I read an interview with shaggy recently – he seems like a nice guy – apparently Mr Lova-Lova is just a persona he gets bored of, and he thinks that it has been detrimental to his regga-rap rep, if you’ll forgive the alliteration. Doesn’t stop him making a nineteen-track album of said ragge-rap, for which he only seems to contribute generic singing-type noises, with only 2 discernable words; “mr” and “Lova”, does it?. Hhmmmmmmm.
Opning with ridiculously childish calypso rhythms and instantly catchy title track “Clothesdrop”, the album is stamped with the catchy summer-sunshine beats, and easy flowing rhymes that has made his own. It’s a pity its winter – the radio would have been a moreinteresting place his summer if only a few of these tracks were playlisted anywhere. I truly mean that too – I saw the great man live once, and though I possess neither the requisite saggy-ass or innate sense of rhythm, I found myself grinding along to his back catalogue, and all pretentiousness aside, tracks like Oh Carolina and Mr Boombastic stand out as genre-defining classics in what has grown into and increasingly diverse genre.
For those who are really interested in the rap side of things, has set aside a few of the nineteen songs to actual rapping, as opposed to his usual loitering around in the background of reggae-pop songs, occasionally firing Jamiacana from the depths of his throat. Maybe it’s an attempt to show he is actually serious about what he can do. To be fair, he does it well too, but its maybe a bit late – the point of is to make everyone dance and smile, not furrow their brows and nod in appreciation of the words-per-second tally. Either way, there is easily enough in the way of “Ooogh. SHAGGI!” exclamations and lightweight reggae rhymes to keep the hits coming. He’s 6 albums into a surprisingly long and successful career, and on this form, he dolesnt need to stop yet.
All hail the master. “SHAGGI”!
Rating: 4/5
Release Date: 19th September 2005
Words By: John Culkin
