Shaggy Recalls That His Collaboration With Janet Jackson Came As A Surprise
Dancehall megastar Shaggy recently recalled how he didn’t know Janet Jackson would be on the first version of his Billboard-charting hit, Luv Me, Luv Me.
The Grammy award-winning singer made the declaration during an interview with “Jonesy In The Morning” on Audacy’s “Hip-Hop Made,” noting that the collab did not come about through his efforts, but thanks to producers who had seen the vision.
“This is a song with me and Janet Jackson. And it was my first time working with [the producers] Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at that time I was just like ‘wow’,” Shaggy said. “So when Terry Lewis gave me a call, I couldn’t believe it, ‘cause I’m just a Reggae guy out of Kingston. It was for the movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back.”
As Shaggy continued his explanation, it became clearer that he was recruited for the single intentionally, because the author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back was already ‘acquainted’ with his music.
“And apparently Stella—the original writer of it which is off the novel How Stella Got Her Groove… it’s loosely based off her story. And apparently, when she was being courted by her lover, they used to y’know…do their thing to Mr. Boombastic,” Shaggy said.
He added, “So Terry (McMillan) was like… ‘Shaggy gotta be on this record.’ So I ended up doing this record and I didn’t know Janet was on it.”
According to the It Wasn’t Me singer, when he inquired about who would be on the song’s hook, Terry Lewis answered, “Mariah or Janet,” which enthused Shaggy.
“It ended up being Janet,” he said.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back was a romantic comedy-drama based on a 1996 novel of the same name starring Angella Bassett, Taye Diggs, Whoopi Goldberg, and Regina King. It saw Stella (played by Bassett) taking a trip to Jamaica, where she found love with a younger man.
Luv Me, Luv Me was originally released with Janet’s vocals in July 1998 on the movie’s soundtrack, but when Shaggy wanted to include the song on his Hot Shot album, released in 2000, the American singer’s label withheld the rights to her vocals outside of the US.
Shaggy then re-recorded the song as a collaboration with Samantha Cole for the Hot Shot album.
“We couldn’t use Janet’s vocals outside of the United States, so we had Samantha Cole come in and really do a good job on that. So there are two versions to this song,” Shaggy told Audacy.
“We just couldn’t get the rights for it. It was for the movie company which I think was Paramount Pictures at the time. Her people wouldn’t allow it at the time. It was never supposed to be a single; it was supposed to be an album track but radio took it up and it was just going…”
The version with Janet’s vocals peaked at No. 76 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 5 on the UK Singles chart, and was a Top 20 hit in Australia, Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland.
Hot Shot peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Reggae Charts with pure album sales totaling 6,800,000 and streaming sending it up to 8,000,000.