Shaggy - Hotshot

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• SHAGGY HOT SHOT

Music reviews of Hotshot

Music Review: The Less Shaggy the Better
Rating: 2 Stars

There are a few things that I like about this album. Mostly, it's got a consistent, down-tempo pop-reggae beat that flows easily from song to song. If you were at a party with a lot of people talking, it would provide a nice backbeat. Numerous tracks were recorded in Jamaica, some even at Tuff Gong Studios. And there are a few songs here that I like, like Hope, Lonely Lover, and Keep'n It Real. But after a while I noticed how strenuously crafted each one was to become a pop hit, and then I realized how superficial the entire CD is. Each of the 14 songs is perfect "radio" time - between 3:45 seconds and 4 minutes. You begin to feel like you ARE listening to the radio, and not to an album by an artist that longs to be taken seriously. Then there's the constant sampling (some would say "ripping off") of older Pop classics, like Shake Your Body To The Ground (Michael Jackson), Angel of The Morning (Merrilee Rush), or Just Don't Want To Be Lonely (The Main Ingredient). Almost half the album samples earlier hits by other artists. Two songs repeatedly sample Michael Jackson's trademark, falsetto 'Yow!' - over and over again. It made me want to take a baseball bat to my stereo. The screeching even annoyed my cat. I visualized some young kid in a recording studio, with his finger repeatedly pushing the sampling button.

When thrown into the mix are some consistently shameless, libidinous lyrics - you'll probably also decide the less Shaggy the better. What clinched it for me were the words to "Not Fair," where his girlfriend sings to him "I've been going down on you / but you're not going down on me..." Look, people do what people do, but I don't want to hear this kind of tripe in my music. Upon repeated listening, another realization is that Shaggy's voice sounds quite a bit, well, froggy - which is okay in smaller doses - like when his raspy reggae rap counter-balances another vocalist, like seasoning. But when it's all seasoning and no meat, it's too pungent to enjoy. I like the fact that there are numerous guest vocalists on this CD - eight in all, including Ricardo "RikRok" Ducent (It Wasn't Me), Mister Mydas (Hope) and Pee Wee (Dance & Shout). But I suspect what the album producers have probably found out - that the most palatable way to take Shaggy's rasp is when the song can be tempered by the melody of someone else's voice.

In truth, I probably wouldn't be as critical of his voice if I liked the lyrics better, or if each song didn't sound like another variation of the same formula. But added together it just becomes an annoying escapade into the sordid, contrived details of a self-described 'hot shot.' I'd recommend that Shaggy start over again, go back to the emotion and sentiment of 'Hope' - and heed his own words..."in this life you can lead if you only believe and in order to achieve what you need you can never give up."

Description of Hotshot

Dance & DJ CDs

• Music > Styles
• World Music
• Pop