Dancehall

Rihanna Navy Going In On Shaggy For Snubbing Her Dancehall Project

The Rihanna Navy is blasting Shaggy for passing up the offer to be on her album.

It was recently reported that reggae-dancehall star Shaggy turned down the opportunity to collaborate with Rihanna on her upcoming album R9. During a recent interview in the UK, Shaggy said he was approached about the Rihanna project, but he did not feel he needed to audition to be on the record and instead left it for younger artists. Once the narrative that Rihanna asked Shaggy to audition for her album hit social media, Shaggy was surprisingly the recipient of a lot of backlash.

While some fans online have been supporting Shaggy’s decision and are even protesting the reason behind his dismissal of the offer, there are some that have been bashing the music star for his audacity. These are some members of the Rihanna navy that actually believed that Shaggy snubbed their idol and that he should have jumped at the chance to work with her regardless of the conditions.

Even though there were stans who asserted that Shaggy is a legend in his own right and is a reggae and dancehall icon i.e., the very same genre that Rihanna is said to be creating a compilation based on, some fans argued that Rihanna is next level and her outstanding legendary tier should negate the fact that Shaggy is who he is. In other words, some fans actually think Shaggy should have said yes because Rihanna is the more famous party in the conundrum.

Now, if you’ll humor me for a moment: Firstly, let’s clear up the fact that no one ever actually said Rihanna directly asked Shaggy to audition for her album. The West Indian singer grew up on the legend as much as we did so she definitely knows very well and maybe even looks up to the veteran dancehall icon herself. Now while for all we know, Riri might not even know that her team requested an “audition” from Mr. Boombastic, Shaggy has the right to say no to such a request.

To each his own, but for the last time, I’ll remind you that this is “the” Sebastian from Disney’s Little Mermaid Live. Logically, could that be because he has just one hit song as some infant social media users suggested? If you don’t know, ask your parents.

Not only is he a global reggae and dancehall star, a number 1 selling, multi-Grammy-winning Jamaican icon, and chart-topping music veteran, but he has also been making music in his genre for longer than Rihanna has even existed. If anything, they should be begging to have his vocals grace the long-awaited project. I would say Shaggy is qualified to be brought in as an advisor on this long-awaited record based on his background and the genre that the project is said to be venturing in. While we’re not yet aware of the exact sound that the album will bring, the fact that its reggae or dancehall infused says enough.

Fans who are bitter about his decision because of the narrative that “this is Rihanna” need to quickly realize that “this is Shaggy.”