"Boombastic" or "Mr. Boombastic" is a song by Jamaican musical artist

Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer * Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse * Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspor ...

, released on June 5, 1995 as the second single from his third studio album, '' Boombastic'' (1995). After being used in an ad for

Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...

, it achieved commercial success in many countries, including Ireland, UK, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia, where it topped the singles charts. It spent a week at number one on the US ''Billboard'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

, and a similar stint atop the

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. It also reached number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. A remix featuring Sting International, which features a sample of

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

's "

Let's Get It On ''Let's Get It On'' is the thirteenth studio album by American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP. Recording sessions for the album took pla ...

", was released in January 1996. The latter is featured on some versions of the ''Boombastic'' album as a bonus track.

Critical reception

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editor David Jeffries viewed the song as "pivotal".

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the music ...

from ''

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'' noted that it "jerks about with a hypnotic groove that owes as much to hip hop and

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

/ pop as it does to traditional island music. Shaggy's toasting is quite friendly to mainstream pop ears, and he masterfully twists and bends the chorus. Primed for immediate picking by jeep listeners, smoking track comes in two radical versions that are designed to lure both street kids and their more mature counterparts." A reviewer from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' rated the song four out of five, stating that being used in the latest

ad, it's "guaranteeing the Shagster another UK smash with this slo-mo pop

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...

which samples

." James Hamilton from the magazine's ''RM'' Dance Update described it as "gruffy twiddly-diddled". John Kilgo from ''The Network Forty'' declared it a "

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

masterpiece". Gerald Martinez from ''

New Sunday Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...

'' stated that "with sparse, hypnotic backing, Shaggy's boastful rapping carries the song." A reviewer from ''

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People ...

'' opined that the album "is more like the real reggae thing", and "the raw title song is the style's most uncompromising Top 10 trip yet." Al Weisel from ''

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'' viewed it as "a stripped-clown dub masterpiece, a percussive cacophony of samples, sound effects and a clanging piano. Shaggy's baritone growl oozes a sexuality that recalls both the dance-hall swagger of

Shabba Ranks Shabba Ranks (born Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon; 17 January 1966) is a Jamaican dancehall musician. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was one of the most popular Jamaican musicians in the world. Throughout his prominence in his home cou ...

and theatrical self-deprecation of

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

king

Prince Buster Cecil Bustamente Campbell (24 May 1938 – 8 September 2016), known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary ...

." Mark Sutherland from ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'' gave "Boombastic" two out of five, calling it a "gruff, grinding ragga-lite" track. David Sinclair from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' described it as "an entertaining tribute to the singer's boundless sex appeal", noting Shaggy's "mischievous glee, the Rs rolling off his tongue like the purr of a big cat." He added, "Set to a plonking, one-note piano riff and minimalist reggae beat, Boombastic is one of those feelgood dance records that seems to conjure a special magic out of thin air. Like the hero in the ad, it will be flying out of shops everywhere."

Retrospective response

Bill Lamb from

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said Shaggy "exhibits oodles of personal charm alongside the funky grooves" of "Boombastic", picking it as one of the best songs from 1990s. Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger said the musician is "the benevolent monarch of this world, giving a comical, flirtatious, crowd-tickling performance, his army of mechanical instruments dancing in and out of his phrasing. His main trick here is using his voice like a yo-yo, winding his vowels out on "rohhhhhh-" before he flicks the word back "-mantic!"."

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was produced to promote the single and was later published on Shaggy's official

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channel in March 2009. It features him performing in and outside an old house, surrounded by dancing women and flickering lights. The video has amassed more than 175 million views as of October 2022.

Track listings

;United Kingdom * CD single # "Boombastic" (7" Original Edit) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" ( StoneBridge Vocal Remix) – 5:59 * Maxi single # "Boombastic" (7" Original Edit) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" (StoneBridge Vocal Remix) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" (Wag Ya Tail Remix) – 4:19 # "Boombastic" (Firefox & 4Tree BassBoom Remix) – 6:32 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 5:59 # "Boombastic" (Boom the Dancehall Dub) – 6:05 * Cassette # "Boombastic" (7" Original Edit) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" (StoneBridge Vocal Remix) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" (Firefox & 4Tree BassBoom Remix) – 6:32 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 5:59 * 7" vinyl # "Boombastic" (7" Original Edit) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 5:59 * 12" vinyl # "Boombastic" (LP Version) – 4:08 # "Boombastic" (StoneBridge Vocal Remix) – 3:52 # "Boombastic" (Wag Ya Tail Remix) – 4:19 # "Boombastic" (Firefox & 4Tree BassBoom Remix) – 6:32 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 5:59 # "Boombastic" (Boom the Dancehall Dub) – 6:05 * 12" vinyl – Jungle Mixes # "Boombastic" (Firefox & 4Tree BassBoom Remix) – 6:32 # "Boombastic" (Boom the Dancehall Dub) – 6:05 ;United States * CD single # "Boombastic" (LP Version) – 4:08 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 4:16 # "Boombastic" (Firefox & 4Tree BassBoom Remix) – 6:32 # "In the Summertime" – 4:00 # "Gal Yu a Pepper" – 4:16 * Cassette # "Boombastic" (LP Version) – 4:08 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 4:16 # "In the Summertime" – 4:00 # "Gal Yu a Pepper" – 4:16 * 12" vinyl # "Boombastic" (LP Version) – 4:08 # "Boombastic" (Sting vs. Shaggy Remix) – 4:16 # "Boombastic" (Boom the Dancehall Dub) – 6:05 # "In the Summertime" – 4:00 # "Gal Yu a Pepper" – 4:16

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

In popular culture

The song was featured in the 2006 animated film '' Barnyard'', sung by the character "Biggie Cheese". Alongside its corresponding scene, the song subsequently became an

internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

about a decade later. The song was also used in the 2007 film ''

Mr. Bean's Holiday ''Mr. Bean's Holiday'' is a 2007 comedy film directed by Steve Bendelack and written by Hamish McColl and Robin Driscoll, from a story penned by Simon McBurney. Based on the British sitcom series ''Mr. Bean'' created by Rowan Atkinson and Richar ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1994 songs 1995 singles Number-one singles in Australia European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Italy Number-one singles in New Zealand Number-one singles in Sweden UK Singles Chart number-one singles Shaggy (musician) songs Songs written by Shaggy (musician)