Shaggy was taken out of context – Artiste’s booking agent says he did not ‘snub’ Rihanna

Following last week’s revelation that Grammy-winning singer Shaggy turned down an opportunity to be part of Rihanna’s upcoming R9 album, the saga deepens between the two Caribbean natives.

In an article released yesterday on www.hot97.com, an alleged representative from Rihanna’s team revealed that the Bajan superstar, having the utmost respect for reggae and reggae artistes, would not have asked Shaggy to audition.

“We are working on an album, not a talent show, so why would she (Rihanna) require Shaggy or any other artiste to audition?” the source is reported to have said to a Jamaican media house in a recent interview.

The article went on to say that despite having already completed the album when Shaggy’s team reached out about a possible inclusion, Rihanna’s team invited Shaggy to submit material for the project.

“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 source is quoted in the article. “We hope Shaggy will come out and let the fans know the real truth because we all know that the media in general and especially entertainment media cannot be trusted. They will twist someone stories in order to get the most viewers. Rihanna loves the people of Jamaica, she loves the fans of reggae and she loves reggae music as her career has proven and nothing can or will ever change that.”

That request has been met as Solid Agency’s CEO, Sharon Burke, has broken the silence surrounding the reports of Shaggy’s alleged ‘snub’.

In a statement sent to THE STAR, Burke said Shaggy’s statements to a UK media house last week were taken out of context and that reports of a snub were simply not true.

“Rihanna’s team had been in talks with Shaggy’s team to participate on the album, it’s no secret,” Burke said in the statement. “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.”

As it relates to the story, Burke said having had a recent conversation with Roc Nation’s co-president, Omar Grant, it would seem the team has no knowledge of any such interview.

Burke said that in her communication with Grant, it was revealed that he did not give any interviews and did not authorise any.