Shaggy Passed On Chance To Appear On Rihanna’s New Album Because He Didn’t Want To Audition
2019 has come and gone with still no sign of Rihanna’s long-awaited ninth studio album.
Although Rih has been mum on sharing any details about her rumored project (beyond the fact that she has an album in the works), it appears the project has been put on indefinite hold. Thus far, previous reports stated that Rih is going dancehall-inspired reggae sound. There’s even been rumors that she’s enlisted the help of Jamaican dancehall/reggae artist Demarco for a track titled “Private Loving” registered on the music registry BMI.
It seems she was interested in working with another heavy hitter from the dancehall scene as well. In a new interview with UK publication Daily Star, reggae-fusion icon Shaggy revealed that Rih’s team approached him about working on R9.
But the international reggae star says he turned the gig down because he didn't feel the need to audition for it
“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,” he said. “But from what I hear, it should be good.”
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That it should, especially considering Rih’s recent commentary on the genre pivot for the project. In October of 2019, Rihanna spoke to Vogue, where she shared some details about R9 and her decision to make it dancehall-influenced.
“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,” she explained. 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 honed in on completely for a body of work.”
Rih-ggaeton is coming soon, Navy!
