Jamaican reggae rapper Shaggy has revealed that his most famous track, ‘It Wasn’t Me’, which featured Rickardo “RikRok” Ducent, has been misunderstood for years. The hit was initially released on Shaggy’s 2000 album Hot Shot. It was the best-selling single of 2001 in the UK, selling over 1.15million copies that year, racking up 1.42million as of 2017.
The lyrics depict one man, portrayed by RikRok, asking his friend, Shaggy, what to do after his girlfriend caught him cheating on her with “the girl next door”. Shaggy comically advises his friend to deny everything, despite clear evidence against him, with the titular phrase, “It wasn’t me.”
While the song’s narrative is simple to follow, Shaggy claims it has been misinterpreted by most fans over the years. He explained that it was intended as an “anti-cheating song.”
In a recent conversation with People, Shaggy explained that while the song had caused many to interpret him as a shameless “player”, his intentions were much better.
“It was a big misconception with that song because that song is not a cheating song,” he said. “It’s an anti-cheating song. It’s just that nobody listened to the record to the end.
“There’s a part in the record where it’s a conversation between two people. You have one guy, which is me at that point, giving that bad advice, like, ‘Yo, bro, how could you get caught? Just tell her, ‘It wasn’t me.'”
“Then at the end, the guy says, ‘I’m going to tell her that I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused,” he continued. “I’ve been listening to your reasoning, it makes no sense at all […] You might think that you’re a player, but you’re completely lost’… Nobody hears that part! That’s what the song says.”
Listen to the classic track below and hear for yourself.
