Shaggy believes it's time to 'fess up … it was him!
     Scoring his hit "It Wasn't Me" almost by accident, the affable Jamaica-born artist and Desert Storm veteran feels it is time to move on up to the next level.
     His resume certainly seems to support that belief.
     By early March, the singer-songwriter's latest album, Hotshot, was riding atop both Billboard's mainstream and R&B/Hip-Hop charts.
     Through the '90s he has had hits with Janet Jackson ("Luv Me, Luv Me"), Maxi Priest ("That Girl") and his 1995 Grammy-winning (Best Reggae Album) crossover triumph, Boombastic.
     His "Oh Carolina" became one of the biggest hit singles in U.K. pop history in the early '90s.
     And he has contributed songs to the film soundtracks of Kevin Costner's For The Love of The Game, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Speed II and Jungle To Jungle.
     He was guest artist on %Saturday Night Live% in February. "I'm close to where I want to be right now, which I call the next level," says Shaggy, whose real name is Orville Richard Burrell. (His primary school pals dubbed him "Shaggy" after the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character because of his shaggy hair, and the nickname stuck.)
     He thinks it is time to headline arenas. "The credibility and track record is there, the style is there, the distinction of the sound is there and the label is behind me. It's all there. I think I will have a good little run right here. My thing is to pack coliseums by myself and tour."
     "It Wasn't Me" was pulled off the Internet and made the radio in Hawaii,
helping propel %Hotshot% to Platinum status. Shaggy jokes that this may be the only time in his life that he will be a Napster fan.
     The playful song has a guy caught cheating red-handed by his girlfriend and denying all allegations. It is striking a chord, says Shaggy, because everyone can relate in some way.
     "Everybody cheats at some time or another in their lives or wishes they were or knows somebody who has," he says. "I just wanted to put a funny twist in it. A lot of people saw themselves in it. Bill Clinton was a cheater in the closet who was let out of the closet," he laughs. "Jesse [Jackson] did it too."
     He does not want to be viewed as a one-dimensional artist or part of a trend. He says he has always been unique. "It's basically whatever I feel at that particular point. There is no formula. No two records are the same," he says.
     Shaggy knows that some people stereotype him as "some sort of lover" or playboy. "It's hard to get out of that lover persona, but hey, it works," he laughs.
     "Some say 'Shaggy, all he talks about is chicks.' For me it's more than that." He says that's why he wrote "Why Me Lord" and "Hope." "I know what is going on here," he assures.
     He is careful about material he includes in a song, acknowledging that you can put adult content into a record without having it be explicit.
     "That’s very important to me. I’ve got two little boys. I don’t have anybody who writes racy lyrics. There are ways to go around that. It’s not what you say, but how you say it.
     "I proved that you can get your point across. I just take a little more time and find words that work to get the point across and just walk the line. I don’t have a record that says ‘parental warning.’ I don’t want to do that. I’ve never done a record like that. I listen to racy records and like them. It’s just not my cup of tea."
     In recording the Hot Shot album, he says, he wanted to make a record that someone could listen to from start to finish. "I didn't want to have people skip over tracks," he explains. "Artists like Dido and Sade, you put their albums in and you don't want to take them off. I wanted to have different tones, more of a roller coaster ride, different genres. But you'd still want to listen to it anyway."
     Growing up amidst the musical freedom in Jamaica helped forge his interest in a variety of sounds. As he says, reggae isn’t a radio format in Jamaica.
     For the variety on %Hot Shot% he brought in a long list of co-producers, including Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Robert Livingston, Shaun "Sting" Pizzonia, Dave Kelly, Tony Kelly and Gordon Duke. Recording was done at his New York studios--he moved to Brooklyn at 18--and in Jamaica.
     He wrote or co-wrote everything. "I'm a very clever songwriter," he says. "I write great hooks. I don't know how I come up with them. They just come. Ears are the best gift, I say. When I hear someone's song, I can say, 'This is gonna make it' or 'That's not gonna make it.'"
     Shaggy believes that comes from his experience as a DJ. "I have a sense of music that works. And I think I have a voice that is very distinctive in its style."
     That still does not seem to have prevented a problem in the past of where he was filed in record stores. "They tend to put me in the ‘reggae’ section in the back, which is not a great section to be in. It’s good because of the music, but not as far as consumers buying records. It’s in the back. When you walk in the store and you see the record up front there, Shaggy up front, you may not have gone there to buy it, but then you see it and you may get it. In reggae, unless you go there to buy it, you’re not even going to see it. I’ve worked hard at getting good placement [of the record]. The record has proved itself."
     He says he hates the way people and radio stations categorize music. "It’s music," he says.
     Still, does Shaggy think there will ever be a day when there are no categories, just music? Is that realistic, even viable, for the music industry?
     "I used to say ‘no.’ But I think it’s happening. You listen to Top 40 radio now and it’s sounding more rhythmic than anything else. Top 40 is playing Jay-Z now," he replies. "It’s getting that way, where a rhythmic station is getting a lot more ratings and Top 40 is kind of changing to that rhythmic format."
     But don’t we need a method by which to locate music?
     "I don’t mind you categorizing it. I just hate you formatting it. ‘This song don’t fit with this format.’ Who the hell are you to say that? Take my music, all the formats they have--I don’t fit any of that. My job has been hard since day one. Everything I do, I have to do twice as hard as any other genre because my music don’t fit any format."
     He’d have a serious problem if he didn’t write great songs, he says. "I was never an image-type person, not a person to have a million dollar promotion campaign. I started at the bottom of the charts and worked my way up. I didn’t have the big machinery behind it, not like Jennifer Lopez. But it’s happening because of the fact my record proved itself, and my people work very hard to get me promotion."
     Shaggy says his association with film soundtracks has been a great promotional tool, especially for an artist like him. "I enjoy that relationship and I’m planning to get into film. I’m not sure if I want to get in front of the camera. Maybe it will be production."
     He began pursuing music after moving to Brooklyn. His "Mampie" and "Big Up" became No. 1 dance hits on the New York reggae charts. He came into the international limelight in 1993 with his debut album, Pure Pleasure. "Oh Carolina" topped the charts in 10 countries. The title track of his 1995 Boombastic album topped Billboard’s reggae, R&B and rap charts. It also became the number one-selling single.
     Shaggy does not think his time with the U.S. Marines in the Desert Storm conflict had any impact on his artistry, but he says it had a lot to do with shaping his character.
     "It influenced me as far as the person I am today," he says. "It certainly did a lot for some of my discipline and shaping my character as a person, but not musically. I don’t take a lot of things for granted anymore."
     Shaggy fans can pretty much take it for granted, though, that his music will always be intriguing.