Shaggy and Rik Rok’s classic single “It Wasn’t Me” has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify, and is now one of only a handful of reggae/dancehall songs reaching that milestone on the biggest music streaming platform in the world.
This is also Shaggy’s first song to cross the billion stream mark. Released on November 7, 2000, “It Wasn’t Me” became the first single off Shaggy’s fifth studio album, Hot Shot, released in the year 2000. The single peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the dancehall legend his first number one hit. The song is also regarded as a career-defining moment for the Jamaican singer who saw his career grow exponentially in the 2000s as a result of the popularity of the song.
“It Wasn’t Me” went No. 1 in almost all major music markets worldwide and topped at least 17 major charts, including the US Hot Rap Songs (Billboard), US Rhythmic (Billboard), US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard), and UK Singles chart.
Shaggy also scored another No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Angel” featuring Rayvon. That track was also featured on the diamond-selling Hot Shot album.
In a VICE documentary about the song in 2020, Shaggy shared that his manager at the time, Robert Livingston, didn’t believe in the track and it was Hans Haedelt, Senior Director of A&R at MCA Records, who heard it and agree with the singer and producer Shaun “Sting International” Pizzonia that it was a hit.
“Sting and I loved it but we didn’t think it’s gonna make the record,” Shaggy said.
Hans said in the documentary that the label also thought that the album, Hot Shot, was a pile of junk. “When the label heard the finished proposed album, the senior executives thought the album was a pile a junk; there was not a song on there that they could release to radio; and I should be thankful that I still had a job,” Hans said.
Robert Livingston eventually pushed back against the allegations that he didn’t like that song that has become a global sensation. “‘It Wasn’t Me’ was a song that we had many meetings about- keeping Rik Rok on the song, he took RR off three times,” Livingston said. “RR was the guy that did the demo and I keep saying to him leave RR on the song, RR made the song. I didn’t even know the song would even get that big but what I had said to him was ‘Shaggy we cannot release another single now. We had two singles, none of them didn’t make it.”
Shaggy is still reaping the success of “It Wasn’t Me” 24 years later with the track being featured in movies and advertisements regularly.
