Shaggy snubbed the chance to appear on Rihanna’s new album.
The 51-year-old Dancehall legend has revealed he was asked if he would contribute to the Bajan star’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s ‘Anti’, and although he rejected the offer, he teased that ‘R9’ "should be good"
He told the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column: "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."
The ‘It Wasn’t Me’ hitmaker insisted that he is all for Dancehall – which originated in Jamaica in the 1970s – crossing over into "other genres and cultures".
He added: "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."
The ‘Only Girl In This World’ hitmaker continues to tease fans about her ninth studio album.
Last month, Rihanna took to Instagram to post a video of a puppy dancing to House of Pain’s hit ‘Jump Around’ and rubbed it in their faces that she is "refusing to release it".
Alongside the clip, she wrote: "Update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it."
The ‘Work’ hitmaker had also told a member of Rihanna’s Navy – the nickname given to her fans – that ‘R9’ would be out in 2019.
However, there is still no sign of the LP yet.
The ‘Umbrella’ singer has embarked on a number of acting projects and seen her lifestyle empire explode, but she recently insisted that doesn’t mean she’ll give up singing as her music is the "foundation" on which the rest of her endeavours "flourish".
But the ‘Diamonds’ hitmaker admitted her other commitments have stopped her from focusing on her music as much as she’d like.
She said: "I have been trying to get back into the studio.
"It’s not like I can lock myself in for an extended amount of time, like I had the luxury of doing before. I know I have some very unhappy fans who don’t understand the inside bits of how it works."
Rihanna said she knew early on that she wanted the album to be "reggae-infused.
She said: "I like to look at it as a reggae-inspired or reggae-infused album. It’s not gonna be typical of what you know as reggae. But you’re going to feel the elements in all of the tracks.
"Reggae always feels right to me. It’s in my blood. It doesn’t matter how far or long removed I am from that culture, or my environment that I grew up in; it never leaves. It’s always the same high. Even though I’ve explored other genres of music, it was time to go back to something that I haven’t really homed in on completely for a body of work."
Shaggy snubbed chance to appear on Rihanna’s new album
