Rihanna denies asking Shaggy to audition for her new album after he snubbed a collab offer
The Bajan superstar Rihanna still hasn't released concrete details about the long-awaited follow-up to her record-breaking album 'Anti' in 2016, but we do know that the forthcoming album will be heavily influenced by reggae, at least. And after reports emerged a couple of days ago that the popular reggae artiste Shaggy had snubbed a chance to be on Rihanna's latest album (called 'R9' for now) because he refused to 'audition' for it, Rihanna's representatives decided to clear the air. "We are working on an album, not a talent show, so why would she (Rihanna) require Shaggy or any other artist to audition?" said one of Rihanna's reps on the Jamaica popular Irie FM radio station.
It was reported earlier that Shaggy had previously turned down an offer to collaborate with the 'Rude Boy' singer because he didn't want to jump through hoops by going through a long selection process. "They approached me for the Rihanna project yeah," he said. "There's a lot of great people involved, but for me, I didn't need to audition to be on the record, I'll leave that to younger guys. But from what I hear it should be good." According to earlier reports, Rihanna had to sift through nearly 500 song ideas and tunes to narrow down the final shortlist for her latest album.
Queen RiRi's people swiftly denied his claims, however, insisting that she hadn't approached him. According to Rihanna's camp, it was Shaggy who contacted her first. "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," her rep explained.
However, with Rihanna being the ever-generous Rihanna we all know her to be, she didn't want to rule out the chance to work with the 'Wasn't Me' singer outright. "She invited him to submit some materials so she could see if it fit 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," said her rep, seeking to clarify the situation.
"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's stories in order to get the most viewers," her camp added. "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." As a former Marine, we're sure Shaggy wouldn't want to face the wrath of the Navy! He'll probably say "It wasn't me!"