Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Shaggy - Page 2

If you look at my track record, there was nothing on radio that sounded like 'Oh Carolina,' 'Mr Bombastic' when they came out.

I've been criticized for doing so - crossover music. But I never claimed to be a pure dancehall artist.

You got to understand: when you go into a record company and give them a something that doesn't sound like what's on the radio, it's hard to sell it.

I just do what sounds good to me, and people seem to like it.

When I was doing dancehalls, nobody was doing well in dancehalls. Dancehalls was not mainstream music that was blazing charts and knocking down barriers. This was an underground phenom.

My thing is to get people out of the stigma of what a reggae artist should be like.

My career has taken so many directions.

I fought for this country.

I want to build a fanbase. I want people to like my albums even more so than singles.

I prefer working with artists who are prepared to get down in the dungeons and get the job done.

I think that anybody, once we leave Jamaica, automatically, any citizen becomes an ambassador for the flag, for Jamiaca. It's a country that's so rich in culture. We even have a bobsled team, and we ain't even got snow. We do everything in extreme.

My existence wouldn't be the same if there weren't women.

I have a festival called Shaggy and Friends, which is a charity event to raise funds for a hospital.

I really didn't think I was going to make records to where I make a living out of it.

I like that raw energy that I get from an audience.

America is a symbol of freedom - it's a symbol of democracy - and if that is threatened, we have to take this platform and use it to be a voice for the voiceless.

The Police, they were the guys that were like the gateway to the mainstream. In England, there was a very strong reggae movement that was going on. Anything that was happening in reggae happened out of England. They were brilliant. They could spot a sound that was cool, the 'it' sound.

If you look at reggae and dancehall artists in general, there isn't really a big success story. A Shabba Ranks or a Yellowman might have a hit, but there's never a follow up. There's no consistency.

I like things that catch your ears.

I always had these big records with people who were relatively unknown.

The pop market is a very fickle market, and that's why for me to go into the teeny-pop, 'TRL' mode, it's not really for me.

I fought for the U.S. government. I live in New York. I pay taxes in America.

When we do reggae, it's normally a one-chord or a two-chord, or whatever it is. With Sting, there'll be chord changes, key changes.

We don't have all this gay-bashing crime. You don't see that. It's not there. That is not really happening in Jamaica. But because a few artists basically sing it and put records out and the media runs with it, then the stigma becomes big, and now we're trapped with that whole thing. It's really sad.

I like having big hooks and big records and sing-a-longs.

Gays and lesbians should have the same rights as anybody else, and when they're in Jamaica, they do have the same rights.

I'm Shaggy. I'm a business.

The mainstream is very fickle. If you're hot, they'll mess with you. If you're not, it's out of there.

If you listen to all my earlier stuff, it wasn't 'authentic reggae,' so to speak.

I've always been faced with all kinds of criticism. People were saying, 'Oh, Shaggy is pop. He can't do dancehall,' even though I came from dancehall.

There are those women who degrade the name of women, and there are men who degrade the name of women. But for the most part, we can't live without them.

I'm no stranger to making timeless music.

'Shaggy' is a brand.

I got to prove myself all the time. And that's good. It makes you stronger.

I've never been one that really won with major-name collaborators. You take, for instance, 'Angel' with Rayvon. 'It Wasn't Me' was with Rikrok. Nobody knew who those guys were.

'Fields of Gold' is my favourite record.

I just got in music because it was a hobby. I got into clubs for free, got to drink for free and left with the hottest girl from the night. I never dreamed it would be for me to go on this kind of ride at all.

You never know where your next scare is coming from. You've just gotta find the courage to face it.

Although sometimes I know it seems impossible, there ain't no need in drowning in your sorrow. If things are as bad as they can be, you can be sure there'll be a brighter tomorrow.

I'm addicted to women. Believe me, as Shaggy, after every concert, there's drawers that are dropping.

I always been a lover of music and it all started with me trying to make dubplates and I couldn't afford to hire people to do dubplates, so I started doing them myself.

I'm like a surfer right now. I'm just surfing the wave. Except that I can't swim, so I'm on the board trying to hold on tight.

Even my mom is calling me Shaggy now, which is weird, because Shaggy is more like a character that I play.