Sting and Shaggy are turning up the tropical vibes with a new remix. The legendary duo are back with a chart-topping single, and the music video was shot right here in the 305. Deco caught up with Shaggy to talk about that and Sting’s great love for SoFlo. Here’s your exclusive look.
Shaggy and Sting flow together like Miami and its beaches.
Shaggy: “Sting and I are brothers. He’s the brother I didn’t know I need. We did an album called ’44/876′ that we did together, which was a reggae album. We’re always collaborating, and I have this album that I was putting down. I had a song that he liked, and he says, ‘Yeah, I want to jump on that.’”
And the remix version is giving Magic City vibes.
Shaggy: “‘Til A Mawnin,’ so you party straight until the morning, because the beat itself, the remix, is very tropical. It felt very Miami, it felt very feel good and light. We ran it by Sting, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I always love Miami.’ So, you know, and any chance that he could get to be on a boat in Miami, he’s with it.”
No tour guide needed for the music icon.
Shaggy: “Oh, Sting is no stranger to Miami, darling. A friend of mine called me, and he’s like, ‘Hey yo, is Sting in town?’ I said, ‘yeah,’ ’cause he went in my restaurant, and somebody had said they saw him, but he kind of pulled up on a city bike. I said, ‘Yeah, that’s him.’”
And you can’t miss the sound system beats in their latest hit.
Shaggy: “I showed him how to do the cadences, which are different, which are reggae cadences. You know what I mean? It’s that vibe. He was kind enough to follow my lead on the production side of it to get him to sing it that way. And we had a lot of fun with it.”
This year celebrates 30 years of “Boombastic,” so why not bring a panda to the party?
Shaggy: “‘Boombastic’ is 30 years. I was like, ‘Yeah it’s been a long time.’ He was like, ‘I have an idea.’ And he came up with the idea, of instead of ‘Boombastic,’ ‘Pandastic.’ Joseph Khan came in and did an amazing commercial. Yes, and it just got out. So we’re doing fantastic. We’re doing ‘Pandastic’ with it.”
And in the spirit of creativity, Shaggy just went with the vision.
Shaggy: “I was really singing to a lot of screens. I thought it was crazy. I thought it kept me so engaged. I’m seeing the panda, I’m seeing the girls, I went on outer space. Yeah, it was crazy.”