Shaggy Defends Grammys as Vital Platform for Reggae Recognition

Anybody who claims they don't care about the Grammys is lying. That's Shaggy's position, stated plainly in an interview with Observer Online, and it lands with particular weight given that Jamaica's music circles relitigate the Best Reggae Album category every single year.

"The Grammy is a huge platform and anybody weh tell yuh say dem nuh care bout Grammy, a lie dem a tell. It's great to be recognised by the highest level of your peers. It is a fantastic feeling," the Kingston-born artist said. The two-time Grammy winner isn't speaking in abstracts either. He took home the award for Boombastic in 1996, then endured what he describes as a long stretch of near-misses that nearly soured him on the whole institution.

"I got Boombastic (won) in 1996 and I had like a ton of nominations (after) till mi say, mi nuh business bout Grammy, it nuh mean nuttin," he recalled. That cynicism dissolved completely when he won again in 2019 alongside Sting. "Mek mi tell yuh suppen, when mi win it the other day (2019) with Sting, a di sweetest feeling. We want it!"

That personal arc informs his response to the annual noise surrounding the reggae category. Rather than pile onto the criticism, Shaggy redirects the conversation toward accountability and participation. "The problem is, a lot of us make noise when the outcome happens and realise that there is a process, and we don't want to get involved with the process. But then we argue about the outcome. You have to be a registered voter and you have to be a part of it, to get the result that you want as a voter. I think everybody should still strive for it."

It's a pointed call-out of a cycle that repeats with clockwork regularity in local music circles: outrage after the announcement, silence during the process. Shaggy's argument is straightforward. If the reggae community wants Grammy outcomes to reflect its values, it has to show up before the envelope is opened, not after.

The interview arrives as Shaggy promotes Lottery, his new full-length studio album due for release on May 15 through VP Records and his own Ranch Entertainment imprint. The title draws directly from the mindset that carried him from Kingston to more than 40 million albums sold worldwide. The project features collaborations with Anthony Hamilton, Jeremih, and Robin Thicke, among others, with the Robin Thicke pairing already yielding the single "Looking Lovely."

For a catalogue that has remained commercially and culturally relevant across decades, Lottery represents another calculated risk from an artist who has built a career on taking them.