Audacy Check In: Sting & Shaggy

Audacy Hip Hop / R&B

Sting and Shaggy are joining us for a special #AudacyCheckIn to talk all about their latest collaboration, "Til A Mawnin" 👏

Transcript

00:00What made it important for you to pay homage to a sound system?

00:05Well, it's changed my life. You know, that that whole culture. Yesterday I was in London, we did

00:10the Red Bull Culture Clash. And really, if you think about verses, verses really comes from

00:17the dance, all the sound system in Jamaica.

00:20Yeah.

00:24I'm Shelly Wade, and we're here for an Odyssey Check-in with Sting and Shaggy at the Hard Rock

00:30Hotel here in Times Square, New York City. Welcome to the check-in, guys.

00:35Nice to be here. Pleasure, pleasure.

00:37I am so excited about Tillamon. Tell everybody about it.

00:41Well, it's our new single, and it was written by Shaggy,

00:45and he has me singing this beautiful, beautiful melody, which I'm very impressed by.

00:49Well done.

00:52This seems like an inside joke here.

00:54No. A melody is my thing. So when someone writes a melody for me, I'm very appreciative.

01:00And then Shaggy does his thing.

01:02Yeah. And I understand that this is based on the legendary rhythm, I'm Not Getting Crazy.

01:08So it's like been so many hits on top of that. What made you want to, you know, put your update

01:13on it?

01:13Well, you know what? There's a whole cultural story behind that rhythm track,

01:19because the producer is a guy by the name of Henry Jungelaz. And the thing is, it's arguable

01:27that Dancehall really started with Henry Jungelaz, because he was the guy that was making

01:34sound system music. And of course, you know, the Dancehall that we know started on sound systems.

01:41And so a lot of these toasters would toast over these reggae beats that was made by Flaba Holt,

01:47and Roots Radix, and Dean Fraser, and all these guys that were produced by Jungelaz.

01:52Now, you have a lot of big producers that you might know, you know, people might hear about

01:57Sly and Robbie, you know, Lee Stratchberry, you know, Cox and Dodd from Studio One,

02:04you know, all these king jammies. But not a lot of people know about Henry Jungelaz.

02:09And if you listen to his, you know, just his catalog of work, you'd be like,

02:15oh my god, I know all these songs, you know. And he was the one that really found Yellow Man,

02:20became the first Dancehall massive global superstar. And this track was from one of

02:27Yellow Man's track, I'm Getting Married in the Morning. So, you know, it was almost like a

02:32tribute to Jungelaz in a way. And I explained it to Sting, the cultural aspect of it, you know,

02:39of course, he loved the song and loved the melody. And we just went in there and knocked it

02:43out. And it's just been very well. I think the main thing he says is that it brings joy.

02:48Oh, it's a joyful song. Everybody hears it starts to smile, you know. And boy,

02:52do we need some of that medicine in the world today, because so much unhappiness.

02:58We need all the smiles. And that was the first thing I did. I started smiling when I heard it.

03:02It's really groovy. And one of the things I love about it is that although it's new,

03:08it's throwback. Yes. Right. Yes. So that's one of the things I love about it. What made it

03:12important for you to pay homage to Sound System? Well, it's changed my life. You know, that whole

03:20culture. Yesterday, I was in London, we did the Red Bull Culture Clash. And really, if you think

03:27about verses, verses really comes from the Dancehall, the Sound System in Jamaica. Yeah.

03:33And Red Bull has taken it and also taken it further. You know, there's something I argue with

03:38even with the government of Jamaica to actually put a lot more interest into Sound System and

03:43Sound Clashes in Jamaica, because it's a big entity and it's being capitalized and monetized

03:52by a lot of foreign entities in which we should be focusing a lot more on it. You know, so I think

03:58this song like this that lends to Sound System culture also highlights that, you know. So doing

04:04Culture Clashes today was massive. It was a sold out event. A lot of press behind it. And,

04:12you know, Sting and I had dubs in it. Sting did the dub for Every Breath You Take, and also did

04:19Tillamon. And yeah, so to be in as part of all of that, and really grabbing that, and you know,

04:25where he was from is from Notting Hill, which is a really Caribbean. I lived in Notting Hill

04:31for a long time. Yeah. And one of the things that's pretty cool, and people know your history,

04:37I mean, it's really not, you know, some, you know, foreign concept for you to be doing, you know,

04:42reggae and dancehall, because, you know, the police, they were considered, you guys were

04:46considered like reggae rock, right? Something similar. Whatever that title meant. Whatever we

04:52did was, was out of respect and love. Yeah. And homage. But you know, my whole life living in

04:59England, that the West Indian community there, you know, has been very influential, not just in

05:05music and culture, but in every aspect of British life. So, you know, I was brought up with Calypso

05:11in the 50s, and then Ska, and then Blue Beat, and then Rocksteady, and then, you know, Bob Marley

05:17and reggae. Just, it just seemed to be easy to assimilate for me anyway. If you would allow me,

05:24um, one of the things I think about often, when I think about the police is Roxanne,

05:29and Eddie Murphy doing Roxanne in 48 hours. Thank you for allowing me to ask.

05:37Have you, have you ever met Eddie? I can't remember if I've seen you with Eddie before,

05:42but did you guys talk about? Yes, we did. Please, please share with us. I thanked him,

05:46because every time he did that, I made some money, you know, because

05:52keep singing that brother, keep singing that line. It was classic. I can't think, I mean,

05:58first of all, already a great song, but I can't think about it without tying it in

06:02to Eddie Murphy singing it. You know, I just realized that you, this is another thing that's

06:07great. You and I have an Eddie Murphy thing in common. What? Because Eddie sang yours,

06:12and it wasn't me. It was written raw from Eddie Murphy. Yes. You're so right about that.

06:18And I saw Eddie at Inasa and said, I went up to him. I was like, uh, I told him the whole story.

06:25I said, yo, I got this from, from raw. And he says, yeah, really? Yeah. I said, yeah, that,

06:30that bitch you did on there. And that's how I got the idea to write. It wasn't me. He looks at me

06:34and said, well, you owe me royalty. I'm surprised he didn't already realize that because as soon as

06:39I heard it wasn't me, I thought about Eddie's raw bitch. The whole idea came from that,

06:44from me watching that. So he's the missing link between us. It doesn't need just to be a duo.

06:50You need to bring Eddie in. And you guys keep, keep coming back with your, your collabs. Um,

06:58what makes, cause you guys both, uh, make collaborations very important with other

07:02artists in your careers, but you keep coming back to each other. What's that about?

07:06It's very important to both of us. You know, we, we really enjoy each other's company

07:11and making music together. It's kind of a side effect of, of that. Yeah. So that keeps going.

07:16We're playing together a gig on Thursday down in Florida. It'll just keep going until he crosses me.

07:25Till the morning, you guys, I'm so honored to be sitting here speaking with Sting and Shaggy.

07:31You guys make sure you check out their amazing new song till the morning,

07:34just as Sting said, it makes you smile. It's real smooth. It's new,

07:38but it's also throwback. Thanks for checking in with Odyssey. We love you guys.

07:42Much love.

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