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It Wasn't Me

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It Wasn't Me

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It Wasn't Me

"It Wasn't Me" is the first single from Jamaican-American reggae musician Shaggy's fifth studio album, Hot Shot (2000). The song features vocals from British-Jamaican singer RikRok (credited as Ricardo "RikRok" Ducent). The lyrics of the song 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". His friend's advice is to deny everything with the phrase "it wasn't me", despite clear evidence to the contrary.

"It Wasn't Me" was serviced to American contemporary hit radio on 7 November 2000 and has been regarded as Shaggy's breakthrough in the pop market. The single topped the charts in Australia, Flanders, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was the best-selling single of 2001 in the UK, selling over 1.15 million copies that year and over 1.42 million as of 2017.

The lyrics of "It Wasn't Me" depict one man asking his friend what to do after his girlfriend catches him having sex with another woman. His friend's advice is to deny everything, despite clear evidence to the contrary, with the phrase "It wasn't me". Ultimately, the narrator says that the advice "makes no sense at all" and decides to confess and apologize. It is written in the key of C major.

The song was inspired by a bit called "No Loyal Men", performed by Eddie Murphy in his comedy special Raw (1987). In an interview in February 2016, Shaggy acknowledged an interpolation of the War song "Smile Happy". The connection is further supported by two later songs that are based on "It Wasn't Me": British singer Liam Payne's 2017 debut single "Strip That Down" (featuring Quavo) from his album LP1, which interpolates the song, and the 2019 song "China" by Puerto Rican rappers Anuel AA and Daddy Yankee and Colombian singer Karol G with Puerto Rican singer Ozuna and Colombian singer J Balvin from the album Emmanuel, which samples the song. Both of these songs credited Shaggy (as Orville Burrell), the others writers of "It Wasn't Me", and members of War (despite their song not appearing on either track) as co-songwriters.

The clean version of the song replaces the lyric "Picture this: we were both butt-naked banging on the bathroom floor" with "Picture this: we were both caught making love on the bathroom floor" and "Saw me banging on the sofa" with "Saw me kissing on the sofa".

"It Wasn't Me" was originally never intended to be released as a single. Before the original version of Hot Shot was released in August 2000, Hawaiian DJ Pablo Sato downloaded the album from "a Napster like MP3 site he won't name" and discovered that "It Wasn't Me" was "the album's standout cut". He played the song on American radio the next day, and in an interview, claimed, "The phone lines lit up right away. Within a couple of days, it was our number-one requested song." The song was released to radio on 7 November 2000, then was given a retail release on 6 February 2001 following its airplay success.

"It Wasn't Me" was Shaggy's first number-one hit in the United States. The song reached number two on 23 December 2000. On 30 December, it was bumped down one position to number three. It moved back up to the number-two spot on 13 January 2001, then, on 3 February, it ascended to number one, replacing Destiny's Child's "Independent Women Part I". The song remained at number one for two weeks and spent 25 weeks on the chart altogether.

The song also reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on 4 March 2001, selling 345,000 copies, making the song a transatlantic chart topper. It also reached number one in Australia on 1 April 2001. It is also the 11th biggest selling single of the 21st century in the United Kingdom, with sales of over 1.42 million as of September 2017.

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