Shaggy: Why I refused Rihanna’s collaboration

Jamaican musician, Shaggy, reportedly turned down the opportunity to feature on Rihanna’s forthcoming album because he was asked to audition for it.

The Daily Star says Shaggy passed up a chance to collaborate with Rihanna on her upcoming album, saying “I didn’t need to audition.”

Rihanna’s forthcoming album follows her 2016’s ‘Anti’ and will be reggae-inspired.

“They approached me for the Rihanna project, yeah,” Shaggy said. “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.”

He, however, went ahead to show his support for her venturing into dancehall, saying “It’s a healthy competition. Dancehall is in a 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 working on her long-awaited ninth album, which is rooted in reggae.

“I like to look at it as a reggae-inspired or reggae-infused album,” she told Vogue. “It’s not gonna be typical of what you know as reggae.”