"Church Heathen" is the first single from Jamacian

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 rapper Shaggy

Shaggy (musician)

Orville Richard Burrell , better known by his stage name Shaggy, is a Jamaican-American reggae singer and rapper. He is perhaps best known for his 1995 single "Boombastic" and 2000 single "It Wasn't Me"...

's seventh studio album, Intoxication

Intoxication (album)

Intoxication is the eighth studio album released by Jamaican rapper Shaggy. The album was released on October 22, 2007. Two singles were released from the album: "Church Heathen" and "Bonafide Girl", which features guest vocals from Rikrok and Tony Gold...

. The track features guest vocals from Ninjaman

Ninjaman

Ninjaman, alias Don Gorgon, is a popular dancehall deejay / Actor, known for his controversial and pro-gun lyrics and his stuttering and melodramatic style...

. The song was produced by Shaun Pizzonia and Tony Kelly, and was released on August 27, 2007.

Background

The track serves a testimonial of some of the scandals and "heathens" he found in church. In the intro of the song, he states, " If you tek dis too serious, then you really need sum church", which is Patois

Patois

Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant...

 for, "If you take this too seriously, then you really need some church." In the song he mentions characters such as Sis. Pam, who tells him everything about the congregation, Sis. Gwen, who claims that she is a Christian but dances to inappropriate songs in the opinion of Christians such as the Dutty Wine

Dutty Wine

"Dutty Wine" is a head dance. There are several Dancers in Jamaica who claim they were its creator. Although there is proof in a video with one of the crowned Dancehall Queens named Mad Michelle first performing the dance in front of a crowd...

, Sis. Paulette, who is sleeping with the driver of a mini bus, a means of public transportation in the caribbean, and also has a gay husband. He also states that the next Sunday he will 'find himself' in church because in his opinion, soap operas cannot be as 'sweet' as the information he is receiving in the church.

Chart performance

The song was not released in the U.S

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, but it was a big hit in the Caribbean.

Music video

There are two videos for the song. One, which was shot in Jamaica and was released to Tempo Television, and the other, released to other stationing during the summer of 2007. The second video can be considered as an upgrade from the first in that the quality and vibe is more sophisticated than the first. The first video was shot entirely around and in a church and has much more relation to the powerful message found in the lyrics of the song, while the second video was shot at The Quad Night Club in Kingston, Jamaica. Many people from the first video return to the second video. In addition to the second video, it features a verse by Ninja Man. The song is also featured in the soundtrack of the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...

.