While he has ventured into soca territory before, Shaggy makes his biggest trek into that genre with I’m In The Mood, a seven-song EP released by his Ranch Entertainment company and VP Records.

On it, he teams with Trinidadian soca stars Kes, Patrice Roberts, and Bunji Garlin, as well as Skinny Fabulous from St Vincent and the Grenadines. He also collaborates with fellow dancehall artistes Konshens and Future Fambo.

The double Grammy winner held a pre-launch press conference Wednesday at Circle House in North Miami, where he played some of the songs, including Mood, the lead single which features Kes.

Shaggy told the Jamaica Observer that his soca links go back over 20 years, having worked with Machel Montano and promoted the Pandemonium live shows.

Recording I’m In The Mood, he added, was a creative breeze.

“Each song dictates the person, because when we were writing the songs it felt like Kes, because Kes has a different kinda soca which is a more melodic kinda soca. And then yuh have Skinny Fabulous, him is like a dancehall kinda soca. When he did Don’t Run [a song from I’m In The Mood], mi seh dis come in like when yuh a wine pon di street behind di truck, ’cause he embodies dat,” he explained.

Shaggy’s first major collaboration with a soca artiste came in 1998 with Machel Montano on Toro Toro. That song introduced him to a different market in the Eastern Caribbean which had known him through songs like Boombastic and In The Summertime.

He and Machel Montano have staged the wildly successful Pandemonium series in Kingston which has attracted strong crowds since they were first held in 2013.

The dancehall/soca combination has paid dividends in the past. Byron Lee And The Dragonaires and Admiral Bailey had a massive hit in 1993 with Dancehall Soca, while Machel scored big with Big Phat Fish on producer Tony Kelly’s Unda Wata rhythm five years later.

I’m In The Mood is available on all streaming platforms.