"I always like things that go against the grain of what’s going on," Shaggy tells GRAMMY.com.
Shaggy’s eagerness to buck musical trends, and create new ones, has yielded some of the biggest hits of his illustrious career, and the first album to take Jamaican dancehall fully into the mainstream, Boombastic.
Released on July 11, 1995 via Virgin Records, Boombastic elevated Shaggy’s career to stratospheric heights. The album's success was driven by a blockbuster double A side single, "In The Summertime" — a delightful, tropical reimagining of Mungo Jerry's 1970 hit — backed with "Boombastic" (also called "Mr Boombastic").
Like his 1993 breakthrough single "Oh Carolina," Boombastic’s title track was an eclectic gem. It sampled King Floyd’s 1971 funk stunner "Baby Let Me Kiss You" and created an irresistible sonic stew highlighted by a metal-edged clanging piano riff and discordant guitar accents. Vocally, "Boombastic" epitomizes the smirking braggadocio that has become synonymous with Shaggy’s affable "Mr. Lover, Lover" persona. "In The Summertime" and "Boombastic" both reached no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Boombastic also includes the funky hip-hop jam "Why You Treat Me So Bad" with Grand Puba and "Jenny", his wily refusal to record "Oh Carolina" knockoffs. Another album highlight is the sleek, R&B-flavored "Something Different" featuring Wayne Wonder and Ken Boothe (whose reggae classic "The Train Is Coming" is remade on the album). "The Train Is Coming (Money Train Remix)" was included on the soundtrack to the film Money Train, starring Wesley Snipes, and Woody Harrelson.
The importance of Boombastic (especially its title track) isn't lost on Shaggy. "That is the record that solidified the image of what Shaggy is. That is when the sex symbol was born, when the swag came into the game," the GRAMMY-winner reflects.
Nicknamed after the "Scooby-Doo" character, the artist born Orville Richard Burrell migrated from Kingston to New York City in his late teens. Shaggy initially made his name as a deejay (an emcee who chants or "toasts" lyrics in Jamaican patois) on the Brooklyn dancehall circuit. While stationed in North Carolina in the U.S. Marine Corps, he continued his musical pursuits, commuting to Brooklyn for recording sessions and live sound system performances. Shaggy’s career was put on hold when he was deployed to the Middle East in the early '90s during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Shaggy rose to the top of New York reggae charts with "Mampie" and "Big Up" (featuring Rayvon), and had his first major hit with "Oh Carolina", delivered in the signature growling deejay style that mimics his marine drill instructors, as he explained in a video posted on TikTok.
But Shaggy became an undisputed pop star with the release of Boombastic, which took home a golden gramophone for Best Reggae Album at the 1995 GRAMMYs.
Shaggy’s 2000 album Hot Shot has been certified 6X platinum by the RIAA (but has sold over 8.8 million copies in the US); it topped the Billboard 200, and spawned two Hot 100 No. 1 singles: "Angel" and "It Wasn’t Me" (the latter was also nominated for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals at the 2002 GRAMMYs). In January 2025, it became the highest ranked album by a Caribbean artist on the Billboard Top 200 Albums of the 21st Century, at no. 61. Yet it was Boombastic that truly altered the course of Shaggy’s career; 30 years after its release, here’s a look at five ways those momentous shifts occurred.
It Was The First Dancehall Album To Be Certified Platinum
There’ve been few RIAA platinum or more releases in the dancehall genre: Sean Paul has released two, Dutty Rock followed by The Trinity, but Shaggy’s Boombastic was the first dancehall album to reach that milestone. Boombastic also achieved platinum status in Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the U.K.; it capped the Billboard Top Reggae Albums tally and reached No. 34 on the Billboard 200.
The single "Boombastic" was also platinum certificated and was the first track by a dancehall artist to debut at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart (the title track also topped the Billboard R&B tally).
"As an artist, you’re not supposed to have favorites but "Boombastic" is my favorite, because it changed everything," Shaggy revealed. Sting International, the Brooklyn born and raised producer of several of Shaggy’s biggest hits including "Big Up" "Oh Carolina," "Boombastic" and "It Wasn’t Me") sampled Marvin Gaye’s "Let’s Get It On" into a Boombastic remix released in January 1996.
It Won Shaggy His First GRAMMY
Boombastic brought Shaggy his first nomination, and win, for Best Reggae Album at the 38th GRAMMY Awards. Following Shabba Ranks’ consecutive GRAMMY victories in 1992 and 1993, Shaggy was just the second Jamaican deejay to take home the award.
At the time, he didn’t realize the magnitude of that triumph. "I didn’t think it was anything huge when I won my first GRAMMY, because, I thought, I’m gonna win one of these every year; how wrong I was," Shaggy says with a laugh. "I took it all for granted because I was so young and so much was coming at me so fast."
An eight-time nominee and two-time winner, Shaggy's most recent award came at the 2019 GRAMMYs in the form of Best Reggae Album for 44/876, his collaboration with Sting.
It Brought Greater Recognition To New York Dancehall
Because Jamaica is dancehall reggae’s birthplace and epicenter, it’s a challenge for Jamaican reggae/dancehall artists residing overseas to crack the broader music market. However, New York City, and Brooklyn in particular, had its own scene throughout the 1990s. This thriving dancehall community was documented in the 2023 film Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall, with Shaggy as executive producer.
Shaggy’s unprecedented success with Boombastic — recorded primarily at the legendary H C &F Studios in Freeport, Long Island, founded in 1982 by the late Phillip Smart, another pivotal figure in advancing New York reggae — brought widespread recognition and greater respect to the Brooklyn dancehall community. "I was a good representative of Brooklyn dancehall at the time, but many people tried to downplay that…. Just because we didn’t have social media then, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen," Shaggy reflects.
"I wish there were more (dancehall) successes out of NY. Once our generation of artists, Redd Fox, Bajja Jedd, Screechy Dan, Rayvon, Sleepy Wonder, got signed and went on with our lives, there wasn’t really a movement after that. Many people are rewriting history, so I hope what we did as NY artists doesn’t get lost in this new narrative."
"Boombastic" Proved Dancehall Was Commercially Viable — Literally
"Boombastic" has been used in several advertisements over the years including a 2023 commercial for Airbnb, a 2016 spot for JP Morgan Chase Bank, a 2015 Filipino ad for Tide detergent, and most notably as part of a very popular 1995 Claymation campaign for Levi’s 501 Jeans.
However, Shaggy recalls, "when people first listened to it, they were like, what the hell is this?’" "Boombastic" was initially met with resistance by label reps and Shaggy’s manager Robert Livingston. Ironically, Livingston made the song’s original sample track, according to an Instagram post by producer Sting International who explained he "heard the (song’s) idea after the artist voiced. I re-recorded the lead vocal, added the signature piano, the low-end kicks, and moved a few things around." Sting International’s sonic touches provided the eccentricities that made the song the jewel it is. Yet Livingston wanted something more conventionally marketable for the album’s first single and suggested the cover of Mungo Jerry’s "In The Summertime," which was released with "Boombastic" on the flipside.
Levi’s interest in "Boombastic" prompted the song’s official release and propelled its success. "The Levi’s people synced it from the single’s B side and said 'We want "Boombastic" for our campaign,'" Shaggy revealed, adding that Virgin Record's Chairman Ken Berry suggested that "Boombastic" be released as a single after the Levi's commercial aired.
Thirty years later, Shaggy has remade the track as "Boombastic Fantastic," the centerpiece of a popular European campaign for Italian auto giant FIAT’s Grande Panda, a stylish, compact car.
"Olivier Francois, the CEO of FIAT, told me the campaign has been very well received, and I am like, wow, a record that started with a Levi’s commercial is being used in a FIAT commercial on its 30th anniversary and it’s so successful for the brand? That’s something to be commended," Shaggy enthused. "I wonder what I was drinking the day that I wrote 'Boombastic.' Whatever coffee it was, I need to drink it again."
It Secured A Place For Jamaican Deejaying In American Pop
The distinctly Jamaican art of deejaying, a defining characteristic of dancehall music, emerged from Kingston’s sound systems in the early 1950s. Initially, the deejay’s role was to introduce or hype up a record played by the selector. Over time, as the deejay’s rhymes became more intricate, they’d be regarded as artists in their own right.
In the early 1970s U Roy became the first deejay to top the Jamaican charts. Yellowman, an early 1980s sensation in Jamaica, became the first deejay signed to a U.S. major label, which helped introduce toasting to a wider audience. Shabba Ranks and Super Cat’s signings to Epic and Columbia Records, respectively, in the early '90s and their subsequent influence on the hip-hop and R&B markets, sparked a frenzy of major label deejay signings and led to farther reaching recognition for dancehall. But it was Shaggy’s triumphs with Boombastic, especially its title track, that brought deejayed vocals to TV commercials, films (Barnyard, Mr. Bean’s Holiday) and into the pop music realm.
"Both Shabba and Cat were played on urban radio, maybe rhythmic, but we were played on urban, rhythmic and pop radio. Boombastic broke down the barriers with a full dancehall feel of a record," Shaggy explains. "Although I was criticized for not making authentic dancehall music, for doing sell-out, watered-down, crossover dancehall, I consider myself in good company because the great Bob Marley’s music was also criticized for not being authentic (overdubs by non-Jamaican musicians, suggested by Chris Blackwell, were used in Marley’s music to appeal to rock audiences). In music, you have to ignore the criticisms, you just have to be a visionary and go with what you feel."