Shaggy‘s distinct voice has undoubtedly played a role in his success over the years – but fans were recently shocked to learn that it was actually just an act.
In a clip of an interview shared to the dancehall star’s TikTok page on Friday (March 8), he spoke in his real, much more subdued voice as he explained that his famous accent was developed during his time in the military.
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“I got this voice by mocking drill instructors in the military,” he said. “Because in the Marines, the drill instructors would go, ‘Yeah boy, drop and give me 20. Let’s go.’ And I would mock him as a form of joking because it motivated, you know, your platoon.”
He admitted he sang in that voice on his 1993 single “Oh Carolina” because “it sounded cool” — but he was then beholden to it because the track became his breakout hit.
“‘Oh Carolina’ blew up and now I’m faced with the situation that I’m gonna have to sing every song like that,” he said.
You can watch the full clip below:
@direalshaggyShaggy discusses how he got his signature voice while in the U.S marines♬ original sound – DiRealShaggy
Fans in the comments of Shaggy’s TikTok post were quite shocked, joking that he’s been “gaslighting” them for decades.
“So we all just hearing shaggy real voice for the first time?” one person wrote.
Someone else said: “Not Shaggy gas lighting us all these years,” while another person added: “HOLD UP!!! Shaggy DOESNT HAVE AN ACCENT.”
In other Shaggy news, he recently revealed he turned down an opportunity to be on Rihanna’s album (that has yet to materialize) during the pandemic.
“They approached me for the Rihanna project, yeah,” Shaggy told the Daily Star in 2020.”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.”
And while it may have been pushed to the wayside in lieu of her back to back pregnancies, among other things, Shaggy said he liked what he heard at the time.
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“From what I hear it should be good,” he said regarding the highly anticipated LP.
Rihanna reportedly worked with a number of popular Jamaican artists on the project. The album was targeted for a December 2019 release but clearly, many years have passed since then with no album to report.
