It Wasn’t Me Lyrics

[Chorus: Rikrok]
Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
Creepin' with the girl next door
Picture this, we were both butt naked
Bangin' on the bathroom floor
How could I forget that I had
Given her an extra key?
All this time she was standin' there
She never took her eyes off me

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About

Genius Annotation

The idea for this song was inspired by a bit from Eddie Murphy’s “Raw,” wherein Eddie suggests that once a man gives his woman a good orgasm he can give her outlandish excuses for infidelity; sometime, even if she saw the cheating.

Shaggy wrote the song and came up with the melody with Rikrok, a British-Jamaican songwriter who ended up on the final track unintentionally. Shaggy recounted the story on Hot 93.7:

Rikrok and I wrote it, but Rikrok wasn’t an artist, he was just a writer. But his voice was the demo that was given out, and that’s how he became the guy on the record.

Shaggy’s had a long career and a lot of label disputes. When he was recording this song and the rest of Hot Rod, he’d just parted ways with his label, Virgin. Upon resigning with MCA,he couldn’t get anyone at the label to support this song. He even tried passing it off to other artists, but the label remained uninterested. Eventually, a new A&R was assigned to his project.

A new A&R came in, and said ‘I dunno, I’m just a white boy here, but I think it’s a hit record. I think you should at least finish it.'

Shaggy did finish it and made the song on a budget of $2,000. He didn’t have enough money to clear the sample (War’s “Smile Happy”) and was eventually sued.

This song became Shaggy’s major reggae-crossover hit and is considered to be one of the first of its kind. The song paved the way for other reggae-pop crossovers, like Sean Paul. Shaggy talked about this in a Complex interview, fifteen years after the song dropped:

Being the first is normally never a good thing. I broke it open, I made it cool, I made it bigger, and then everybody was like, he sold too much, he’s too pop, he’s too this. Then there’s Sean Paul, he’s the real guy. He’s the cooler guy.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Shaggy say about "It Wasn't Me"?
Genius Answer

In an interview with HuffPost Live, Shaggy claimed divine inspiration for the song:

I was telling somebody yesterday, “Mr. Boombastic,” “It Wasn’t Me,” “Angel,” these songs, I didn’t write those songs. These songs were written by a higher being. It was ordained through me.

Has Shaggy talked about how the song came together?
Genius Answer

On July 10, 2020, Shaggy teamed up with VICE to discuss his hit song “It Wasn’t Me” and how the song came to be, as well as giving a behind the scenes look of how the song was made:

Credits
Featuring
Phonographic Copyright ℗
Mixing Engineer
Recording Engineer
Release Date
August 8, 2000
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