Shaggy says people misunderstood the meaning of his classic song 'It Wasn't Me': 'It's an anti-cheating song'

• Shaggy has said that people misunderstood the meaning of his classic song "It Wasn't Me."
• "It's an anti-cheating song. It's just that nobody listened to the record to the end," he said.

Shaggy has said that people misunderstood the meaning of his classic song "It Wasn't Me."

Released in 2000, the song tells the story of singer RikRok, who was caught cheating on his partner and asks Shaggy for advice as to what to do.

Shaggy tells RikRok to simply deny the allegations.

"But she caught me on the counter (It wasn't me) / Saw me bangin' on the sofa (It wasn't me)," goes the song.

While on the face of it, it seems as if the song is suggesting men should lie about their cheating ways if caught, Shaggy has now revealed otherwise.

"It was a big misconception with that song because that song is not a cheating song," the 54-year-old singer told People in an interview published last week.

"It's an anti-cheating song. It's just that nobody listened to the record to the end," he said.

On the song's bridge, RikRok says he's "sorry for the pain" that he's caused and informs Shaggy of the error of his ways.

"I've been listening to your reasonin' / It makes no sense at all / You may think that you're a player / But you're completely lost," sings RikRok.

"Nobody hears that part," added Shaggy. "That's what the song says. But everybody's just caught up on that, 'It wasn't me, it wasn't me.' It's an anti-cheating song. No one ever really buys into that, and I keep explaining it to people. Then, they go listen to it back and be like, 'Oh dude, I totally missed that.'"

"It Wasn't Me" was the first single released from Shaggy's fifth studio album "Hot Shot" and remains his biggest hit to date having sold over 2.4 million copies in the United Kingdom alone and topped charts all over the world.

The album's second single, "Angel," also enjoyed similar success, reaching No. 1 in 12 countries, including the UK and the United States.