Sugar Ray - Fly (feat. Super Cat)

What this video is

Released in summer 1997, 'Fly' arrived as a genre-defying outlier on Sugar Ray's otherwise funk-metal album Floored, fusing alternative rock with Jamaican dancehall via Super Cat's toasting vocal. It became the band's breakthrough hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for four consecutive weeks and spending eight weeks at #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The video crystallized the sun-drenched,…

Why it matters

A landmark reggae-rock crossover that helped legitimize dancehall fusion in mainstream US alternative radio. 'Fly' bridged the post-grunge era's guitar-driven angst with Caribbean rhythmic lightness, anticipating the ska-punk and reggae-pop boom of the late 1990s. Its chart dominance without an…

The director

Born August 9, 1968, in Kalamazoo, Michigan; raised in Newport Beach, California. Attended Corona del Mar High School. Earned a BA in psychology from UC Irvine. Began career as a record producer and music video director in the early 1990s, working closely…