Shaggy reveals we've misunderstood iconic ‘It Wasn’t Me’ song for almost 25 years

If you thinking of rapper Shaggy, real name Orville Richard Burrell CD, then the first place your mind goes is probably his song 'It Wasn't Me'.

There are some tunes that burrow into your brain and refuse to shift, and 'It Wasn't Me' is one of them, it's just so damn catchy.

He's got a plethora of other hits under his belt, but ask anyone to name a Shaggy song and you're likely to get 'It Wasn't Me' back as an answer.

However, the music man himself has a bee in his bonnet over what fans think the song is about.

Desiree Navarro/Getty Images

Apparently a lot of fans think the song is about cheating, and it's not hard to see why when you look at the lyrics:

"But she caught me on the counter (It wasn't me),

"Saw me bangin' on the sofa (It wasn't me),

"I even had her in the shower (It wasn't me),

"She even caught me on camera (It wasn't me),

"She saw the marks on my shoulder (It wasn't me),

"Heard the words that I told her (It wasn't me),

"Heard the scream get louder (It wasn't me)."

Only according to the man himself it's nothing of the sort, with Shaggy saying that it's actually 'an anti-cheating song'.

Jason Koerner/Getty Images for iHeartRadio

Speaking to People last year he said there were some things about the song he wanted to clear up because fans were getting it wrong.

He said: "It was a big misconception with that song because that song is not a cheating song. 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 and 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', and then at the end, the guy says, 'I'm going to tell her that I'm sorry for the pain that I've caused.

"'I've been listening to your reasoning, it makes no sense at all. Going to tell her that I'm sorry for the pain that I've caused. You might think that you're a player, but you're completely lost'.

"Nobody hears that part! That's what the song says."

So there you go, the tune from the year 2000 actually meant the opposite of what you thought all this time, who knew?

Except Shaggy, obviously, he knew.

Topics: Celebrity, Music

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker