It took 23 years for Shaggy to repeat the Grammy-winning success of his 1996 album, Boombastic. The ice-cool, ragged-voiced party-starter teamed up with pop contemporary artiste Sting for 44/876, which won the best reggae album in 2019. Along the way, the turn of the millennium saw one of his biggest hits yet, the cheeky and incorrigible ‘It Wasn’t Me’. The multi-platinum selling artiste is still keeping up with the times when it comes to topping charts. He featured on Jamaican artist Conkarah’s 2019 number, ‘Banana’, which recently got a bass-heavy remix and took Shaggy into the younger generation’s top-tier acclaim, TikTok.
The #BananaDropChallenge — where the song is accompanied by a choreographed dance — is part of what ensured its virality, with over 14 million views. Australian cricketer David Warner and his family, Bayern Munich and Poland footballer Robert Lewandowski, and other celebrities have all jumped on board, and Shaggy and Conkarah are all the happier for it. The star singer’s 14-year-old daughter may have jokingly admonished him when he asked if she was going to take the challenge, but he adds, “I like watching the bloopers! Because they are so funny and unrehearsed, raw and great.”
Hybrid experiments
Shaggy is amazed by just how different music promotion has become in 2020. “[When the song initially released in September 2019] we did a couple of television shows, but it plateaued from there. Now with the success on TikTok, it has revitalised everything and brought us back into the mainstream,” he says. ‘Banana’ adapts the traditional tune ‘Day-O’ — also known as ‘The Banana Boat Song’ — a reggae classic that was popularised by Harry Belafonte in the 1950s. Shaggy has interpreted the song before as well, on Boombastic . “I was a little apprehensive about doing it again,” he says.
Introduced to Conkarah by American songwriter and producer Martin Kierszenbaum, Shaggy liked the artiste’s lyrical takes and twists. “I ended up producing the track and adding my vocal to it and really liked the final outcome. The vibe was just cool, even though we weren’t in the same room. We did link up on several occasions to do television shows and actually write another song for his album,” he says. As someone who arguably became the go-to representative for reggae-informed pop music in the early 2000s, the singer classifies ‘Banana’ as “another hybrid”. He explains, “I’ve gone through so many journeys. We’ve done hardcore dancehall, pop, reggae and a lot of it is always hybrid.”
For his next, Shaggy will revisit fan favourites from his 2000 album Hot Shot , on its 20th anniversary. The album, called Hot Shot 2020 , will release on July 10. Performing numerous times in India (as recently as 2018 for a private event), the singer hopes he can continue his “long and prosperous relationship” with the country. “I can’t wait to get back there and do this new song as well as perform all of our classic, catch a vibe, eat some curry, butter naan and enjoy the culture. It is always a great time in India,” he concludes.
‘Banana’ by Conkarah and Shaggy is currently airing on Vh1 India and is available on all audio streaming platforms.
