It isn't surprising that
Shaggy and
Rayvon have worked together so often; both of them are toasters who like their dancehall laced with a lot of urban contemporary, pop, and hip-hop. Arguably,
Shaggy is to dancehall what the late
Grover Washington, Jr. was to jazz and
Shania Twain is to country: a charismatic crossover star who manages to win over those who aren't necessarily into the more straight-ahead stuff. And
Rayvon brings a similar outlook to
My Bad, which is his first album for MCA and second overall. This 2002 release doesn't pretend to cater to dancehall purists; people who prefer the more hardcore dancehall should stick to artists like
Bounty Killer,
Shabba Ranks, and
Ninjaman. But from a crossover/pop standpoint,
My Bad is pleasing and highly accessible. Even if
My Bad isn't quite on a par with
Shaggy's best albums, it is generally likable -- anyone who has spent a lot of time listening to
Shaggy will have no problem getting into fun, playful tracks like "Do You Wanna Ride" and "Playboy Bunny." Inevitably, some dancehall purists will assert that
My Bad, like
Shaggy's releases, is watered down -- which is the same thing that jazz purists say about
Pat Metheny and country purists say about
Trisha Yearwood. But complaining that
Yearwood doesn't sound like
Kitty Wells is mixing apples and oranges;
Yearwood never said she was a country purist, and similarly,
Rayvon isn't trying to convince you that he is Lieutenant Stitchie. Ideally, any genre should accommodate the more straight-ahead people as well as crossover figures -- that is, as long as the crossover material is creative. And like much of
Shaggy's work,
My Bad demonstrates that dancehall can have a crossover perspective and still be creative. ~ Alex Henderson