Shag Hairstyles Biography
Reggae/hip-hop/pop vocalist. Recorded singles that gained exposure in New York reggae dance clubs, late 1980s and early 1990s; "Oh Carolina" topped reggae dance charts; signed to Virgin International label and released debut album, Pure Pleasure, 1993; released second album, Boombastic, 1995; released third album, Midnite Lover, 1997; appeared on soundtrack of film How Stella Got Her Groove Back in duet with Janet Jackson, 1998; signed to MCA label; released Hot Shot, 2000; became first reggae artist since 1991 to top U.S. pop charts with single "It Wasn't Me," 2001.
Life's Work
Characterized historically by political and spiritual lyrics and a serious attitude, the Jamaican musical tradition of reggae has been difficult to bring to widespread popularity with fun-loving American audiences. Yet Shaggy, with two huge hits and several successful album releases in the 1990s and early 2000s, accomplished just that. A quick and talented writer, he created a style that was rooted in Jamaican dance traditions but displayed a pop sensibility and a sense of humor that endeared him to ordinary music fans in the United States and beyond.
Shaggy was born Orville Richard Burrell in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22, 1968. His nickname referred to his long hair and came from the hippie-like character by that name on the children's cartoon Scooby Doo. After growing up in Jamaica's violent central city, Shaggy left at age 18 for the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where his mother was already living and working as a medical secretary. Attending high school just as rap music was exploding in popularity, he found that his skills at Jamaican-style "toasting," a style that in fact was one of rap's forerunners, put him in high demand.
After graduating from high school Shaggy grew discouraged with his prospects in Brooklyn and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1988. Trying to keep a hand in the reggae recording scene, he drove long hours into the night between New York and his Marine base in North Carolina. With the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991 he was sent to Iraq. The experience sharpened his ambitions, and he made profitable use of the long waiting periods required of the U.S. forces by writing a stock of new songs. But he was also a keen observer of the war's slightly surreal aspect. "It was wild," he told Time. "The atmosphere was kind of like Three Kings," a 1999 film that starred actor George Clooney.
Back in New York at the war's end, Shaggy released several singles on small independent labels that did well in New York's numerous reggae clubs. The most successful of them, "Oh Carolina," was a remake of a pre-reggae classic of Jamaican pop, by a group called the Folkes Brothers, which in turn drew on U.S. soul music sources. Shaggy's version inventively incorporated samples of the original song. "Oh Carolina," recorded while Shaggy was still in the Marines, was released in Great Britain by the larger Greensleeves label, topped pop charts there and in several other countries, and was in turn picked up by the major Virgin International label. That led to the release of Shaggy's debut album, Pure Pleasure, in 1993. Shaggy kept his momentum with his sophomore release. Boombastic, released in 1995, reunited him with the New York reggae DJ Shaun "Sting" Pizzonia, who had produced his earliest dancehall efforts. The title track of Boombastic became another international hit and also cracked open the doors of the U.S. market for the artist; the album received a gold record for sales of 500,000 copies, appeared on pop, rap, and R&B charts in the United States, and remained atop Billboard magazine's U.S. sales chart for a record 30 weeks. Boombastic earned Shaggy a 1996 Grammy award for Best Reggae Album.
Shaggy's third album, Midnite Lover, was released in 1997. An ambitious outing, it attempted to cover perhaps too many bases. The album contained various single-ready tracks tailored for U.S. urban radio play, but the artist also felt the need to reestablish his credibility with the dancehall reggae hard core. "We showed on this album that I can do whatever Beenie Man or Buju Banton are doing," Shaggy told Billboard. Despite strong initial support from the Virgin label the album went nowhere, and Shaggy was dropped from Virgin's roster. "They saw me as a guy bringing them a couple of hits, not somebody building a career," Shaggy lamented in conversation with Time.
Without a record label and losing the spotlight to younger artists, Shaggy seemed to be on a downward slide. However, as he told Ebony, "the lesson that I have learned from my mother that has stayed with me through today is perseverance. Absolutely. That has played into my music, my career--not giving up." Shaggy kept on composing new material and making new contacts, and before long he landed a spot on the soundtrack of the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back, with a soundtrack helmed by the durably successful urban pop producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Quickly writing a song ("Luv Me Luv Me") to their specifications, Shaggy ended up recording the tune with megastar Janet Jackson on chorus vocals.
That song reached upper chart levels, and as a result the MCA label, which had released the soundtrack, signed Shaggy to a new contract and released his album Hot Shot in 2000. On that album Shaggy discarded all pretensions to reggae authenticity. "My album might be disputed by purists as not reggae enough, but I want it to be eclectic and crossover," he told Time. "To hell with categories." Cowriting all but one of the tracks on the CD, Shaggy succeeded brilliantly in his aims, crafting a radio-friendly urban-American sound with a perfect hint of Jamaican inflection that set it apart from a crowd of hip-hop-oriented competitors. Hot Shot contained a new version of "Luv Me Luv Me" and an energetic club number, "Dance and Shout," that sampled Michael Jackson's music.
But the album's most successful composition was "It Wasn't Me," which dominated the listening selections of Americans (and others) of all backgrounds through much of late 2000 and early 2001. In the song, Shaggy gives advice to a friend who has been caught by his girlfriend "red handed creeping with the girl next door." Though the friend has been seen in a variety of compromising positions throughout his living space (including the bathroom floor), Shaggy tells him to maintain steadfastly that "it wasn't me." Naughty but not mean-spirited, the song fit perfectly with Shaggy's genial sense of humor. With "It Wasn't Me," Shaggy became the first reggae artist to top the U.S. pop singles charts since Shabba Ranks in 1991.
Time speculated that the song's success might even be enough to kick off a new U.S. reggae craze: "So when you hear Madonna and Britney Spears singing to a reggae beat a year from now, remember, it all started with Shaggy," instructed writer David E. Thigpen. As for Shaggy himself, he began to reap rewards from his long years of creative persistence. Spending much of his free time with his two young sons, he maintained a home in Kingston, Jamaica, as well as one in New York. "There's nothing more I want to accomplish," he told Ebony. "I just want to create and make great music."
Born Orville Burrell in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22, 1968, Shaggy earned his nickname from the animated Saturday morning show, Scooby Doo. Scooby’s sidekick, "Shaggy," was the ever-hungry hippie on the show, and his friends thought it fitting for Burrell because of his unruly shock of hair. A cover of the reggae tune "Oh Carolina" in 1993 catapulted Shaggy to international fame, but subsequent success with the Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic in 1995 and multiplatinum Hot Shot in 2000—on which the hit single "It Wasn’t Me" appears—established him as one of reggae’s most popular artists.
Shaggy left his native Jamaica at age 18 to join his mother in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, where he soon found himself a place in the local New York reggae scene. While in high school, Shaggy would use his lunch break to recite lyrics and perform on the benches outside. Shaggy’s recording career started at the age of 20, debuting with "Man A Mi Yard" and "Bullet Proof Buddy," followed by "Big Hood" and "Duppy Or Uglyman" for producer Lloyd "Spiderman" Campbell. But his musical career took a higher leap after he hooked up with New York’s premier reggae radio DJ and producer, Sting (not to be confused with pop rock recording artist and former Police member). Shaggy cut "Mampie" with Sting, and the song rose to number one in the New York reggae charts along with his next single, "Big Up."
Shaggy’s musical career was temporarily halted in 1988. After a difficult year trying to find work with a steady paycheck and wanting to escape the gun-to-your-head mentality of the streets of Brooklyn where the only work that could be found was illegal, Shaggy joined the United States Marines. He thought it was a way out of poverty and a vacation from the harsh streets of Brooklyn, but was misled and found himself in the middle of the Gulf War. He also found himself driving an armored HumVee tank through an Iraqi minefield.
When Shaggy returned from the Gulf War, he was stationed in Camp LeJeune, in North Carolina. While he had been in the Gulf, the New York street tunes he had first recorded made him a local star. Every weekend while he was on active duty, Shaggy made a pilgrimage, driving 18 hours to New York City to record his music. There, he would live the life of a star, but during the week, he was back on base with a mop and bucket, having misbehaved his way into various duties.
Success was right around the corner for Shaggy when in 1993 he released "Oh Carolina," a remake of an old Prince Buster classic. "Oh Carolina" became a surprise smash hit topping charts around the world. He became a world traveler and performed in a number of countries. He was also the first dancehall artist to perform in South Africa following the abolishment of apartheid. His 1993 debut album, Pure Pleasure, established Shaggy as one the most exciting new voices in the reggae
movement. With the release of Boombastic in 1995, Shaggy’s audience expanded across all formats.
The Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic derived its name from a Jamaican word meaning anything sensational. Since its release in July of 1995, it shattered barriers worldwide, taking reggae music to new heights on pop, rap, and R&B charts throughout the world and reaching platinum record sales in the United States. Boombastic took the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album and dominated the top spot on Billboard’s Reggae Album Chart, where it held the numberone slot for 30 consecutive weeks, making Boombastic the longest numberone reign in the chart’s history. The title track of the album went platinum and emerged as one of 1995’s biggest hits.
Shag Hairstyles Hairstyles 2014 for Men For Long Hair For Short Hair For Prom For Gilrs for Medium Hair For Women For Men tumblr
Characterized historically by political and spiritual lyrics and a serious attitude, the Jamaican musical tradition of reggae has been difficult to bring to widespread popularity with fun-loving American audiences. Yet Shaggy, with two huge hits and several successful album releases in the 1990s and early 2000s, accomplished just that. A quick and talented writer, he created a style that was rooted in Jamaican dance traditions but displayed a pop sensibility and a sense of humor that endeared him to ordinary music fans in the United States and beyond.
Shaggy was born Orville Richard Burrell in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22, 1968. His nickname referred to his long hair and came from the hippie-like character by that name on the children's cartoon Scooby Doo. After growing up in Jamaica's violent central city, Shaggy left at age 18 for the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where his mother was already living and working as a medical secretary. Attending high school just as rap music was exploding in popularity, he found that his skills at Jamaican-style "toasting," a style that in fact was one of rap's forerunners, put him in high demand.
After graduating from high school Shaggy grew discouraged with his prospects in Brooklyn and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1988. Trying to keep a hand in the reggae recording scene, he drove long hours into the night between New York and his Marine base in North Carolina. With the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991 he was sent to Iraq. The experience sharpened his ambitions, and he made profitable use of the long waiting periods required of the U.S. forces by writing a stock of new songs. But he was also a keen observer of the war's slightly surreal aspect. "It was wild," he told Time. "The atmosphere was kind of like Three Kings," a 1999 film that starred actor George Clooney.
Back in New York at the war's end, Shaggy released several singles on small independent labels that did well in New York's numerous reggae clubs. The most successful of them, "Oh Carolina," was a remake of a pre-reggae classic of Jamaican pop, by a group called the Folkes Brothers, which in turn drew on U.S. soul music sources. Shaggy's version inventively incorporated samples of the original song. "Oh Carolina," recorded while Shaggy was still in the Marines, was released in Great Britain by the larger Greensleeves label, topped pop charts there and in several other countries, and was in turn picked up by the major Virgin International label. That led to the release of Shaggy's debut album, Pure Pleasure, in 1993. Shaggy kept his momentum with his sophomore release. Boombastic, released in 1995, reunited him with the New York reggae DJ Shaun "Sting" Pizzonia, who had produced his earliest dancehall efforts. The title track of Boombastic became another international hit and also cracked open the doors of the U.S. market for the artist; the album received a gold record for sales of 500,000 copies, appeared on pop, rap, and R&B charts in the United States, and remained atop Billboard magazine's U.S. sales chart for a record 30 weeks. Boombastic earned Shaggy a 1996 Grammy award for Best Reggae Album.
Shaggy's third album, Midnite Lover, was released in 1997. An ambitious outing, it attempted to cover perhaps too many bases. The album contained various single-ready tracks tailored for U.S. urban radio play, but the artist also felt the need to reestablish his credibility with the dancehall reggae hard core. "We showed on this album that I can do whatever Beenie Man or Buju Banton are doing," Shaggy told Billboard. Despite strong initial support from the Virgin label the album went nowhere, and Shaggy was dropped from Virgin's roster. "They saw me as a guy bringing them a couple of hits, not somebody building a career," Shaggy lamented in conversation with Time.
Without a record label and losing the spotlight to younger artists, Shaggy seemed to be on a downward slide. However, as he told Ebony, "the lesson that I have learned from my mother that has stayed with me through today is perseverance. Absolutely. That has played into my music, my career--not giving up." Shaggy kept on composing new material and making new contacts, and before long he landed a spot on the soundtrack of the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back, with a soundtrack helmed by the durably successful urban pop producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Quickly writing a song ("Luv Me Luv Me") to their specifications, Shaggy ended up recording the tune with megastar Janet Jackson on chorus vocals.
That song reached upper chart levels, and as a result the MCA label, which had released the soundtrack, signed Shaggy to a new contract and released his album Hot Shot in 2000. On that album Shaggy discarded all pretensions to reggae authenticity. "My album might be disputed by purists as not reggae enough, but I want it to be eclectic and crossover," he told Time. "To hell with categories." Cowriting all but one of the tracks on the CD, Shaggy succeeded brilliantly in his aims, crafting a radio-friendly urban-American sound with a perfect hint of Jamaican inflection that set it apart from a crowd of hip-hop-oriented competitors. Hot Shot contained a new version of "Luv Me Luv Me" and an energetic club number, "Dance and Shout," that sampled Michael Jackson's music.
But the album's most successful composition was "It Wasn't Me," which dominated the listening selections of Americans (and others) of all backgrounds through much of late 2000 and early 2001. In the song, Shaggy gives advice to a friend who has been caught by his girlfriend "red handed creeping with the girl next door." Though the friend has been seen in a variety of compromising positions throughout his living space (including the bathroom floor), Shaggy tells him to maintain steadfastly that "it wasn't me." Naughty but not mean-spirited, the song fit perfectly with Shaggy's genial sense of humor. With "It Wasn't Me," Shaggy became the first reggae artist to top the U.S. pop singles charts since Shabba Ranks in 1991.
Time speculated that the song's success might even be enough to kick off a new U.S. reggae craze: "So when you hear Madonna and Britney Spears singing to a reggae beat a year from now, remember, it all started with Shaggy," instructed writer David E. Thigpen. As for Shaggy himself, he began to reap rewards from his long years of creative persistence. Spending much of his free time with his two young sons, he maintained a home in Kingston, Jamaica, as well as one in New York. "There's nothing more I want to accomplish," he told Ebony. "I just want to create and make great music."
Born Orville Burrell in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22, 1968, Shaggy earned his nickname from the animated Saturday morning show, Scooby Doo. Scooby’s sidekick, "Shaggy," was the ever-hungry hippie on the show, and his friends thought it fitting for Burrell because of his unruly shock of hair. A cover of the reggae tune "Oh Carolina" in 1993 catapulted Shaggy to international fame, but subsequent success with the Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic in 1995 and multiplatinum Hot Shot in 2000—on which the hit single "It Wasn’t Me" appears—established him as one of reggae’s most popular artists.
Shaggy left his native Jamaica at age 18 to join his mother in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, where he soon found himself a place in the local New York reggae scene. While in high school, Shaggy would use his lunch break to recite lyrics and perform on the benches outside. Shaggy’s recording career started at the age of 20, debuting with "Man A Mi Yard" and "Bullet Proof Buddy," followed by "Big Hood" and "Duppy Or Uglyman" for producer Lloyd "Spiderman" Campbell. But his musical career took a higher leap after he hooked up with New York’s premier reggae radio DJ and producer, Sting (not to be confused with pop rock recording artist and former Police member). Shaggy cut "Mampie" with Sting, and the song rose to number one in the New York reggae charts along with his next single, "Big Up."
Shaggy’s musical career was temporarily halted in 1988. After a difficult year trying to find work with a steady paycheck and wanting to escape the gun-to-your-head mentality of the streets of Brooklyn where the only work that could be found was illegal, Shaggy joined the United States Marines. He thought it was a way out of poverty and a vacation from the harsh streets of Brooklyn, but was misled and found himself in the middle of the Gulf War. He also found himself driving an armored HumVee tank through an Iraqi minefield.
When Shaggy returned from the Gulf War, he was stationed in Camp LeJeune, in North Carolina. While he had been in the Gulf, the New York street tunes he had first recorded made him a local star. Every weekend while he was on active duty, Shaggy made a pilgrimage, driving 18 hours to New York City to record his music. There, he would live the life of a star, but during the week, he was back on base with a mop and bucket, having misbehaved his way into various duties.
Success was right around the corner for Shaggy when in 1993 he released "Oh Carolina," a remake of an old Prince Buster classic. "Oh Carolina" became a surprise smash hit topping charts around the world. He became a world traveler and performed in a number of countries. He was also the first dancehall artist to perform in South Africa following the abolishment of apartheid. His 1993 debut album, Pure Pleasure, established Shaggy as one the most exciting new voices in the reggae
movement. With the release of Boombastic in 1995, Shaggy’s audience expanded across all formats.
The Grammy Award-winning album Boombastic derived its name from a Jamaican word meaning anything sensational. Since its release in July of 1995, it shattered barriers worldwide, taking reggae music to new heights on pop, rap, and R&B charts throughout the world and reaching platinum record sales in the United States. Boombastic took the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album and dominated the top spot on Billboard’s Reggae Album Chart, where it held the numberone slot for 30 consecutive weeks, making Boombastic the longest numberone reign in the chart’s history. The title track of the album went platinum and emerged as one of 1995’s biggest hits.
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