Shaggy Talks Hot Shot 2020 Fall Out With Producer Sting International
Reggae and dancehall icon Shaggy has been caught in the wrath of the Coronavirus pandemic. The musician is currently under lockdown in New York away from his wife, kids, dogs and home in Jamaica with no telling when he will return.
As he keeps himself busy, Mr. Boombastic sat with The Voice Online, a British Afro-Caribbean weekly newspaper to discuss the remake of his Diamond and Multi-Platinum certified Hot Shot album, ‘Hot Shot 2020’ in celebration of it’s 20th Anniversary. We reported earlier this month, that the soon to be released project will feature revamped and enhanced versions of all of Shaggy’s monster hits such as It Wasn’t Me, Angel, Boombastic and Oh Carolina among many others, plus a few other surprises.
How it all came about, Shaggy said in the April 25th interview, was when Universal Music Group approached him with the brilliant idea since the album’s 20th anniversary was coming up. Upon soliciting Sting International, one of Hot Shots’ original co-producers, they started putting things together, unfortunately the two had a falling out and Shaggy had to renegotiate the deal with Universal.
Coincidentally just a few weeks ago, the former production house made this little spat public news. On April 13th, Shaun “Sting International” Pizzonia released a statement on Instagram letting everyone who needed to know that he was by no means a part of Shaggy’s upcoming exploit.
Not only did he disclose that the launch of the Hot Shot 2020 project was against his wishes but also ‘desperate’ — “I don’t do desperate moves and I never will, especially when my legacy would be at risk of devaluation. Thank you to all of the fans of my original productions” Shaun said in the post.
Shaggy would beg to differ however, in his interview with The Voice Online, the Hot Shot musician said without sounding overly smug or desperate that the album was simply iconic and largely responsible for taking the Reggae and dancehall culture into the mainstream. He would be doing a great injustice to his fans in Jamaica and abroad had he not jumped on this opportunity.
The Hot Shots 2020 album was originally slated for release on June 10th, however due to delays caused via the COVID-19 crisis, is tentatively set for release in July.
Watch the full interview below.