Shaggy gives his views on dancehall - Part 2

After discussing clashing and his idol Yellow Man in the last instalment, Shaggy talks to reporter Krista Henry in the third instalment of the four part interview about things close to his heart - his family.


KH: Your song It Wasn't Me was a huge hit. Does that song speak to what you're really like as a guy?


Shaggy: "No sah mi too good mi can't get caught, dat song came up afta me watching an Eddie Murphy stand up show 'Raw'. Him seh even when a woman catch a man live in the act yuh haffi seh it wasn't me and maybe she'll think it wasn't. Even if you're on camera it wasn't me, I thought about it and was like for real yuh know. Is one of dem songs di minute yuh finish writing it yuh know it just wicked."


KH: Do you have a girlfriend?


Shaggy: "I have somebody I've been seeing for the last nine years, yes."


KH: Any plans to marry?


Shaggy: "We talk, bout it but I don't think is any immediate plan; I'm not against the union of marriage at all, even though I think too much emphasis really put on it."


KH: You think if you got married, you'd lose a lot of your female fan base?


Shaggy: "I probably would, but is not something I'm not worried about. I've certainly seen it happen to somebody like an Usher. That affected him heavy."


KH: You have any kids?


Shaggy: "I have three kids, two boys and one girl."


KH: How old are they?


Shaggy: "One is fourteen, eleven and three."


KH: Any of them interested in music?


Shaggy: "My fourteen year old is a hundred per cent in music, there's nothing I could do to steer him away from that. He makes beats, he writes rhymes; he's also a collector of music and he researches like the older stuff, classics. He loves dancehall and hip hop, classic reggae."


KH: Are you happy he's interested in music?


Shaggy: "Whatever makes him happy 'cause my mother used to tell me, 'what you doing wid this music, it stupid, dancehall sumting and ray ray,' - she used to cuss me. But I was just drawn to it and I'm glad I choose it, not because I was successful but it's the one thing I can say whenever anything go bad it's the one ting that made me happy."


KH: So what is Shaggy, the father like?


Shaggy: "I'm very candid wid my kids, somewhat like I deal wid dem like me and dem a friend. But at the same time when I get serious dem just know. My daughter has me a little bit more weaker than the rest of dem cause she get weh wid more tings. I'm very hands on... I'm there whenever I can."


KH: Are they living in Jamaica?


Shaggy: "My daughter is here full time but obviously she comes to Miami too. My other two (children) in Miami, they come down here some weekends. Every now and then we go to New York, my studio is there and I have another home there."


KH: How much longer do you see yourself in music?


Shaggy: I never thought I'd see myself here dis long. If someone had said to me you're gonna be forty and doing dancehall and still be a force to be reckoned with, I would have never thought that. I think I'll know when to bow out gracefully."


KH: Any time soon?


Shaggy: "Put it this way, any time my belly a get big and mi start get haggard. You will not see a big belly haggard man pon stage talking bout Mr Lover Lover."


KH: So you think when sex appeal dies, that will be it?


Shaggy: "That will be it. I think it will get to a point where I pack it in unless mi start do some world music and change my whole style which could be, cause I'm always changing anyway."


KH: If you were to stop deejaying would you go more into the production side of things?


Shaggy: "I am in the production side of things but I don't know what will interest me. I'm starting to get a really good interest in movies, not to be acting in movies but the production of movies, the story telling, coming up wid great scripts- I'm leaning there. Even in doing Badman Nuh Cry something like that was very hands on, watching the whole thing come to life."


KH: Jamaican movies?


Shaggy: "Absolutely, I think there are so many stories to be told and good ones too. Jamaicans are such characters when yuh think of all these artistes and the culture of dancehall and it's untapped, if you ask me how can a likkle music and culture like this stand out when it hasn't even been tapped into. There's so much to be done."


In the final instalment tomorrow, Shaggy discusses his future and his work at the Bustamante Children's Hospital.