More Drama Ensues Between Shaggy And Rihanna Over R9 Album
A social media storm of debate erupted last week when Shaggy revealed that he turned down a chance to contribute to Rihanna’s upcoming R9 album because he was asked to audition.
According to Shaggy: “They approached me for the Rihanna project yes. 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.”
A supposed member of Rihanna’s team then revealed that the Barbadian singer would never have asked someone like respected Dancehall artist Shaggy to audition. The representative for Rihanna reportedly spoke with the Jamaican Irie FM morning show and said: “We are working on an album, not a talent show, so why would she (Rihanna) require Shaggy or any other artist to audition?”
They added: “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 representative even issued a call to Shaggy to let fans know the truth about the situation.
Shaggy’s team has already responded, through a statement from Solid Agency’s CEO, Sharon Burke and told THE STAR that the Rihanna’s team is not being honest.
She told THE STAR: “Rihanna’s team had been in talks with Shaggy’s team to participate on the album, it’s no secret. They’ve been in touch with many other reggae artistes to be involved and they wanted Shaggy to submit some songs rather than go in studio together. Both artistes’ schedules are very tight and when he said he would rather not audition by submitting songs and that he’d rather leave that to younger artistes, Shaggy’s word was taken out of context.”
Dancehall fans will just have to wait and see if the artistes eventually come together to deliver a much requested collaboration.