Shaggy Recruits Sly & Robbie for “Out of Many, One Music”

by Kevin Johnson Friday, November 8th, 2013

Pop star Shaggy has teamed up with the legendary reggae rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare to release Out of Many One Music: Sly & Robbie Present Shaggy, the singer’s first all reggae album. Shaggy, who was born and raised in Jamaica, reached out to Sly and Robbie for their producing talent, but also to help promote the duo to younger audiences.

“They do everything down the line, they’re very famous producers, people just don’t know them a lot,” the singer told Hot 93.7. “I wanted to put them in the forefront. That’s why I put ‘Sly and Robbie present Shaggy,’ because a lot of this young generation don’t know about these guys… they need to be educated.”

The album dishes out Dancehall and Dub with guest appearances from Beres Hammond, Damian Marley, Ne-Yo, and many more. Shakespeare’s big fat bass lines tie the album together with the perfect mix of sparsity and notes. Shaggy says the group’s time in the studio was interesting, in part thanks to the bassist.

“[Sly and Robbie] came in and just lived [in the studio],” said the singer. “All they did was cook– there was fish, there’s curried goat, there’s oxtail, there’s chicken… then they bake! Every time he’d cook, he’d come up and cook, then go downstairs and play four bass lines, then he’d come back up, throw a little salt in it, taste it, then go back down and play four more bass lines. This was going on for the whole week!”

Out of Many One Music: Sly & Robbie Present Shaggy is out now on CD and digital formats (iTunes and Amazon MP3.)