Shaggy Praises Sean Paul For Tolerance In Dealing With “Disrespect” From Int’l Singers

Dancehall megastar Shaggy has tipped his hat to his compatriot Sean Paul whom he says is way more patient and tolerant in dealing with “music business disrespect” meted out by international singers, who feature in collabs, than he is.

The Oh Carolina deejay told Television Jamaica’s Anthony Miller, in a recent interview on The Entertainment Report, that he has been disappointed on several occasions by “big” artists who are purely disrespectful of others, but unlike the easy-going Sean, he readily expressed displeasure and rebuked the offenders for their acts of disrespect.

“Sean has done a lot of major collaborations with a lot of major stars.  But Sean will tell you himself, even getting those collaborations, were hoops.  Sean is one of the most unique human beings because him have way more (tolerance).  Mi wi look pan yuh and cuss yuh off inna two minutes if you disrespect mi,” Shaggy, a former US Marine said.

“Him wi work through it, and some a these guys who are collaborating, major artists, are straight up 100 percent just disrespectful and I am not gonna take it.  But Sean is a yute weh can manoeuvre through it.  He is such a easy people person and him know how fi do all a dat,” he added.

Asked for an example of disrespect, the Gulf War veteran pointed out that among other things, he had been approached by international artists in the past who, after asking him to submit a verse and having received his input “go ghost.” 

He also spoke at length about others who make excessive monetary demands.

“I have had artiste weh do di song, and him just don’t show up to the video.  I have had artiste weh do di song and a decide seh ‘mi want $30,000 fi show up fi di video’, and by di way, mi want four first class seat and mi want two a dem fi mi dog’.  I’ve had artiste seh: ‘hey I need wardrobe budget’ and I pay the wardrobe budget of $25,000 and di man come wear a t-shirt,” the former US Marine said.

“Yeh, these things happen,” he added, after Miller expressed astonishment.  

“Right, just to get that person on your song, and then when dem deh pon di song, dem not even put on a tweet. OK di song release today enuh, dem don’t even give yuh a tweet. Dem don’t do nothing social.  Is not like Sting an me weh a di two a we togedda, wi work di chune dem togedda.   Which is why I use new artiste.” 

In continuing his admiration of Sean Paul’s tolerance and penchant for hard work, Shaggy pointed to Australian singer Sia, whom he said, was among the transgressors as she did not give Sean Paul the requisite support after the release of their Dynamite collab, from his Scorcha album.

“He supports dem when he does music with dem.  They don’t support him as much.  How much tweet did Sia tweet pon Sean?  Shi do one.   Show mi anadda one…,” he said of the Australian, whom Sean Paul said he has never met in person.

“And I give this to Sean 110 percent.  When we were doing Go Down Deh, if mi miss one interview, an me an Spice do it, Sean call mi an cuss: ‘how oonu lef mi outa dis; a wha kina eediat ting dis?’  No, seriously.  That is how much this guy wants to work, suh mi gi him dat 110 percent,” the Boombastic artist stated.

Sean Paul has featured on some of the biggest international hits over the years, among them the controversial Baby Boy with Beyoncé in 2003, which became her longest-running number-one song on the US Billboard chart, spending nine weeks in that position. 

In May this year, Sean Paul revealed how humiliated he felt when he was unceremoniously axed from the performance of Baby Boy at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.

The Temperature deejay had said that prior to that at the time of the music video shoot for Baby Boy, he had thought the scenes would involve both of them dancing together, but was called into a meeting with the director who told him that he was “not going to be in any scene with Beyonce.”

Sean has collaborated on numerous international hits over the years, among them Kelly Rowland with How Deep Is Your Love, the Billboard chart-topping duet which was also the fifth single from his studio album Tomahawk Technique; Eve’s Give It To You, Estelle’s Come Over and Got To Love You featuring Alexis Jordan.

The 2016 single Rockabye with Clean Bandit and Anne-Marie was the UK’s Christmas number one despite being released three months prior to the Yuletide season.   

Among his other most notable collaborations with foreign artists are the Breathe remix with American singer Blu Cantrell and Cheap Thrills with Sia.

Although not his biggest-selling collab, Sean Paul has long declared that his all-time favorite collaboration was the 2006 hit single Break It Off with Rihanna, because, unlike his other collaborators, she flew into Jamaica to record the song and immerse herself in Jamaican culture. 

In 2020, however, Shaggy reportedly turned down the opportunity to work on Rihanna’s forthcoming album, hinting to the DailyStar that he ultimately decided against it because he was unwilling to “audition” for a spot. 

The It Wasn’t Me singer later clarified that there were scheduling issues at play.