KINGSTON, Jamaica — While admitting that an underground sound system clash acted as the catalyst for his musical career, multi-Grammy-winning artiste Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell says he doesn’t foresee himself participating in any lyrical showdowns at this stage of his career.

Speaking at the Island Music Conference at the Courtleigh Auditorium on Wednesday, Shaggy shared that for him to even consider a lyrical battle with another entertainer, that individual would have to be on his level in terms of success.

“I had many clashes in my early days starting. If I see a clash that’s going to carry me to a bigger bag, I’m all in. If I see a clash that’s not going to do anything for me, why even respond?” he questioned. “Clashing is strategic in that sense, and so for me, if yah clash wid me yuh affi deh pan mi level or it nuh make sense.”

“I remember Papa San one time when him a clash him used to say, ‘nuh sprat tonight’, a levels to this thing so if yuh nuh deh pan mi level a it that,” he continued.

Though it would take an extraordinary entertainer to draw Shaggy onto the battlefield, the internationally renowned artiste says he has the utmost respect for clash culture. He expressed that for many of the established artistes from his era, clashes were their training ground. He credits lyrical battles for developing an artiste’s stage presence and lyrical prowess.

“Clash culture is spontaneous, and you have to read your audience. It’s having a bunch of lyrics in your head that you can step in at any moment on a stage and defend yourself. That kind of culture transcends down the line in your career in terms of reading your crowd. Beenie Man is great at that. He will take any situation and just turn it in his favour,” he shared. “There is a spontaneity that you have to have as an artiste that sound systems and clash culture create that I don’t think these younger artistes have because most of them are just really on dub plates. The system has changed.”

Admitting that the history of verbal clashes becoming physical may be the reason behind the supposed decline in clashes, Shaggy urged entertainers to keep the warfare lyrical.

He outlined that while clashes are necessary for an artiste’s development, entertainers have to see it as a sport and keep things respectful.

“With clash business, people haffi know fi keep clash business as a sport because sometimes some people say things that go below the belt and I have always not been a fan of that. I don’t know if anyone saw me and Sasco doing the clash thing where I’m in one studio, he’s in another and we a go head-to-head. As bredren, we a draw card but we don’t go below the belt. We nuh talk bout each other’s families or kids. There has to be a level where you don’t go below the belt.”