[Sidebar] The Worcester Phoenix
Sept. 1 - 8, 2000

[Music Reviews]

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* Shaggy

HOTSHOT

(MCA)

The Jamaican-born and Brooklyn-bred Shaggy is one of the few reggae artists to score with mainstream American audiences in the '90s. His two hits, "Oh Carolina" and "Boombastic," were charming slices of dancehall-lite that crossbred island riddims with US pop savvy. But somewhere on the path toward Hotshot, Shaggy must have lost sight of the Jamaican coastline, since dancehall's hip-twitching rhythmic drive is almost entirely absent from the disc. Instead, it's stocked with limpid mid-tempo hip-hop and soggy R&B jams that sound at best like new-jack swing. The three contributions by R&B über-producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are catchy enough, but their success has more to do with the played-out samples they're based on -- Michael Jackson, Rose Royce, the Honeydrippers -- than with innovative studio work. Attempting to sell himself as a ghetto-fabulous mack daddy ("Leave It to Me"), a ruff 'n' tuff rudeboy ("Not Fair"), and a conscious preacher ("Hope"), Shaggy comes up with cliché'd rhymes that are more laughable than believable.

-- Michael Endelman
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