It Wasn't Me

About this song

The idea came from a bit in Eddie Murphy's comedy album Raw, in which Murphy jokes that after giving a woman a great orgasm, a man can make up outlandish excuses for cheating. Shaggy wrote the song and its melody with Rikrok, a British-Jamaican songwriter who ended up on the final recording by accident after his voice was on the demo. Shaggy recorded it on a budget of $2,000 after his label, MCA, showed little interest, until a new A&R encouraged him to finish it. The song became Shaggy's major reggae-crossover hit and is considered one of the first of its kind, paving the way for artists like Sean Paul. It also led to a lawsuit when Shaggy could not clear the sample from War's "Smile Happy."

What it's about

The song is about a man who sends his partner a string of excuses after being caught cheating, insisting it wasn't him.

Fun facts

• Samples “Smile Happy by War”.
• Sampled in 16 other songs, like “Muay Thai by Araya (NY)”.
• Covered 6 times, including “Ain't Nobody Like You. by Yung Bae (Ft. josh pan)”.
• Written by B. B. Dickerson, Brian Gold, Charles Miller, Harold Brown, Howard Scott and Lee Oskar.
• Produced by Sting International.