Shaggy’s not with the dumb s@#%.
The reggae music icon reportedly turned down an opportunity to record with Rihanna for her forthcoming album.
The apparent reason: He was asked to audition for the singer.
“They approached me for the Rihanna project, yeah,” the “Mr. Boombastic” star told Britain’s Daily Star newspaper.
“There’s a lot of great people involved, but for me, I didn’t need to audition to be on the record,” he added. “I’ll leave that to younger guys.”
The 51-year-old Kingston, Jamaica native, born Orville Richard Burrell, is a veteran recording artist with close to thirty years under his belt.
His 1993 breakout hit “Oh Carolina” led him to international acclaim.
Since then, Shaggy has collaborated with fellow reggae acts such as Beres Hammond, Maxi Priest, Rayvon and Wayne Wonder, and hip-hop acts such as Eve, Olivia, and the human beatbox Rahzel.
The two-time Grammy Award winner, who recently starred on ABCs The Little Mermaid Live!, has also recorded with pop superstars Nicole Scherzinger, Janet Jackson and Sting.
And certainly, they didn’t request for him to audition.
So, unfortunately, the “It Wasn’t Me” crooner and Rihanna won’t be working together anytime soon.
Fans of the Bajan beauty have been anticipating new music since her 2016 Anti album. The new opus, presumably titled R9, is expected to see the light of day sometime soon. It’s reportedly reggae-influenced too.
Apparently, there are no sour grapes between Shaggy and RiRi.
“But from what I hear it should be good,” he commented.
Let’s hope.
DISCUSSION
This sounds... unlikely, and the Daily Star has less editorial credibility than the Daily Fail. It’s basically a daily Playboy with a lower reading age. I can see every blog has sourced them, but really?
Also the album is likely not titled R9, R is just the fan moniker given to any Rihanna album followed by its order of release, this will be her 9th - R9.