Jahshii Hails Shabba Ranks, But Says He’s Not A Fan

Cream of the Crop artist Jahshii has confessed that he’s not a fan of Shabba Ranks, who was the first-ever Dancehall artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

“Personally, I am not a fan of Shabba, mi nuh know nuh Shabba song,” the Grants Pen native, 21, asserted while speaking with Winford Williams on the Onstage program over the weekend.  “Ask mi fi sing a Shabba now just off mi brain top, mi only can tell you ‘big dutty stinkin Shabba’, mi nuh know nuh Shabba song.”

Jahshii told Williams that he regarded Mavado, alongside others of that time, as those who had laid a foundation for him.

“Mi will guh meds some Sizzla an dem ting deh, memba seh mi young to suh mi fawud and come hear Jah Cure so a really dem man deh ting mi meds an seh mi would a wah be like dem man deh,” he added.

Jahshii’s comments follow his Entertainment Report interview in December 2021, where he, lauded Bounty Killer for being a pillar of support for up and coming acts but lashed out against superstars, like Shabba, for not, according to him, extending the same grace.

During the interview on Saturday, Williams challenged Jahshii to do some “homework” on the genre that has turned him into a “superstar,” a label that Jahshii counteracted by saying, “the star nuh super yet.”

In an unexpected twist, further into the conversation, Jahshii went on to hail the Ting A Ling deejay.

“Just like dem man deh me go studio and do music for the love of it. Mi do it and nuh get nothing out of it just for the love of it, suh big up Shabba Ranks dem same way, yuh affi big up Shabba dem,” he said.

Jahshii closed the show with a live performance backed by Tower Band and compared it to that of Shabba Ranks in his prime.

Shabba Ranks, 56, emerged in the 1980s and would go on to garner global success as a household name. His biggest hit single outside of Jamaica was the reggae fusion smash Mr. Loverman and Slow and Sexy with Johnny Gill, which is certified Gold in the United States for sales of over 500,000 units. Other big tracks include Housecall with Maxi Priest, Respect, Pirates Anthem, Trailer Load A Girls, Wicked Inna Bed, Caan Dun, and Ting A Ling.

Ranks won the Grammy award for Best Reggae Album in 1992 for As Raw as Ever and repeated the feat the following year with X-tra Naked.  Both albums are certified Gold in the US.