Mr. Boombastic Makes a Comeback

On Saturday of Spring Party Week-end, in the early afternoon, the Blue Diamond Society hosted a concert by Shaggy. The singer is perhaps best known for his 2000 album, Hot Shot, which featured some of his biggest hits, “It Wasn’t Me,” “Angel” and “Luv Me, Luv Me,” though he is also noted for his 1995 hit, “Boombastic.” His style is in-articulate and slurred, even for reggae, but his music shines in its energy.

The performer, who spent his child-hood in Kingston, Jamaica before moving to Brooklyn, performed in Sanford Field House to a typically rowdy SPW crowd, feeding off their energy and bouncing it back at them. For a genre typically associated with warm Caribbean breezes and pot, the music was fre-netic and heavier than ex-pected, coming off more as a rock-and-roll show. He and his sizable band made their way through all the hits, as well as detouring to some enjoyable deeper cuts.

His direct, non-musical interactions with the crowd made the concert all the more amus-ing and interesting. After asking the crowd, “Who’s the biggest player in the game?” and getting varied responses, he finally answers in his thick patois, “Bill Clinton!” I’m not sure if he realized that he said this on the same stage that the former President lectured from a year prior, but it was hilarious nonetheless.

Overall, Shaggy put on an incredibly en-joyable performance, filled with great music, funny anecdotes and a writhing, receptive SPW crowd.

Contact Eric Reimund at

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