Flourishing on island roots

Shaggy

Clothes Drop (Geffen/Big Yard)

* * 1/2

WHEN “Dutty Rock,” the 2002 dancehall reggae album by Sean Paul, went double platinum, Shaggy’s reputation took a beating. Though Shaggy has outsold any other dancehall act, reggae fans murmured that compared with Paul’s pure patois flow, Shaggy’s singsong choruses and semipatois verses sounded inauthentic.

Shaggy’s sixth studio album (in stores Tuesday) is an uneven collection, but it easily rebuts that argument, proving that as a reggae vocalist he is as bona fide as they come.

“Ready Fi Di Ride” and “Luv Me Up,” produced by Jamaican hitmaker Tony Kelly, are among Shaggy’s most beguiling dancehall tracks. Smoothly riding Kelly’s sparkling, midtempo rhythms, Shaggy serves up his trademark “mister boombastic” routine, rhyming in rapid baritone about making a woman “point her heels to the sky.” And on retro-sounding tracks -- “Repent,” which evokes ‘80s-era dancehall, and “Stand Up,” which resurrects a ‘70s reggae rhythm -- Shaggy proves that “mister lover lover,” as he’s known, can also deliver sober, serious-minded sentiments.

On his own, Shaggy is a skilled reggae toaster, but half of this album finds him joined by guests -- the Pussycat Dolls, G Unit, the Black Eyed Peas -- who take Shaggy from the heights of dancehall to the tawdry depths of pop, where he sounds strained.

Shaggy is famous for taking a Jamaican American musical hybrid mainstream, but on this set, his Jamaican roots steal the show.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.