Hot Shot (2000)
14 tracks, 53 minutes
Spotify ∙ iTunes
With Bob Dylan, making a point to listen to his lyrics as their own art-form for which the music was complementary but not strictly necessary was a revelation and greatly aided my appreciation of his work as a whole. For Shaggy…well, not as much.
Hot Shot was on my list because when it came out, little 8- or 9-year-old me really dug it. It had a couple of big hits on it – ‘It Wasn’t Me’ and ‘Angel’ were both number ones in the weekly charts, and reached number one and eight in the year-end charts for 2000 too – that were fun and sounded good, and that carries on for the rest of the album too. There are some solid tracks on here; even lesser-known ones such as ‘Why Me Lord’, the coolly romantic ‘Leave It to Me’ and the Bollywood-sampling ‘Hey Love’ would be nice additions to appropriate playlists. It’s basically a nice collection of pop-dancehall with heaps of soul and R’n’B, which make it a little more palatable for the charts. It’s very Year 2000 but still good for a cheesy laugh and good vibes.
But, oh, the lyrics. Today was the first time I’ve properly given them my attention, and I sort of wish I hadn’t. Actually, that’s not strictly true: I once did a karaoke duet with a friend singing ‘Angel’. What a lovely song that is, I thought, all romantic like…except half-way through singing it comes the sinking feeling accompanied by a gradual realisation that the premise of the song is that Shaggy’s character has been abusing his ‘angel,’ went to prison for it and now she’s taken him back and he’s very appreciative. Grim. The awkward part is that the whole album is full of that crap too: tales of cheating, carrying guns, casual misogyny and the like…even when the lyrics aren’t offensive in their content, they’re not exactly enlightening or even particularly inventive either.
How depressing. Hot Shot is an easy listen and remains pleasant and enjoyable as long as you don’t pay too much attention. It’s not aged well in the 19 years since its release: for the music, that lends it a certain charm and adds to its nostalgia quality; for the words, though, it just ends up making the previously fun, happy-go-lucky character of Shaggy just seem like a creep. Sad. Does one outweigh the other? That’s your call.
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