Dancehall legend Shaggy turned down the chance to work with Rihanna.
RiRi’s long awaited R9 album is reportedly a full blown reggae collection featuring the genre’s biggest producers.
Kingston local Shaggy admits he was almost in the running too.
Mr Boombastic told me: “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, I’ll leave that to younger guys.
“But from what I hear it should be good.”
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Some of the dancehall community believe pop stars like Rihanna dilute their genre, but Shaggy isn’t one of them.
He explained: “It’s healthy competition. Dancehall is in good place but we need as many people to do this art form as possible.
“When it crosses over and becomes popular with artists from other genres and other cultures, that can only be good.”
Shaggy’s never been shy of embracing new stuff and scored huge success with his collaborative Sting album.
The duo last performed together at Sting’s 80s themed Rainforest Foundation gig in December which saw Eurythmics get back together.
He said: “It was like a mini-Live Aid, you had Bob Geldof, Eurythmics, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp, Debbie Harry.”
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And he teased another project: “Sting and I are really close.
“We speak regularly and there’s always things that we’re gonna do, I’m sure there will be something new.”
In the meantime UK fans will be able to see Shaggy do his thing alonsgide Nelly, Salt N Pepa and more on the Blast Off tour.
He said: “It’s been too long since I did my own thing in UK. It’s the 20-year anniversary of Hot Shot so there’s plenty to come.”
The ten date Blast Off tour kicks off at Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena March 2 and visits all the major UK cities.
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