UPDATED 1/14, 11:00 p.m ET: TheJasmineBrand is reporting that an alleged rep for Rihanna talked to the Jamaica Irie FM morning show and denied that Shaggy was asked to audition for the chance to be on the singer's upcoming album. "We are working on an album, not a talent show, so why would she (Rihanna) require Shaggy or any other artist to audition," the rep reportedly explained." Instead, they said that Shaggy hit Rihanna up about featuring on the project but it was already in the home stretch of being done.
"After Rihanna had already gathered all the material for the album, Shaggy contacted her asking to be a part of the album," the rep said, according to TheJasmineBrand. "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."
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Shaggy reportedly turned down the opportunity to feature on Rihanna’s forever-forthcoming album, R9.
Shaggy seemed to be the perfect fit for the project, especially since RiRi has been working with a number of popular Jamaican artists for the alleged dancehall-inspired reggae album. In a new interview with the Daily Star, Shaggy revealed that he passed on the chance because he didn’t want to audition for the feature, saying, “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.” It looks like that despite passing on the opportunity, there aren’t any ill feelings between Shaggy and Rihanna.
Shaggy added that the singer’s shift into dancehall will be helpful for the genre: “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.”
Rihanna has been teasing R9 for quite some time, with the latest incident arriving in the form of a cryptic Instagram video right before Christmas.
