*Shaggy has revealed the reason why he turned down the opportunity to feature on Rihanna’s upcoming album.
During a recent interview with UK Daily Star, the multi-platinum selling dancehall legend had this to day about the opportunity:
“They approached me for the Rihanna project, yeah. There’s a lot of great people involved, but for me, I didn’t need to audition to be on the record,” Shaggy said. “I’ll leave that to younger guys. But from what I hear it should be good.”
Shaggy also shared his take on international artists tapping into dancehall music.
“It’s healthy competition. Dancehall is in [a] good place but we need as many people to do this art form as possible,” Shaggy said. “When it crosses over and becomes popular with artistes from other genres and other cultures, that can only be good.”
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: THE REAL Welcomes Angela Robinson AND Amanda Seales Talks Going into Therapy – WATCH
Meanwhile, Rihanna’s team has responded to Shaggy comments, and deny his claims that the singer wanted him to audition to be on her album.
“We are working on an album, not a talent show, so why would she (Rihanna) require Shaggy or any other artist to audition?,” a Rihanna rep said on the Jamaica Irie FM morning show, according to thejasminebrand.com.
The rep claims Rihanna’s album was complete when Shaggy allegedly contacted the songstress and asked to be featured.
“After Rihanna had already gathered all the material for the album, Shaggy contacted her asking to be a part of the album. She explained to him that the album was pretty much completed and they were just working on mixing, mastering and deciding which songs to actually use. However, she invited him to submit some materials so she could see if it fits with the flow of the album. That was by no means asking for an audition, it was more going out of her way to get him on the album.”
The rep added, “We hope Shaggy will come out and let the fans know the real truth because we all know that the media in general and especially entertainment media cannot be trusted. They will twist someone stories in order to get the most viewers.”
The rep noted that “Rihanna loves the people of Jamaica, she loves the fans of Reggae and she loves Reggae music as her career has proven and nothing can or will ever change that.”
Last May, Rihanna confirmed she was working on a Reggae album, set to (hopefully) drop sometime this year.
