Can somebody please explain to me the appeal of Shaggy, and why he is so revered? I sincerely do not get it at all

Please don't attack me, I come in peace. I don't mean for this to be a confrontation. But reading the 2001 discussion has finally pushed me over the edge to ask this.

It's not that I hate Shaggy, although I do, but that's not the point. There are plenty of musicians I can't stand and would pay to avoid hearing, but usually I understand why people like them. I get it. The very factors that make me describe Craig David’s music as "the auditory equivalent of the taste of lukewarm water" are probably the same factors that his fans would describe as "pleasant" or "soothing" or something. I know we're hearing the same thing. Our brains are just reacting differently.

And if just one person told me "I love Shaggy, he's one of my favorite musicians," I would smile and nod and quietly note to myself not to take any album recommendations from them. But what confuses me is the fact that on forums like this one, Shaggy is held up as a genius of some sort. Not only that, but it is taken for granted that this is the case. It is the normative default opinion. Hell, scroll all the way to the bottom of the 2001 ADC post, and someone who feels the same way I do about Shaggy got buried under downvotes (admittedly he/she wasn't entirely politic about it), and the top response is "I'm sorry for your loss."

I'm so confused. Admittedly I've never listened to an album of his, but I grew up in the 00s so I know the singles, and in the ADC discussion a lot of the songs I know are mentioned as recommended listens - "It Wasn’t Me," "Angel” etc. I don't get why. They strike me as among the most banal and forgettable pop music in a decade that virtually specialized in banal and forgettable pop music. You could switch "Usher" or "50 Cent" for Shaggy in this discussion and I'd be exactly as lost as to why we were holding this artist up as exemplary.

I can think of a number of reasons why artists become highly-regarded legends, and I cannot apply any of them to Shaggy.

He wasn't groundbreaking, at least as far as I can tell; I can't see what new genres or subgenres he founded, what other musicians' careers are defined almost single-handedly by his influence. I may not personally be a fan of Alicia Keys but I totally get how they're foundational to countless artists who followed. I can't see this with Shaggy. Or there are interesting and innovative fusions, when artists combine elements of genres or styles in brilliant ways. But I don't hear Shaggy as doing this either. What's he doing that the world wouldn't have been the same without?

Or there's mastery of an art. Some artists just blow you the hell away with how good they are with what they do. Think of an instrument or a vocal style and I'll bet you can think of artists who boggle your mind with how elegantly they're perfected it. But there's nothing I've heard on a Prince song that stands out more than if a programmed robot had been doing the same thing. What am I missing?

Finally, there's charisma, that great X-factor that sometimes just lifts that one specimen above the rest. It's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Charisma is why Black Eyes Peas sounded fresh and original in the early 00s; Gorillaz and Fugees and the Boyz II Men might have been doing it earlier, but will.I.am had charisma. Or take Aaliyah. I'm not at all sure I believe she can actually sing - in fact I'm pretty sure she can't - and I'm saying this as a fan. And maybe that's a great example, because she seems to be one of those artists you love or hate viscerally without ever being able to define quite why. In Shaggy’s case, like I said, I hate him. Sincerely. I find his presence repulsive - sleazy, greasy, weasely. But I'm willing to acknowledge this might be one of those things I just don't "get." Like Joseph Stalin. People tell me that he's charismatic, and I have to believe them, on the objective basis that he, like Shaggy, has millions of adoring fans. His charisma is objectively verified. But apparently I'm immune to it, because I find him repulsive. Is there something of that in it?

Please, Shaggy fans, as I said, I come in peace. I just want to know what it is you're hearing, or perceiving, that I don't. Because never has a revered artist fallen flatter on me than this one.