Mr. Boombastic — and Marine veteran — Shaggy says he's got the perfect prescription to put the smackdown on ISIS: some reggae music.
"ISIS can go f--- themselves. That's some crazy s--- what they're doing," he tells Miami New Times. "I just don't get that level of evil. I can't understand it."
But he knows what cures it.
"If you're able to cut a man's head off, you're sick. But the right music evokes emotion. So if they're listening to Shaggy music or reggae music, they're not going to want to cut somebody's head off."
When you're listening to reggae, he says, you only want to do two things: get high and have sex.
"High people don't want to kill nothing; they want to love. They need to bag some Jamaican weed and distribute it amongst ISIS. I guarantee there won't be any more wars out there."
Best known for hits "Mr. Boombastic" and "It wasn't me," the Grammy-winning artist with more than 30 million albums sold to his credit actually has some experience fighting in that part of the world.
A Jamaican kid who grew up in New York City, Orville R. Burrell — already known as Shaggy among friends — joined the Marine Corps in 1988. Enlisting as an artilleryman, he served mostly with 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, which he deployed with to Saudi Arabia for the 1991 liberation of Kuwait.
Marine veteran Shaggy attends the iHeartRadio Summer Pool Party at Caesars Palace on May 30, 2015, in Las Vegas.
Photo Credit: David Becker
Not quite the model Marine — he was busted down in rank twice — he was better known for his colorful cadence calling and already had hit a single before he left active duty.
"The highest rank I got was lance corporal. My big problem was being AWOL. I was driving up to New York every weekend to do music," he told Military Times in a 2011 feature story. "Sometimes I got back late. And I'm a guy with a big mouth, and I mouthed off a lot. So, you know, things like that will get you busted."
Now on tour and promoting his new album "I Need Your Love" — one track is titled "Go F--- Yourself" — Shaggy says his tongue-in-cheek, gangja-fueled strategy for Middle East peace might just have broader application. Maybe if more top leaders rolled some weed, well, you never know.
"Man, it'll put them in a vibe," he told Miami New Times. "And throw some Bob Marley up in there and there'll be peace. Some of these world leaders need to be stoners though, really."