. Employment. But where you got regular curtain uh shower again, you said? No, I'm trying to stay in them in them five-star hotels.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

I mean, I've been doing it for 30 years. I work too hard. I deserve it. I make no apologies for flying first class and staying in five-star hotels.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Yo!

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Because if you look at it, I don't live anywhere. I live on road, you know. I mean, my you have you have you as an artist is successful. You got homes you you don't live in and cars you don't drive. You know, every car, every exotic car that I've ever sold, I've sold for under 5,000 miles. No matter how long I keep them. No matter how, yeah. Yeah, because I just I'm just not there to drive them, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so I don't buy cars anymore. I'm just like, you know. So yeah, so you're actually I I take Uber these days and and and car service. And by the way, if you take Uber and car service, it's it's deductible.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

It definitely is.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

You know, so it doesn't make sense, you know what I mean? Yo, you gotta live a certain way to say make it easy yourself. You just gotta stop buying shiny things. That's how they get you. Yeah, you know, when they make you the deal and give you shiny things. I mean, I got some shine on now, you know what I mean? Yeah, but you know, my shine is my business. You know what I mean? Because you know, you you you have a store, you got two stores, you got one store that got it's not painted up, it don't have any lights, it don't look pretty, you know what I'm saying? But it's got discounts. Same, they both got the same same goods in it, and the other one is shiny and pretty, got lights up outside, and it's more expensive though. You get no discounts in there. People are going to the shiny one. Yeah why? Because that's just how we are, you know. Right. You you buy uh any of these designer clothes, you can get the same designer clothes and no name on it, you ain't wearing it. I'm just saying it. It's it's how we're we're programmed like that. It's a measure of success. You know what I mean? So you know you gotta know how to balance it. I'm not saying you're not supposed to have nice things, you know what I mean? Uh-huh. But you can't be, you know, you can't be addicted to the retail.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And for some people, live live, live at your means at least. Don't live above it.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

You can't live above your means in anything, you know. You got more going out than coming in, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

And I know you spent a lot of money in your life.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Yeah. And sometimes it's, you know, you get caught up in the aesthetics. You know, it's like you buy the car, you, you know, and it's uh it's an old car, but it got shiny rims. Still an old car. Still.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Even though you got the shiny rims. Like an old car. I'm never gonna say what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah, so sometimes you gotta make it all about me. You know, I remember one time I go into a restaurant with me and Sting, I see everybody losing their mind, and this guy got like one little flip-flop song. Well, not flip-flop, yeah, one of the little shoes on. You know what I mean? Now, this type of professionalism that I talk about. You know what I'm saying? This type of thing. I just hope you should that you're taking notes, you showed up late. You know what I mean? Did the interview and then left his phone. I'm just I'm just, you know what I'm saying?