2001 Shaggy: It Wasn't Me

A major crossover hit for Jamaica's Shaggy, 'It Wasn't Me' fuses reggae and dancehall with a good pop sensibility that invites everyone to the party with some Rik Rok toasting to ensure the faithful aren't alienated. What makes 'It Wasn't Me' shine is its sloppy humour; the aptly named Shaggy has been caught red handed by his girlfriend "butt-naked banging on the bathroom floor" with the floozy from next door. But rather own up to being a heel, Rok suggests the "It wasn't me" defence, even though there's apparently photographic evidence of him " bangin' on the sofa". Shaggy as Goebbels ("If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it") might raise a feminist eyebrow or two in this context, but there's no reason why either sex can't be so audacious and so tap into the humour here (there's no indication that she's buying any of his crap either). And it's a humour that makes me prefer the 'clean' version of this where the above line is replaced with "caught making love on the bathroom floor" in a rare example of censorship actually improving something. Confection like this doesn't need a crude edge to mark it out, it manages just fine all by itself.