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SHAGGY
IN T-DOT
Much Music I & I // Platinum
Party // Luv Me Luv Me Video Shoot
Whaddat.Com on Vacation? Never. We OMNIPRESENT
baby.
Ah
Toronto. The Great White North. Yah right! It was
so hot I thought I was going to DIE. Yo. The day I left to
come back home, the thermostat in the car said 101 degrees!!
Yeh man, no lie. So imagine when Shaggy a shoot him video
way out inna di BOONIES, and I missed the shuttle and ting,
I had to take the bus, subway, bus again and THEN walk for
a good half hour in the BLAZIN' SUN! But that was Wednesday.
My
Shaggy in Toronto experience began when I reached Toronto
Monday night.
Tuesday morning now - mi jus' a easy myself in preparation
for big big Caribana on Sunday and all the events leading
up to it. So I kicked back, switched on Much Music, and what...Shaggy
all over the TV man! 'Bout him coming for an Intimate &
Interactive (I & I) that night! So I made some calls
& arranged up a ting (Nuff respec' Tina! With you, all things
are possible!).
My T-Dot
sparrin P, Hilary (who decide fi stay in Toronto instead of
coming home this summer, tank God! ...RESPEC' GIRL), come
grab me up and we headed out to the mall for some power shopping
before arriving at the Much Music headquarters for Shaggy's
9pm show. What a ting man! I haven't seen Queen & John Streets
so ram up since Backstreet Boys were in town! Trus' mi. Po-Po
out in their masses and John St. barricade off. All di Yardie
dem weh neva know?...Shaggy big big inna fareign, seen?
So
anyway, we were escorted through the Chum City Building to
the Much Music environment.
As Press, I was given a quick and thorough run-down of the
rules and regulations. NO FLASH AT ALL - EVER. Okay so, note
to self...save up US$3,000 fi one a dem big super hype professional
Olympus digital cameras, because my likkle Elph NUH LIKE TEK
NON FLASH PICS INNA DIM LIGHT!! So, all cameras had to be
out of the environment after the first song, which was "Hope".
I was disappointed that Prince Midas wasn't there to perform
it with Shaggy but it was excellent nonetheless. Him have
the crowd inside and out WEAK.
After
di tune done, Hilary and I went outside and hung with the
masses. I spoke to a couple girls with 'I Love Shaggy' written
all over their bodies and it come in like if they never got
to see him perform that night, life wouldn't have be worth
living again. It really makes me proud
to see a bona fide Yardie - Dancehall artist - ROCKING the
world like how Shaggy is doing right now. I was beaming all
night.
Z'All
'bout Platinum status baby
So,
after the show, and after the mad bum-rushing of the band members,
Rik Rok and Brian & Tony Gold...we all went back to our respective
temporary abodes to freshen up for the after party - Shaggy's
Platinum Party, The Toronto Leg.
We
reached the Sky Bar on Queens Quay at about 1am. Guest
List intact we reach upstairs to the 15' sq. VIP area. Nah man...dat
nuh mek it. The velvet rope is pretentious enough, but when
is in a tiny little OPEN corner of a big rooftop venue, it's
straight up segregation. It's nice that cases of beer and champagne
are constantly on hand but other than that, is a stand up and
smile kinda thing that just not working for me, so I headed
out to the main area to catch a real vibe.
I
buck up on nuff a di local industry people, promoters and a
whole bunch of video "vixens" trying to catch the eye of anybody
who was watching.
The hype was there still...Kardinal Offishal, Baby Blue Sound
Crew hypin' the crowd, Toronto Raptors' Mo Peterson, Promoter
Tony Cruise (where Farley deh?) & Christos Cox (big up). So
niceties aside and done with, we jet...get some sleep for Shaggy's
FOR EUROPE ONLY 'Luv Me Luv Me' shoot the next day.
Mic
jus' a reach...Mid-Shoot
So
Wednesday come now and I got my ass on that bus.
The driver told me they don't have buses runnin' to where I'm
going so that was a rass trek. On top of that, I left my favourite
red hat on the bus true mi did knock out. Vex yuh see? Anyway,
mi reach one big rass mansion and find Shaggy inside finishing
up his hallway walk shoot. Met the Producer, Director, Ass't
directors and Production assistants et al (big up Mark, Phoebe...yuh
large!).
The
thing that really get me was the cars (as you can see from the
pics below). What a ting eeh man? $10,000,000 worth of vehicles
in the man's circular driveway, star! So,
I took pics, drooled, took some more pics, dreamed that was
my Cobra in the driveway and then headed down the street to
check out what was going on. Mek mi tell yuh, mi buck up on
Mo Peterson & Jerome Williams from the Toronto
Raptors and my LORD, Boris
Kodjoe (Polo baby, baby).
Mic
scopes out di Hot Boyz
They
were there representing for Shaggy and providing cameos in the
video. Jerome was there also promoting his clothing line, JYD
and gettin' in good with Big Jim, Communications Virtuoso and
owner of that beautiful house.
So back down the road to the shoot. It
was a long day and everybody was very tired. The last scene
was shot with Shaggy and Samantha and it was a wrap at midnight.
Eye
Candy boyz...eat your hearts out
I
bid my farewells and Shaggy and his crew were off to Sumfest
a couple days later while I stayed in T-Dot for Sunday's Caribana.
Yeh right...Hilary and I got there at 6pm and miss everything
star. We coulda run down di trucks dem, but I had a plane to
catch. So it go. You have the link, if you wan' see Caribana
- Check it out. That's it for me with the Shagman in Toronto.
One!
Caribana
done...
Check di full 'undred at TorontoDancehall.Com
