THE STAR recently sat down with International superstar and noted sex symbol Shaggy at the Big Yard Studios on Westminster Road for a four part interview.

This comes in time for the artiste's first major charity concert, 'Shaggy and Friends', which will be held on January 3 at Jamaica House. Proceeds from the charity will be in aid of the Bustamante Children's Hospital. Conducted by reporter Krista Henry, a candid, yet serious Shaggy talked about his early life, his girlfriend, children, music and critics.

KH: Where in Jamaica does Shaggy hail from?

Shaggy: "I was born and raised in Rae Town, left there when I was probably four or five. I'm from a single parent family so we pretty much moved around a lot, from one ghetto to the next. I used to live at Mountain View one time, used to live at Washington Gardens, Duhaney Park, used to live all ova in Portmore, used to live in Waterford."

KH: Single parent as in your mother?

Shaggy: "Yeah my mother used to work at the Gleaner company back in the day, I pretty much grew up in the halls of that place, I used to go there after school."

KH: What was a young Shaggy like?

Shaggy: "Extremely skinny, awkwardly skinny wid a whole heap of hair (laughs), hence the name Shaggy ... my mouth was the main ting. I was a loud mouth, always round di bigger kids, dem a par wid me. My mouth just always get me through life, so I guess it's only fitting I became a deejay."

KH: What was the experience of moving to the US like?

Shaggy: "Quite a culture shock, we were in Flatbush which was a very West Indian community, that was the first time I was around like Bajan and Trinidadians. New York has really introduced me to a lot of different cultures. The next thing was getting used to the New York lifestyle."

KH: What did you do when you went to New York, work or school?

Shaggy: "I went to Erasmus Hall High School which was the second oldest high school in the US. It was also an academy of the arts, that's where I got into drama and music. Music was in my blood from Jamaica so obviously I was drawn to it. I got a scholarship to go to the Institute of Art and Design but that time I was parring wid some people weh college and education wasn't on dem mind, I was parring wid the wrong people till I just got away from it, woke up and decided to do something wid myself and went into the US Marines."

KH: What caused your wake up call?

Shaggy: "At that time the drugs scene in New York city, in Brooklyn, was di ting that was running and it was easy for a kid in the ghetto to be lured in by it. I was of no exception but when you see your friends a get lock up for it, it don't tek an idiot for that light bulb to ring off."

KH: So you used to sell it?

Shaggy: "Yeah, I had my time when I used to go in there and had my likkle weed mi sell here and there but you quickly realize it's not the path for you."

KH: Okay so the Marines followed, how was that experience?

Shaggy: "Not what I expected, people do like twenty years in the Marines and never get called for duty. Here I am doing four years and all of a sudden that time dem decide dem waan war an next ting you know I'm in Saudi Arabia at the first Gulf War. I wasn't a model marine so I came out a PFC, a private first class. I used to drive from North Carolina to New York City every single weekend just to deejay, obviously I would come back late, sometimes 'A Wall' and that would get me into problems and that led to me losing my stripes ...."

KH: What was the most important lesson you carried away from the Marines?

Shaggy: "I grew up, I became a man in the Marines cause the Marines were like dis, you can not be late on your bills cause it adds to your rank... it quickly puts you in a position of responsibility, where you were responsible for your squad, you started to take pride in your appearance. It was really a training ground to embark on what I'm doing now. Even though I had four years in the Marines, the music business is the hardest job I ever had. To get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to do TV and radio and then to go into different time zones, it takes a certain amount of discipline which I acquired from the Marines."

KH: What happened after leaving the Marines?

Shaggy: "What I used to do while in the Marines was record songs, one of those songs was called Mampy which became a huge underground hit for me. But I couldn't do any shows cause I was in the Marines, so when I left I did a song, Big Up wid my friend Rayvon and dat became a huge hit widin the core market and when that happened it allowed me the means to rent an apartment, to settle down... dem times we deejay on sound system, afta di hit, records started to come and I started to get shows."

In the next instalment Shaggy talks about his music and the dancehall.