The Grammy Awards are scheduled for January 26 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Five nominees (Beres Hammond, Ziggy Marley, Sizzla, Snoop Lion and Sly and Robbie) are up for Best Reggae Album. Leading up to the big event, the Jamaica Observer presents a daily reflection on the reggae category. Today, we look at Shaggy’s Boombastic.

IT was his third studio album, 1995’s Boombastic, that announced deejay Shaggy as a genuine pop star. It gave him his sole Grammy Award for Best Reggae album the following year.

Distributed by Virgin Records, Boombastic has sold over one million copies in the United States, which earned it platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. In the United Kingdom, it went gold for sales of over 300,000 copies.

Five hits came from the album: A cover of Mungo and Jerry’s classic In the Summertime (featuring Rayvon); Boombastic, Why You Treat Me So Bad (featuring rapper Grand Puba); The Train is Coming (with Ken Boothe); and Day Oh, a Japan-only release.

Boombastic was nominated for Best Reggae Album along with Burning Spear’s Rasta Business, The Skatalites’ Hi-Bop Ska! The 30th Anniversary Recording; Live it Up by Third World; and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers’ Free Like We Want 2 B.

Tony Kelly, Bobby ‘Digital’ Dixon and Robert Livingston were the producers who worked on the album.

With over 20,000 copies in its first week of release, Boombastic opened at number one on Billboard’s Reggae Album chart and peaked at number 34 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

Shaggy, who had a multi-platinum album with Hot Shot in 2000, got Grammy nominations for 2006’s Clothes Drop, 2009’s Intoxicated and 2012’s Summer in Kingston.