Q (9/93, p.90) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...PURE PLEASURE is the best on offer..."
Vibe (10/93, p.112) - "...with a coarse, sexy growl, Shaggy's a rough boy with a comic edge, and PURE PLEASURE, his impressive major-label debut, could easily make him dancehall's next superstar..."
NME (Magazine) (7/10/93, p.32) - 3 Stars - Average - "...More untrammelled sexual innuendo set to a rattling old ska stomper! What more could we want? Alas, everything...[new single `Soon To Be Done'] ends up as a boring account of Shaggy's nightly conquests because he forgets to put a tune to it..."
Personnel includes: Shaggy, Rayvon, Sylva (vocals); Arthur Sharp (saxophone); Jimmy Delgado (congas).
Producers: J. Ralph Allen, Sting International, Robert Livingston, Phillip Smart.
Recorded at HC&F Recording Studio and INS Studios, New York.
Two years before the Gulf War I vet blew up on the pop charts with his career-defining single, "Boombastic," the Jamaican-born and Brooklyn-based Dancehall crooner known as Shaggy premiered with 1993's PURE PLEASURE. Truer to the Dancehall tradition than his later, more mainstream-oriented work, PURE PLEASURE sees Shaggy developing his self-dubbed "dog-a-muffin" style, laying rugged ragga chants over Caribbean riddims. The album shined a new light on the New York reggae scene and spawned three hit singles--Shaggy's infectious cover of the ska classic "Oh Carolina" (originally recorded by the Folkes Brothers), "Soon Be Done," and "Nice & Lovely."